New York Yankees pitcher Clarke Schmidt reacts as he heads to the dugout in the seventh inning of a … More
On June 1, 2012, Johan Santana completed first no-hitter in the pitching-rich history of the New York Mets.
Santana also needed 134 pitches to create the magical moment. A week later he allowed four homers at Yankee Stadium and the no-hitter wound up being the 350th appearance in a career which ended at 360 outings due to shoulder injuries.
While Santana was 33 when he achieved the feat, those are the kind of things managers likely are cognizant of when it comes to lengthy no-hit bids. It is certainly something manager Aaron Boone had in the back of his mind when Clarke Schmidt – four years younger than Santana at the time of his no-hitter – ended his 95th career outing at 103 pitches through seven hitless innings Saturday against the Baltimore Orioles in 86-degree heat.
At this point, it is almost expected a no-hitter will be a combined achievement. Including the 2022 World Series, there are 54 no-hitters since Santana’s game and 12 of those are combined efforts but since 2015 when Max Scherzer threw both of his no-hitters for the Washington Nationals, 10 of the 35 no-hitters are combined jobs and that includes the Mets second no-hitter in 2022 when Tylor Megill was a month into his major league career and combined with four relievers to no-hit the Phillies.
For five of his innings, Schmidt kept the pitch count low. He started the road to possible history by walking two of the first three hitters in a 27-pitch first inning. He made it to the seventh at 82 pitches but when he needed nine pitches to retire Ryan O’Hearn, it was fairly evident Schmidt was not going beyond the seventh and may have been lifted if someone got a hit before the seventh concluded.
“Clarke, as great as he was today, physically all day it was a little bit of a challenge for him so I kind of knew, even after the fifth, it wasn’t going to be long [for him],” Boone said. “You’re going to power through pitch limits within reason. Today was not that day for Clarke.”
Given the lopsided nature of the score and Schmidt’s taxing inning, it was the spot for JT Brubaker to make his debut with the Yankees. Before allowing a hit on a full count to former Yankee Gary Sanchez, Brubaker watched the proceedings unfold from the bullpen without discussing them with his reliever colleagues.
“Unbelievable,” Brubaker said of Schmidt. “He absolutely dominated with every single pitch he had in the arsenal and went right after their hitters and that can go show you what attacking hitters can do and it can put you in a really good spot.”
“Obviously, I want to go as deep as I can,” Schmidt said. “But when you’re at the 103 mark and you have two more innings to go and you have 80 more games to go, you have to think bigger picture here. Obviously, it’s a tough conversation to have and you get frustrated, but it’s kind of a mutual feeling where it’s like, you have to think big picture here and is it worth throwing 130 pitches?”
The bigger picture is Schmidt is on the best run of his career, which began as a first-round pick in 2017, saw limited action in 2020, 2021, made 26 of his 29 appearances as a reliever in 2022 when the Yankees saw Gerrit Cole take a no-hit bid into the seventh against Detroit, Nestor Cortes make it to the eighth with a no-hit try against Texas and Luis Severino get pulled after seven hitless innings at Texas in the final series before the postseason.
Schmidt also has five injured list stints under his belt and his season was delayed until April 16 because of a minor rotator cuff injury in spring training when the Yankees lost Cole to Tommy John surgery on his elbow and Luis Gil to a strained right lat – the same injury that cost Schmidt three months.
“Of course, part of me did want to see that,” catcher J.C. Escarra said. “But, ultimately, just for his health, he had to come out.”
As for whether he would have actually completed the feat, there was little doubt for Schmidt, who was attempting to become the answer to the trivia question of who threw the last no-hitter in Yankees’ history.
“Yeah, I would have thrown a no-hitter,” Schmidt said.
Maybe there will be a next time and if there is the Yankees hope whoever it is does run up the pitch count to create an agonizing but necessary decision.
