I went to bed too early tonight

I was just nicely asleep when the phone rang to wake me up. It was the alarm company calling to tell me that the church I work at had an alarm going off inside and I needed to meet the police so they could check the building. I got dressed walked over to the church for the false alarm and made my way back home. I couldn't immediately get back to sleep so I watched the end of the Yankees game. It was then that I came to realize the 262nd no hitter in baseball history was tossed. I hate to miss history.

Jonathan Sanchez of the San Francisco Giants almost threw a perfect game against the Padres. Only Pablo Sandoval's error in the 8th stood as the only blemish on the night for Sanchez. He almost lost the no hitter with one out in the ninth but center fielder Aaron Rowand made a great play against the wall. Then with two outs Sanchez struck out his 11th batter on the night for the complete game no hitter.

Since 2000 14 no hitters have been thrown.

• Hideo Nomo threw his second career no hitter in 2001 while with the Red Sox
• AJ Burnett did the trick with the Marlins in 2001, just about a month after Nomo
• Bud Smith pitched for the Cardinals in 2001
• Derek Lowe threw the gem for the Red Sox in 2002
• Kevin Millwood of the Phillies repeated Lowes performance one year later to the day on April 27,2003
• Six different pitchers combined for the Astros to no hit the Yankees in 2003, that is the most pitchers ever used in a no hitter
• Randy Johnson threw his second career no hitter, in fact it was a perfect game 14 years after his first no no in 1990. Johnson was pitching for the Diamondbacks at the time.
• Anibal Sanchez of the Marlins threw his against the Diamondbacks in 2006 after a two year drought from the rarity
• Mark Buehrle of the White Sox no hit the Texas Rangers, allowing one baserunner which he picked off at first base, that was in April 2007
• Justin Verlander the Tigers ace threw the first inter league no hitter of the decade against the Milwaukee Brewers in 2007
• Clay Buchholz of the mighty Red Sox threw a no hitter in just his second career start,in Sept 2007 against the Orioles
  
• Jon Lester of the Red Sox repeated Buchholz performance in May 2008 against the KC Royals
• Carlos Zambrano of the Cubs threw a no hitter against the Astros in the hurricane Ike aftermath. This game was pitched in a neutral site on September 14, 2008
• Johnathan Sanchez is the newest member of the club with his great game against the Padres.

Who is this Jonathan Sanchez? He is a fourth year spot starter who was recently put into the starting rotation because 300 game winner randy Johnson was put on the DL. Sanchez now has a career record of 16-26 with an ERA over 5.00. Will this be the next young stud in the Giants rotation? Maybe not but for this night, Sanchez was the star of the night.

I mentioned Jon Lester earlier as a no hit guy. He flirted with it last night again but in the end he pitched another 8 innings of shutout ball as the Red Sox defeated the KC Royals 1-0 behind Lesters dominant performance. He gave up 4 hits and sturck out 8 in win #35 of his career.

One final note, Albert Pujols now needs 349 more for 700 as he clubbed another HR for the Cards.

Wow, what a great night of baseball. I love this game!!