Happening Elsewhere: Matt Garza Throws a No-Hitter, Nation Feigns Interest

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Hey, you know what we should start calling 2010? The "Year of the Pitcher"! 'Coz, you know, pitchers are good and stuff again! They have low ERAs and high win totals and throw no-hitters and perfect games every night! Take that, steroid era!

Rays righty Matt Garza threw the fifth no-hitter of the '10 season (and the first no-no in Rays history) last night at the expense of the Detroit Tigers, as TB took the contest by a score of 5-0. Really, it was pretty damn close to being the third perfect game (fourth, unofficial) of the season as well--Garza let on just one baserunner the whole night, Tigers outfielder Brennan Boesch, who drew a walk before being retired in a double play hit by the very next batter. 27 up, 27 down--sounds pretty close to a perfect game to me.

As you no doubt noted from my nauseating abuse of the sarcastic exclamation mark above, however, it's hard for me (or most other baseball fans, I imagine) to get too excited about Garza's accomplishment. It really does seem like just about every week or two this season that we have a new no-hitter to lionize, or some other impressive pitching-related achievement to rave on and on about. It's cool and all, and I'm sure Rays fans are pretty jazzed about it, but this is a season where pitching efforts need to really verge on the historic to be of legitimate interest. 

And actually, that could have been last night. Despite the final score implying a relatively lopsided affair, the game was actually hitless through six on both sides, with the Tigers' Max Scherzer matching Garza pitch for pitch. I had visions of the contest becoming what I can only assume would have to be the first-ever full pro game to not feature a single base hit, especially as the Rays loaded the bases in the sixth on a combination of walks and a bizarre call of catcher's interference. Then shortstop Matt Joyce had to go and ruin the fun by capping the inning with a two-out grand slam. Phooey.

But yeah, just a boring ol' no-hitter? Whatevs, yo. Just means it's probably time to skip SportsCenter for the next 24 hours.

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