Cubs-White Sox pitchers take no-hitters deep into the game
It was a crazy night in Chicago. Cubs’ Ted Lilly took a no-hitter against the White Sox into the 9th inning. White Sox’s Gavin Floyd put on a great display himself, flirting with a no-hitter of his own before Alfonso Soriano doubled with two outs in the bottom of the seventh.
The last time two teams were both hitless through 6 innings was July 13, 1980, in a game between the New York Yankees and White Sox, according to STATS LLC.
Juan Pierre, a former Cub, ended Lilly’s quest for a no-hitter with a leadoff single in the ninth inning.
“In a situation like that there’s a tendency to second-guess my pitch selection,” Lilly said. “I can do that. But also it wasn’t a very good pitch, either. No question there’s a little bit of a letdown. You kind of get over that and realize we’re in a 1-0 game and we’ve got to somehow find a way to win this game.”
Lilly was immediately taken out of the game with the Cubs clinging to a 1-0 lead.
Oh, they won by that score after the White Sox threatened in the ninth.
It was the longest Lilly carried a no-hitter in his career. He threw 7 2/3 innings against Seattle in 2002.
“It was a fun game for everybody. Obviously it was an intense game to the end,” Floyd said.
The last no-hitter by a Cubs’ pitcher was Carlos Zambrano against the Houston Astros in Milwaukee. The White Sox were last no-hit in 1991 by Bret Saberhagen of the Kansas City Royals.
NOTE: The only double no-hitter through nine innings in major league history was May 2, 1917, at Wrigley Field, with Cincinnati’s Fred Toney and Chicago’s Hippo Vaughn on the mound. The Reds won 1-0 in 10 innings.
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