Seattle Mariners Pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma Throws No-Hitter

Hideo Nomo is the only other Japanese pitcher to throw a no-hitter, achieving the feat twice in 1996 as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers and in 2001 with the Boston Red Sox.

When Gerardo Parra’s two-out, ninth-inning drive to the outfield – just enough into the left-center field gap that Iwakuma’s first reaction was, “uh, oh” – dropped into Austin Jackson’s glove to finish the no-hitter, the release was cathartic. He leads the AL in K/BB, and while Yankees Stadium is a hitter’s park, Pineda has just six walks in nine starts on the road, with one complete game.

The right-hander joins Cole Hamels of the Philadelphia Phillies, Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals and Chris Heston of the San Francisco Giants as pitchers with no-hitters in 2015.

Throwing 116 pitches with three walks and seven strikeouts, Iwakuma has recorded the fifth no-hitter in the Mariners’ history and fourth by an individual pitcher.

Baltimore loaded the bases with two outs before Schoop’s hit, but Mariners starter Taijuan Walker quickly rebounded and later retired 11 straight.

By early Wednesday evening, 34-year-old Iwakuma had something that had eluded him during his four-year Major League Baseball career: a complete game.

“I’ve got to learn from it”, Smith said. “He was so good that I’m answering these questions about a foul ball”.

It’s the first against the Orioles since Clay Buchholz threw one in 2007. Seager then assisted on the second out for a 5-3 putout of Manny Machado.

Iwakuma also walked Chris Davis with two outs but stranded both by striking out Jimmy Paredes.

Iwakuma took the mound for the ninth to a standing ovation from the home crowd taking in the rare weekday matinee.

That feeling only increased when Seager made a sensational, over-the-shoulder grab of David Lough’s tricky pop-up near the seats in foul territory to start the ninth.

Iwakuma didn’t get a ton of offensive help.

“That’s all I thought was to come back and give it all I’ve got every start and make up for the lost time I had in the first half”, Iwakuma said. Because of that, it wasn’t something I thought about.

“I’m truly happy”, he said.

A cursory consulting of the game’s box score bears this out.

He has been a solid arm in Seattle’s rotation since arriving from Japan in 2012, but has struggled with injuries throughout his career.

Iwakuma suffered a strained lat early this season, sidelining him for more than two months.

“I only saw the final inning, but I’m so glad I was able to see that instant”.

Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon rejected that possibility. It’d be inaccurate to say that Iwakuma got better and better as he went on, seeing as he had it going from the get-go. “There’s not much coming out of his hand that looks like something you want to swing at”. He can work down in the zone. His previous high was 40, which he hit last season in leading the majors while playing for Baltimore. The Indians have won four in a row. Fernando Rodney (4-4) pitched around a walk in the 10th, and Tom Wilhelmsen allowed a leadoff double in the 11th before recording his second save in as many chances.