The Ticket Chest

Crazy Day in Baseball – Jimenez No-Hits Braves; Mets Top Cards 2-1 in 20 Innings!

Sunday, April 18th, 2010 | MLB, New York Mets, Sports, St. Louis Cardinals | No Comments

WOW — what an unbelievable day in baseball on Saturday.  Ubaldo Jimenez pitched the 1st no-hitter in Colorado Rockies franchise history by dominating the Braves in Atlanta.  Jimenez needed 129 pitches to do it, but he persevered despite racking up 6 walks.  He also had 7 K’s.  He was still throwing 98-MPH fastballs into the 9th inning, but he credited advice from his pitching coach Bob Apodaca in the 5th inning for the reason he was able to accomplish the feat “In the 5th inning, Bob Apocada, he just came to me and was like ‘You’ve been throwing good from the stretch, why don’t you just give it a try?’”  He pitched from the stretch the rest of the game, retiring the next 15 batters her faced to complete the no-hitter.  The best chance for a Braves hit came in the 7th inning when center fielder Dexter Fowler made a diving catch of Troy Glaus’ sinking line drive in left center field – it was an unbelievable play.

While Jimenez was tossing his no-hitter, the New York Mets and the St. Louis Cardinals were engaging in the longest game of the season thus far.  The Mets outlasted the Cards in 20 innings by winning 2-1 on Jose Reyes sacrifice fly in the top of the 20th inning.  The 2 teams played scoreless ball for the 1st 18 innings of the game – the 1st time that has happened in baseball since 1989.  Starters Johan Santana for the Mets and Jaime Garcia for the Cards each worked 7 scoreless innings.  Garcia only gave up 1 hit.  The Mets used 9 pitchers while the Cards used 8 pitchers and 2 position players.  Infielder Felipe Lopez worked a scoreless 18th inning for the Cards, while outfielder Joe Mather pitched the final 2 innings for the Cards giving up both runs that the Mets scored.  He walked 3 batters and gave up 2 hits, but both runs scored on sacrifice flies.  Mets’ closer Francisco Rodriguez blew the save in the bottom of the 19th inning by allowing Yadier Molina’s RBI single, but he picked up the win when the Mets scored in the 20th inning.  Starter Mike Pelfrey picked up his 1st save by working a scoreless 20th innning despite allowing 2 batters reach base.

Each team had played in 4 20-inning games in their franchise histories.  Ironically, it was the 1st time that the Mets had won, while it was the only time that the Cards had lost.

From a baseball perspective, it was only the 2nd time in MLB history that a 20-inning game was played on the same day that a pitcher threw a no-hitter.

Talk about a crazy day in baseball!

Tags: Francisco Rodriguez, Johan Santana, Mike Pelfrey, Ubaldo Jimenez