With no current MLB games to satisfy our unquenchable thirst for action, I like to periodically stroll back through some of my favorite highlights through the years. This one is way up there for me.
No-hitters are, without exception, awesome. It doesn’t matter if they’re a nail-biter through and through, or part of a 16-0 laugher in Cincinnati, the final few innings of a no-hitter is just about as exciting as it gets.
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And when that 9th inning rolls around? With the crowd hanging on every pitch? Three outs to go. Two outs to go. ONE more out to go … the heart starts racing just thinking about it.
So it was for then-Nationals pitcher Jordan Zimmermann in September 2014, as he stood on the mound with two outs in the 9th, facing Christian Yelich. Zimmermann’s final pitch on the day resulted in a rocket shot to the gap from Yelich, and it was all over.
Or that’s what everybody, including Zimmermann thought, until Steven Souza came out of nowhere and made the most incredible, two-out 9th inning no-hitter-saving catch in baseball history*:
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Zimmermann’s reaction says it all, really:
When you can't believe you just lost a no-hitter with 2 outs in the 9th inning … & THEN OMG: https://t.co/EsmY9I7Oic pic.twitter.com/8pSCImrQYw
— Baseball is Fun (@flippingbats) January 26, 2017
The catch was incredible enough on its own merits, but, given the situation, that’s an all-timer. And a fun aside? Souza had just entered the game that inning for defense. Nice move.
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*(I know what you’re thinking, Smart Guy, but that Dewayne Wise homer-robbing catch to save Mark Buehrle’s perfect game came with no outs in the 9th inning. Nice try, buster.)