Seems plausible. There have only been 21 perfect games in modern baseball history. I’d hazard a guess the number of instances of a perfect game thru 8 innings is no higher than 30 or 40-something.
I’m actually surprised if that’s the first time a walk off homer has broken up a no hit bid. It could only happen to a pitcher for the away team but it seems there’d be more possibilities for it to happen. It could happen in a 0-0 game, sometimes a pitcher with a no hit bid going in the 9th has given up a least 1 run which matches the other team’s score, and/or a pitcher could have allowed baserunners in the 9th in a game with a marginal lead for the prospective go ahead home run to occur.
But the Dodgers didn’t have the lead in the 10th.
Let’s say Hill retired the side in the 10th 1-2-3 and had pitched 110 already. The Dodgers would still have to score in the 11th in order to keep the potential “no-hitter” credit for Hill. I believe Hill’s batting spot was coming up. Would Roberts have put in a pinch batter? Would he let Hill pitch in the bottom of the 11th?
I know this is all moot but it’s fun to speculate (or is that “reverse speculate?”). 
Anyway, still bummed out. The Boys in Blue should have scored earlier in the game. What’s the deal with the team not playing small ball? Seems like they can’t advance runners much without actually getting a hit. Grrrrr.
Small ball doesn’t work. It’s not smart baseball. Except in very limited circumstances, bunting and whatnot is dumb.
I mean, it’s heartbreaking for Rich Hill and all, but the Dodgers have probably the best offense in the NL (two teams have scored more runs but they play in hitter’s parks) and they have the third fewest sacrifice bunts. The best offense in all of baseball is Houston, and Houston has exactly 8 sacrifice bunts all year, the fewest in baseball. You don’t need to bunt to score and win. Not in the majors, anyway; at other levels of baseball, bunting can be more important.
Hill’s pitch count at the end of the game was only 99; he should still have had plenty left in the tank. In any situation other than a no-hitter, the Dodgers absolutely would pinch hit for him on the 11th; in this case, I’m almost certain they would have let him hit, and pitch the next inning.
And keep the big picture in mind…it’s not like the they’re fighting for playoff position here. They can afford to lose one game due to a ‘bad baseball decision’. I they “cheat” Hill out of the opportunity to complete his no-hitter, that could have an impact on player morale, and at this point that sort of thing looks to be about the only thing that might stop the Dodgers this season.
I just wanted to express my appreciation of the smart baseball talk here.
I had to step out to run to the store. In the 3 minutes I was driving back, two callers phoned in to the Fan 590 to talk baseball, and both were profoundly mentally damaged.
The first caller said Marcus Stroman has an attitude problem and should be traded. Stroman is the best pitcher the Blue Jays have and in fact one of the ten most valuable pitchers in the league, and he’s young and cheap, but the caller is “sick of his act,” by which he means Stroman is a black man who shows emotion on the field.
The second caller observed that the reason the Blue Jays are losing is because John Gibbons “Doesn’t manage them enough.” He wants Gibbons to bunt and hit and run more, because that’s why they’re bad. I would point out that
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The Toronto Blue Jays have the second lowest on base percentage in the American League despite playing in a hitter’s park. That is basically impossible to overcome. If you are the worst team in the league at getting on base, you will have a bad offense and nothing you can do will change that except to get different players who can get on base.
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Anyone who actually watches the team would know that the team is VERY slow. The team doesn’t really have anyone who’s really fast, and has a lot of lead-footed players; this is the team’s 41st season and except maybe for the very first year when they were making do with castoffs, I am pretty sure this is the slowest team they have ever fielded. You can’t play small ball with guys like Kendrys Morales clogging the basepaths.
Every call in to the show is the same kind of stupid, and the hosts dutifully say “thanks” and then patiently explain why the caller is wrong, and then another idiot calls with something equally idiotic. It’s amazing.
If you listen to sports talk radio almost anywhere else, you’ll get the same impression.
I think leaving him was the right thing to do. Any of our not-always-stellar bullpen could have easily given up that homer.
More importantly, it was just unfortunately a really bad day to give Justin Turner a day off. I highly doubt he would have made that error at third to end the perfect game. I also have to believe that with all the runners we left on base last night, he just might have knocked one in. Yeah, yeah, hindsight and all, but I think that made more of a difference than leaving Hill in. Up until the HR, he was pitching great.
“Other than that, how did you enjoy the play, Mrs. Lincoln?”
He pitched great, period. A single mistake over the course of 29 batters doesn’t change that, whether it was the first batter he faced or the last. The only problem was that the Dodgers squandered a number of opportunities earlier in the game, and the Pirates’ pitchers did a good job of settling in.
Still an amazing outing for Rich Hill. Hope he’s got more of that in October. I’m still amazed thinking that if (big if, I know) all are healthy, our playoff rotation is likely:
[ol]
[li]Kershaw[/li][li]Darvish[/li][li]Wood[/li][li]Hill[/li][/ol]
with the luxury of Maeda and Ryu coming out of the bullpen for middle/long relief, then arms like Baez, Morrow, Avilan and Jansen to close it out. Assuming the Dodgers score ANY runs during a given game, they’re likely to be in good shape.
If.
But what if Billy Hamilton is at bat and can actually outrun the throw to first? Or if Billy Hamilton needs to be moved over a base so he can steal another? Would it be dumb in those instances?
Well, you don’t ask a guy batting .287/.351/.491 to bunt. Which is the average Houston batter.
Bunting for a base hit, if you can bunt for a base hit, is not the same thing as a sacrifice bunt. (And why does Billy need to be moved over a base? He can move over a base himself.)
Michael Conforto of the Mets hit the DL with a dislocated shoulder after he swung on and missed a pitch.
From the Mets opening day roster, only three position players haven’t been on the DL this year, and all three have been traded.
The only starting pitchers from the opening day roster without a DL trip are Jacob DeGrom and Raphael Montero (who was considered a long reliever at the time). Twelve pitchers have started for them this year and only DeGrom, Montero, Chris Flexen (who came up last month), Adam Wilk (who pitched one game and was claimed by Minnesota) have not been on the DL.
It has been a frustrating year for Mets fans.
Watching the bottom four batters in the Indians’ lineup (collective average just a little over .200) go 1 for 14 against Red Sox pitching last night, it figured to be a rough outing for them against Chris Sale.
So through six innings, the same bunch is 8 for 13 with 7 runs batted in against Sale and the mop-up crew. 
That’s 2 straight rough ones for Sale against Cleveland. Hmm, October matchups are already being pondered.
Announcers were saying he’s given up more runs to the Indians since the break than to the entire rest of MLB.
Obviously not the scenario I’m hoping for personally, but it’s worth noting that Houston has now fallen behind the Nationals (in addition to the Dodgers) in the race for home field advantage in a potential World Series matchup.
I don’t follow Houston at all. How comparable is their situation (first half vs. second half) to the Giants last year, if at all? I realize the Astros will almost certainly still win their division, and they’re getting injured players back, but are the fans worried about their performance?
Orioles 16 Red Sox 3. This is fun!
That’s *two *Boston second basemen Machado has taken out this year, without remorse.
Time for a suspension.
I’m curious to know whether you watched the play, or whether your assessment is just based on the fact that Machado was involved. I did watch last night’s game, and quite frankly, you’re flat-out wrong.
I think there was a pretty good case for arguing that Machado’s take-out of Pedroia back in April violated the rules. It was a close thing, but if the umpires had ruled the slide illegal, i wouldn’t have complained. His foot was raised, it went past the bag, and he spiked Pedroia in the leg. But last night’s slide was completely fine. There was nothing wrong with it at all.
Not only that, but if you watched the game on NESN, you would have seen your own commentators tell you that you’re wrong. When i watched the game on MLB.com last night, i watched the Orioles feed with the Baltimore broadcasters. After reading your comments, though, i went back to MLB.com and listened to the NESN call of Machado’s slide. Here’s how the Red Sox commentator’s described the play as they showed the slow-motion replay:
And a bit later:
Emphasis mine.
I’ve also just looked through a half-dozen news articles, and not one of them claims the slide was a violation of the rules. Furthermore, like the Red Sox commentators, a few blame Nunez’s injury on the fact that he was forced to reach for the ball after Red Sox catcher Leon made a bad throw to second.
ESPN:
Comcast SportsNet New England:
But i’m sure that your evaluation of the play is more accurate, and completely untainted by partisan support. 
Seeing Robinson Cano on the bench today seemed odd so I looked up his numbers. In the ten year stretch from 2007-2016, he missed a total of 25 games. That’s pretty impressive durability.