A Deep Dive: Abandoned No-Hitters
Building off Paul Skenes, we’re going deep on pitchers getting pulled during no-nos.
Well, hey, we did get to see Paul Skenes pitch to Aaron Judge in the All-Star Game, thanks to the brilliant eye of Juan Soto, who took a 100-mph fastball JUST off the inside of the plate to draw a first-inning walk. Unfortunately, that at-bat lasted about 0.0004 seconds, as Skenes immediately challenged Judge with a 100-mph fastball over the heart of the plate, and Judge weakly grounded it to third for the inning-ending force play.
Then Paul Skenes, for the third time this season, was pulled with a no-hitter… this time after one inning.
The first two times: On May 17, he threw six no-no innings in Chicago against the Cubs and was pulled. And last Thursday, he threw seven no-no innings in Milwaukee against the Brewers and was pulled.
That’s what we’re deep-diving into today: Paul Skenes’ already historic tendency to get yanked out of active no-hitters. I think this speaks not only to Skenes’ general awesomeness, but also to the time we’re in and a game that pretty dramatically changed over the last few years, even though many of us—maybe even most of us—didn’t really want it to change that way.
Let’s start with our pal Joe Sheehan, who last week created a new statistic called the SKENES. It simply counts how many times a starter leaves a game after the sixth inning with a no-hitter. The way Joe does it, all no-hitters that are at least six innings count, so… the all-time leader list will mostly look familiar:
Most Skenes in a Career
7 Skenes: Nolan Ryan
6 Skenes: Nobody
5 Skenes: Nobody
4 Skenes: Sandy Koufax, Jim Maloney, Justin Verlander
3 Skenes: Bob Feller, Lucas Giolito, Kent Mercker, Framber Valdez, Max Scherzer, Don Wilson
Nolan Ryan threw seven no-hitters, so in his case he “left” the no-hitter after it was done. Same with Sandy Koufax’s four no-hitters and Bob Feller’s three no-hitters. Some of the others have a mix of no-hitters and partial no-hitters. Jim Maloney, for instance, threw two no-hitters and was pulled from two no-hitters. That’s how he ends up with four.
Now, obviously, we’re not here to tell Joe what he should do with his own statistics, but in my mind, an actual no-hitter can’t be called a “Skenes.” He hasn’t thrown one yet. He might never throw one. So what I’d like to propose is that a SKENES—or we can come up with another name if Joe would prefer—should refer to a pitcher who threw at least six no-hit innings but for one reason or another, didn’t actually finish the game.
And the kind of SKENES (SKENESI for plural?) I’m particularly interested in are the ones where the manager pulls the starter because of pitch count. This feels to me a very, very recent thing… and, for me, a sad thing. Don’t get me wrong, I get it. Pitcher injuries have become a terrible plague on the game, and as the Unsinkable
writes, there’s something unnerving and joy-snatching about watching a breathtaking talent like Paul Skenes pitch, because we know in our hearts that Tommy John surgery seems inevitable for a pitcher throwing 102 mph.So, no, I’m not saying I have a way to turn back time.
But I am saying that, yeah, I miss the days when managers would not DARE take out a pitcher throwing a no-hitter. As Tommy Lasorda said in 1995, which to me doesn’t FEEL that long ago, though it has been almost 30 years now:
“I wouldn’t come out of a no-hitter if God told me to. And I wouldn’t take a guy out of a no-hitter unless he wanted to come out.”
Anyway, I’ve gone back to look at all 95 SKENES that have been thrown since Deadball. You should know that of those 95, a whopping—yeah, I said “whopping”—SEVENTY-THREE of them have been thrown since the turn of the century. Best I can figure, they fit into five fairly distinct categories:
— Strategic SKENES: This, as the name suggests, is when the pitcher is pulled for strategic reasons. What would be a strategic reason for pulling a pitcher with a no-hitter? Well, as you will see, there are actually several ways that can happen.
— Injury SKENES: This is when the pitcher is pulled specifically for an injury that occurs during the game.
— Pitch-Limit SKENES: This is when a pitcher, for whatever reason, was put on a specific pitch limit BEFORE the game. So this could fit a reliever who’s making an emergency start, or a pitcher making a first start after an injury, or even a pitcher making the first start of the season. The key here is that this has to be an uncommon pitch limit, not just the usual pitch limit that’s now put on pitchers.
— Apall SKENES: This is the Paul Skenes scenario, where the pitcher is pulled in a semi-vague attempt to protect the arm. I say “semi-vague” because nobody really knows how many pitches will protect the arm. In his last SKENES, Paul threw 99 pitches. Did that protect his arm more than, say, 110 might have? We’re all just guessing.
— Goofy SKENES: This is when the situation doesn’t really fit anything else.
All right! Let’s have some fun. One other thing I should mention: We’re not counting shortened no-hitters like Madison Bumgarner’s seven-inning no-hitter in 2021 or Matt Young’s eight-inning no-hitter in 1992. The manager didn’t pull either of those pitchers; rain did.
Let’s GOOOOOO!!! We’ll start by finding our first Apall SKENES. I don’t know how long that will take, but let’s start the very beginning...
Cincinnati’s Johnny Klippstein, May 26, 1956, pulled after 7 innings.
SKENES type: Strategic
The first Skenes post-Deadball was thrown by Cincinnati’s Johnny Klippstein in 1956 against Milwaukee. He had a no-hitter going into the eighth, but his Reds trailed 1-0 because he had an inning when he hit Henry Aaron with a pitch, walked two batters and gave up a sac fly to Frank Torre. When Cincinnati had a runner on second and one out in the eighth, Reds manager Birdie Tebbetts put in a pinch-hitter for Klippstein.
“Sure, I feel bad about it,” Klippstein said. “But I don’t blame Birdie. We were a run behind because of me.”
New York’s Whitey Ford, May 22, 1962, pulled after 7 innings.
SKENES type: Injury
The next Skenes happened six years later, 1962, Whitey Ford pitched seven no-hit innings against the Angels and then pulled himself out of the game because he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder. It turned out to be a muscle tear, and he wouldn’t pitch again for two weeks.
Cincinnati’s Jim Maloney, April 18, 1964, pulled after 6 innings.
SKENES type: Injury
This was the first of two SKENES for Maloney. In this one, he wrenched his back in the sixth inning. He made it through, but he didn’t look great doing it, and his manager, Fred Hutchinson, pulled him for safety.
“I’m disappointed,” Maloney said. “But I’m not going to ruin a season over one game.”