All you need to know about how many no-hitters have been thrown in MLB history and which pitchers have thrown it.
In baseball, a game is considered to be a no-hitter if neither team managed to record a hit during the contest. The official definition of a no-hitter in Major League Baseball (MLB) is a game that was played to completion and in which one team did not record any hits while the other team batted for at least nine complete innings.
Since 1876, there have been 318 no-hitters officially recognised by the MLB, 23 of which were perfect games. On two separate occasions, two no-hitters were thrown on the same day: the first time was on April 22, 1898, when Ted Breitenstein and Jim Hughes did it, and the second time was on June 29, 1990, when Dave Stewart and Fernando Valenzuela did it.
During the 2021 season, there were nine pitchers who threw no-hitters.The previous record, which stood at eight, was established in the year 1884. The previous record for the modern era, which started in 1901, was seven, which was achieved in 1990, 1991, 2012, and 2015.
There has never been a team that has won a pair of games by throwing no-hitters. Twenty different teams have been able to throw two consecutive no-hitters without any other teams pitching one in the interim. The most recent team to do so was the Houston Astros, who threw a combined no-hitter using four pitchers during Game 4 of the 2022 World Series and a combined no-hitter using three pitchers during the 2022 regular season. Neither of these games featured any other teams throwing a no-hitter in between.
The Milwaukee Brewers are the only team in baseball history to have ever thrown three consecutive no-hitters. Lew Burdette started the streak in 1950, and then Warren Spahn continued it in 1960 and 1961. Addie Joss in 1908 and 1910, Vander Meer in 1938, Allie Reynolds in 1951, Warren Spahn in 1960 and 1961, Ryan twice, first in 1973, then in 1974 and 1975, and Homer Bailey in 2012 and 2013 are the seven individual pitchers who have thrown two consecutive no-hitters in a row. Each of the seven occurrences occurred while on the same team.
It is said that a pitcher has “thrown a no-hitter” when they are successful in keeping the opposing team from getting a hit. In the vast majority of instances, a no-hitter is accomplished by a single pitcher who tosses a complete game. A no-hitter that is achieved by two or more pitchers is referred to as a combined no-hitter.
Only 318 no-hitters have been thrown in the history of Major League Baseball (MLB) since the league’s inception in 1876, which is an average of about two no-hitters per year. A no-hitter is a remarkable accomplishment for a pitcher or pitching staff. On May 10, 2022, Reid Detmers of the Los Angeles Angels faced off against the Tampa Bay Rays and threw a perfect game, becoming the most recent pitcher in major league history to accomplish this feat.
The most recent combined no-hitter was thrown on November 2, 2022, by starter Cristian Javier of the Houston Astros and relief pitchers Bryan Abreu, Rafael Montero, and Ryan Pressly of the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 4 of the 2022 World Series. The game was played in Houston.
The 2021 Major League Baseball season had nine official no-hitters pitched during it, making it the season with the most no-hit games overall. In addition to that, there were three no-hitters that did not qualify as official no-hitters because they were completed in fewer than nine innings.
The starting pitcher wins the vast majority of no-hit games, but 19 no-hitters in Major League Baseball have been thrown by a combination of starting and relief pitchers. The starting pitcher wins the vast majority of no-hit games.
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