Lorenzen's No-No Featured One Great Play That Didn't Make It Into Highlights
We reflect on Michael Lorenzen's remarkable no-hitter for the Phillies and zoom in on an unheralded play that may have saved the effort.
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
. . . Before he was traded to the Phillies, Michael Lorenzen was the only All-Star selection for the Tiger this season and went to the Midsummer Classic for the first time in his career. He pitched to a 4.03 ERA in the first half and admitted that when he was called into his manager’s office to be told about the honor, he thought he was being traded. In five second-half starts since the All-Star Game, Lorenzen has pitched to a minuscule 1.26 ERA.
. . . Lorenzen’s footwear made nearly as many headlines as his on-field feat. The hurler is a native of Southern California and has worn Vans for much of his career. He twirled his no-no in a pair of sparkling white Vans, which were immediately set aside to be sent to Cooperstown.
. . . Speaking of Lorenzen’s upbringing, he went to high school at Fullerton Union High, which to date has produced four MLB pitchers: Lorenzen, Steve Busby, Mike Warren, and Hall of Famer Walter Johnson. All four have now thrown a no-hitter in the Major Leagues.
Leading Off
The Play That Saved Michael Lorenzen’s No-Hitter
By Russ Walsh
On Aug. 9, 2023, before a crowd of 30,406 at Citizens Bank Park, Michael Lorenzen pitched the 14th no-hitter in Philadelphia Phillies history. Lorenzen became a Phillie just a week before in a trade deadline deal with the Detroit Tigers. It was only his second start for the Phillies and his first in Philadelphia. The opponents were the National League East division rival Washington Nationals. It was the first no-hitter thrown by a Phillies pitcher since Cole Hamels tossed one in Chicago against the Cubs on July 25, 2015, in his very last start as a Phillies pitcher. It was the first no-hitter at Citizens Bank Park since Roy Halladay’s masterpiece against the Cincinnati Reds during the playoffs on Oct. 6, 2010.
While he struggled a bit with his control, walking four, Lorenzen used a combination of his fastball, slider, and his newly rejuvenated changeup to entice weak contact from the Nationals hitters. The outfielders were busy chasing down fly balls, recording 15 putouts. Rookie center fielder Johan Rojas was particularly active with nine putouts, including flagging down Alex Call’s eighth-inning drive that, at 104.6 mph, was the hardest-hit ball off Lorenzen all night. While that ball was hard-hit, Rojas ran it down with relative ease.
Phillies color analyst John Kruk mentioned during the broadcast that during a no-hitter, you can usually point to one great defensive play that robbed the opposing team of a hit, but Lorenzen was inducing such meek contact that there really wasn’t one in this game.
History seems to confirm Kruk’s comment. I remember watching the Phillies’ Jim Bunning pitch his famous Father’s Day perfect game on June 21, 1964, against the New York Mets. Bunning’s perfecto was preserved by second baseman Tony Taylor, who dove into the hole to snag Jesse Gonder’s fifth-inning line smash and scramble to his feet in time to throw to John Herrnstein at first base to record the out. And then there was catcher Carlos Ruiz’s throw from his knees on a Brandon Phillips slow roller to record the final out of Halladay’s playoff gem.
Other recent examples include the San Francisco Giants’ Gregor Blanco’s spectacular diving catch in right-center field to preserve Matt Cain’s perfect game on June 13, 2012. On Sept. 27, 2014. the Nationals’ unheralded Steven Souza Jr. made a spectacular diving catch in left field for the last out of the game to preserve Jordan Zimmermann’s no-hitter.
And perhaps most famously of all, on July 23, 2009, in the ninth inning of Mark Buehrle’s perfect game, the Chicago White Sox’ DeWayne Wise climbed the left-center-field wall at U.S. Cellular Field to rob Gabe Kapler of a home run and preserve Buehrle’s masterpiece.
You can see a compilation of some of these great plays here:
Best Plays in MLB History To Save No Hitters - Bing video
In Lorenzen’s no-hitter, there was one play early in the game that preserved the no-hitter. The Phillies’ announcers didn’t make particular mention of it. The play went unremarked upon in all the follow-up coverage of the no-hitter. There was not even a featured highlight video of the play on MLB.com, but it was a no-hitter saver nonetheless.
With two outs and nobody on in the top of the third, Lane Thomas was at the plate. On a 2-1 pitch, Thomas chopped a bouncer down the third-base line. The Phillies’ third baseman, Alec Bohm, an improving defender who will never be mistaken for Nolan Arenado at the hot corner, fielded the ball while his momentum carried him well into foul territory. He then flung the ball across his body on an in-between hop to first base. There to receive the throw was Bryce Harper, playing just his 10th game at first base. Harper snagged the ball a step before the hustling Thomas arrived. If the throw had pulled Harper off the bag, or if Harper had not been able to corral the tricky one-hopper, Thomas almost assuredly would have been awarded a hit and the no-hitter would have been over before the ninth out was recorded. You can see the play in the video below and see just how close Lorenzen came from losing out on no-hit history.
This play may not match Wise climbing a wall, but it was the closest thing to a hit the Nationals produced.
After the game, Lorenzen was poised and patient with the press. He credited his catcher, J.T. Realmuto, the defense of the players behind him, and his pitching coach Caleb Cotham for helping him find his good changeup again. As a bonus, Lorenzen’s mother Cheryl, wife Cassie, and 9-month-old daughter June Elizabeth were all in attendance to see his prodigious feat.
Arriving in the clubhouse to congratulate Lorenzen, Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski was greeted by players who told him, “Great trade, Dave.” Of course, no trade can really be evaluated after a week, but all was right with the Phillies’ acquisition of Lorenzen (for a Minor League infield prospect named Hap-Yu Lee) on this night.
Longtime Phillies fans might have thought back to a trade the Phillies made 63 years earlier, which sent pitcher Don Cardwell to the Cubs for second baseman Tony Taylor. In his first start for the Cubs, Cardwell threw a no-hitter against the St. Louis Cardinals. At that point the trade looked bad for the Phillies, but over time Cardwell proved to be no more than a solid journeyman pitcher, while Taylor became an All-Star, the man who preserved Bunning’s perfect game, and one of the most popular players in Phillies history.
Russ Walsh is a retired teacher, die hard Phillies fan, and student of the history of baseball with a special interest in the odd, quirky, and once in a lifetime events that happen on the baseball field. He writes for both the SABR BioProject and the SABR Games Project and maintains his own blog The Faith of a Phillies Fan. You can reach Russ on Twitter @faithofaphilli1
None of the stories I've read about Lorenzen's no-hitter mention that he is to date and perhaps forever, the last pitcher/position player in the MLB. (No, Ohtani doesn't play a fielding position.) In 2019, Lorenzen played 29 games in the outfield for the Reds, in addition to pitching. He stared five game in the OF. No other player had done that kind of double duty since 1964.