It was the most dominating pitching performance of 2025. So who could possibly forget it … except for you, your loved ones and pretty much our entire planet?
It happened back on March 22, at storied LECOM Park in bustling Bradenton, Fla. And why are we mentioning it here? Because the Baltimore Orioles unfurled a seven-pitcher spring training no-hitter against the Pittsburgh Pirates that day. And don’t be dissuaded by the fact that we did not interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to show you the final outs.
It has a chance to go down as the most spectacular no-hitter of 2025 …
If only because it also has a chance to go down as the only no-hitter of 2025.
And what should we make of that? That’s not merely a question being asked by Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Slade Cecconi — all of whom have taken no-hitters into the eighth or ninth innings in the last week.
That’s a question baseball fans everywhere are asking, because no-hitters are cool, no-hitters are fun, and no-hitter alerts on our phones are all the proof we need that our hearts are still pumping.
Oh, and also because we’ve seen at least one no-hitter every year … for the last 19 seasons in a row. Until 2025 came along.
So we asked that question — what should we make of this? — to America’s ultimate expert on no-hitters, not to mention lack of no-hitters. That would be Dirk Lammers, the genius behind the indispensable website NoNoHitters.com. But it turns out even he can’t explain all this — possibly because nobody could explain all this.
“I’d love to say it’s because of the pitch clock, or because they’re moving in the outfield walls,” Lammers said. “But the truth is, we’ve seen a lot of (no-hitters) for the last couple of decades now. So I think it was just bound to happen. I can’t think of any reason.
“It’s so random,” Lammers said at another point. “I mean, you get bloop singles. You get homers that barely clear the wall. So there’s no rhyme or reason to these things.”
On one hand, Lammers is as bummed as the rest of us about this no-hitter drought, because “I love watching them.” On the other hand, it has occurred to him he’s missing out on a major marketing opportunity, as a fellow running a website called NoNoHitters.com in a year of, well, No No-Hitters.
“I guess if I had a huge budget,” he said with a laugh, “I should be sponsoring an outfield wall display or something.”
That display is not coming to an outfield wall near you. But you know what is coming? Our handy dandy look at just how rare it is to have an entire baseball season without a no-hitter, plus other assorted no-hitter trends this gives us an excuse to pass along.
A moment of silence for no-hitter droughts
Tyler Glasnow pumps his fist after completing seven no-hit innings Monday. After a scoreless eighth from Blake Treinen, the Rockies got their first hit in the ninth. (Kirby Lee / Imagn Images)
If you’ve ever been lucky enough to find yourself at a ballpark where a no-hitter busted out, it sure seemed rare, didn’t it? But the truth is, no-hitters actually have been getting way less rarified … until this year.
The last season without a no-hitter? That was in 2005. So this would have marked only the third streak in history of 20-plus seasons featuring at least one no-hitter. The other two streaks, not surprisingly, have come in the six decades or so since baseball expanded beyond its original 16 teams.
And other than 2005 — and the 2000 season — we’d had at least one no-hitter in 33 of the last 35 seasons going into this year. That’s the most in any 35-season span in history.
But let’s keep going. Even if we travel back to the start of the 1960 season, there had been only five seasons without a no-hitter in the previous 65 — compared with 15 from 1900-59! Since then we’ve only seen these five:
1982
1985
1989
2000
2005
So who saw this coming? Not even Nolan (Seven No-Nos) Ryan.
So much for the decade of the no-hitter
Here’s another oddity: Until this season, the 2020s were on pace to produce the most no-hitters of any decade in history!
Wait. What? This is true, even though one of the seasons in this span (2020) lasted just 60 games. Take a look.
2020 — 2
2021 — 9
2022 — 4*
2023 — 4
2024 — 4
(*includes the Astros’ four-pitcher World Series no-hitter)
So that comes to 23 no-hitters in the previous five seasons — putting MLB on pace for 46 in the 2020s. And that would have broken a record set way back in … the 2010s, which produced 40 of them. Here’s the rundown by decade, back to 1960:
2020s — 23
2010s — 40
2000s — 15
1990s — 31
1980s — 13
1970s — 31
1960s — 34
(Source: NoNoHitters.com)
So once again, let’s all ask: Who saw this coming?
The Late Late Show
Guardians pitcher Slade Cecconi reacts after losing his no-hit bid against the Royals in the eighth inning on Monday. (Jason Miller / Getty Images)
Here’s one more reason this no-hit drought has been so strange. If we count combined no-hit bids that went off the rails — and how can we not (more on that shortly) — we’ve now had 11 games this season in which a team had its no-hitter dreams blown up in the eighth or ninth. Does that seem like a lot? Let’s go with yes.
We asked our friends from STATS Perform to look into how this season’s late-inning no-hit wipeouts stack up against the other seasons in the divisional era (1969-present) with zero no-hitters. Check it out.
SEASON8TH OR LATER 9TH OR LATER
2025
11
4
2005
4
0
2000
4
1
1989
16
7
1985
6
3
1982
6
1
(Source: STATS Perform)
In that 1989 season, Ryan had two no-hit bids slip away in the ninth by himself. But that year is a clear outlier. How crazy is it that the last time we saw a full season without a no-hitter, nobody even took one into the ninth?
See you in September
But let’s not wave the white flag on this season yet. There have been seven seasons since 1900 in which baseball got to September with no no-hitters — and then somebody threw one. Here are those seven:
YEARDATE PITCHER
2006
Sept. 6
Aníbal Sánchez
1988
Sept. 16
Tom Browning
1986
Sept. 19
Joe Cowley
1945
Sept. 9
Dick Fowler
1934
Sept. 21
Paul Dean
1925
Sept. 13
Dazzy Vance
1923
Sept. 4
Sam Jones
(Source: NoNoHitters.com)
And here’s a reminder of just how random no-hitter droughts can be: In that 1923 season, the sport was no-hitter free until September … whereupon Sad Sam Jones and Howard Ehmke then threw two of them in four days … because of course they did.
September song
Say, have we mentioned lately that Yamamoto, Glasnow and Cecconi have all taken no-hit bids into the late innings in the past few days? You sure don’t see that every year.
The Dodgers just became the first team in history to lose two no-hitters in three days, both in the ninth inning or later. (Hat tip: the great Sarah Langs, of MLB.com). And if we add in Cecconi’s seven hitless innings Monday for the Guardians, those three no-hit bids that made it into the eighth are the most in any September in the division-play era — among seasons in which nobody completed a no-hitter.
SEASON8TH OR LATER 9TH OR LATER
2025
3
2
2005
0
0
2000
0
0
1989
1
0
1985
0
0
1982
1
1
(Source: STATS Perform)
Get back to us in 4,000* games
From left, Shota Imanaga, catcher Miguel Amaya, Porter Hodge and Nate Pearson. The three Cubs pitchers combined for the last major-league no-hitter. (Quinn Harris / Getty Images)
We’ve now gone more than a full calendar year since the last no-hitter. That was twirled by the Cubs on Sept. 4, 2024 — a three-pitcher extravaganza featuring Shota Imanaga, Nate Pearson and Porter Hodge.
We hate when that happens. But just so you know, we’re not even close to historic territory for longest droughts without a no-hitter to celebrate.
Going into Tuesday night, there had been about 2,500* games played since the most recent no-hitter. That’s a big number. But it’s miles from being an unprecedented number.
Back in 2004-05-06, this sport played 6,364 games in a row without a no-hitter — in between Randy Johnson’s perfect game on May 18, 2004, and Aníbal Sánchez’s no-hitter on Sept. 6, 2006. So 6,364 stands as the all-time record, according to NoNoHitters.com, if you calculate it by games played.
Or if we do this by counting up days, you’ll have to get back to us in 2027. That record is 535 consecutive no-hitter-free days with at least one game scheduled, between a Bobby Burke no-hitter on Aug. 8, 1931, and Paul Dean’s no-no more than three full calendar years later, on Sept. 21, 1934. Keep in mind that we now have nearly twice as many teams as we did then. (Hat tip on both of those tidbits: NoNoHitters.com.)
The Gong Show
You know what seems to happen every week nowadays? A manager stomping to the mound to take out his starting pitcher despite the slight inconvenience that the pitcher hasn’t given up a hit yet.
That’s obviously a product of the pitch-counting world we live in now. But is it OK to suggest it’s also a factor in why we haven’t seen any no-hitters lately?
It’s hard enough to find one unhittable pitcher hanging around your locker room on any given day. Think how hard it is to find two or three or four of them.
So we asked STATS to dig into this trend. Here’s what they found:
Since 2018 … we’ve seen an incredible 97 starting pitchers who were hooked from one of their starts, in the sixth inning or later, before they’d allowed a single hit. (That includes the postseason, as Blake Snell could attest.)
Our guess was that it was more than we’d seen in all of modern history previously. So STATS checked. And how does that compare with …
Life before 2018 … thanks for asking. We were right! Before these last eight seasons, there had only been 94 starters who got gonged mid-no-hitter, in the sixth inning or later, in the entire modern era combined. We’re talking 118 seasons, from 1900-2017.
Wow. Baseball! (In the 21st century.)
Under new management
When we watched Dave Roberts pat Glasnow on the shoulder Monday night and inform him he would not be finishing the no-hit business he’d started, we had a thought:
Hmmm, that looked kinda familiar!
Oh, there’s a reason for that. It was the seventh time in Roberts’ career he’d hooked a starting pitcher who had gone at least five innings and neglected to allow any hits. That seemed like it had to be a record.
Nope!
Turns out, it wasn’t even the most of any active manager. It also wasn’t even close to a record. Surprise, it’s Dusty Baker who holds that one — with 12.
Here’s the all-time managerial leaderboard, according to STATS, for most games in which that manager pulled a starter before he’d given up a hit, including the postseason (minimum of at least five innings pitched).
Manager Games
Dusty Baker
12
Craig Counsell
9
Kevin Cash
7
Dave Roberts
7
Brian Snitker
5
Derek Shelton
5
Bob Melvin
5
Don Mattingly
5
How safe is Dusty’s record? Not very safe, the way this sport is going. But how safe is it to assume we won’t be seeing any no-hitters in 2025, even though we have less than three weeks remaining in the regular season? Not as safe as you’d think, according to Lammers.
“You know, we’ve had a decent number of no-hitters pitched on the last day of the season,” he said. “So that could happen, certainly. And you never know now about the postseason. It used to be unprecedented, where you’d never see a playoff no-hitter — but they happen now, too. So you can’t rule that out.
“So I wouldn’t go to Vegas and put a bet down on no no-hitters for 2025,” Lammers said. “I mean, it’s … baseball!”
(Top photo of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who lost a no-hitter with two outs in the ninth inning against the Orioles: Jess Rapfogel / Getty Images)