Yes, it actually happened last night. You were not dreaming. Lucas Giolito threw a no-hitter against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Personally, I didn’t get to watch all of Buehrle’s no-hitter as a kid. I was told to go to bed on a school night and was too superstitious to say, “but he’s throwing a no hitter!” I was in the car for Buehrle’s perfect game, and I have no idea where I was for Humber’s, so I know I wasn’t watching. This is the first one I’ve watched start to finish, and it feels so so cool.
But, you aren’t hear to read about me, you’re here to read about Lucas Giolito’s no-hitter! I love the numbers, and there were some fun ones from last night. Let’s walk through them so you can sound smart with your friends and on social media!
Last Night’s Numbers:
19, 13, 2, 30, 0.31, 5, 101, 4, 1.6, 0
19
Let’s start with an easy one: with his no-hitter yesterday, Lucas Giolito threw the 19th no-hitter in franchise history. This is second all-time behind the Dodgers, who have thrown 26 no-hitters in their history. Obviously, this is the first one since Philip Humber threw a perfect game against the Mariners in 2012.
13
Last night, Lucas Giolito struck out 13 batters. This is the highest number of strikeouts in franchise history for a no-hitter, beating Philip Humber and his 9 strikeout perfect game.
2
There were just 2 hard-hit balls (Exit Velocity > 95 mph) all night against Giolito. The first was off the bat of Josh Bell in the fourth inning, and the second was the lineout by Erik Gonzalez to end the game. The xBA on Bell’s hit was .800. Gonzalez’s: .850. Yesterday was day where the ball flies your way as a pitcher.
Incredibly, Gonzalez was a rather big pain for Giolito yesterday. Not only did he register one of two hard-hit balls, but he also was the only batter Giolito walked, despite the fact that Gonzalez hadn’t walked all year before last night!
30
Lucas Giolito recorded 30 swinging strikes yesterday evening. That is the second-most all time in a no-hitter, one behind some guy named Nolan Ryan back in 1990. The leaderboard for swinging strikes in a no-hitter now looks like this:
1) Nolan Ryan (1990): 31
2) Lucas Giolito (2020): 30
3) Nolan Ryan (1991): 29
Pretty good company for Giolito.
0.31
This number was inspired by this tweet from last night:
Given those batting averages, there was a 0.31% chance that Lucas Giolito threw a no-hitter heading into the game. This is equivalent to about 1-in-320 odds of this occurring. So, yes, the Pirates are certainly not the best team in baseball. But, it doesn’t make what Giolito did any less special.
5
Before last night, Lucas Giolito had thrown just 10 pitches at or above 96 mph on the season. He added 5 more to that total tonight alone, and his last pitch of the game to Erik Gonzalez was the second-hardest pitch he threw last night night. Think he was a little amped up throughout the game?
101
Lucas Giolito came two pitches away from throwing a “Maddux” this evening (complete game shutout with under 100 pitches). At 101 pitches, only 15 pitchers have thrown a no-hitter with fewer pitches than Giolito. To be as efficient as he was required Giolito to be in command from the very first pitch – which was indeed the case yesterday evening.
4
This is a really cool stat, though one I can’t claim to have found myself. Lucas Giolito is the 4th pitcher to have the highest qualified ERA in a season & go on to throw a no-hitter in a later season. Props to Sarah Langs for this one!
1.6
Lucas Giolito is currently the second-most valuable pitcher in baseball after his no-hitter yesterday. He is currently worth 1.6 fWAR, trailing just Shane Bieber in the major leagues.
Additionally, before the game, Giolito was worth 1.0 fWAR on the season. This is an increase of 0.6 fWAR in just one start. Obviously, pitching a no-hitter is a pretty valuable thing to do, right?
0
There have been 15 pitchers who have thrown a no-hitter with less pitches than Lucas Giolito. There have also been 12 pitchers who have thrown a no-hitter with more strikeouts than Lucas Giolito. However, there have been 0 pitchers who have thrown a no-hitter with both less pitches and more strikeouts than Lucas Giolito.
Absolute dominance from #27 last night. 0 runs. 0 hits. Like a true ace.
Find any other interesting facts from last night’s game? Tell me! @jlazowski14
Featured Photo: Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) / Twitter
BTW the highest swinging strikes since Nolan Ryan is not ‘all-time’; as that particular stat has been catalogued only since the 80’s.