The start of the Oakland A's game against the Cincinnati Reds last night was delayed for more than 90 minutes because they couldn't get the lights turned on at the ancient Oakland Coliseum, but for Mike Fiers and the fans patient enough to stick around, it was more than worth the wait once they did.
Fiers fired a no-hitter at the Reds, the 300th no-no thrown in major league history, and Fiers now has two of them. That's right, this was the second no-hitter of his career in Oakland's 2-0 win. He no-hit the L.A. Dodgers back in 2015 when he was with the Houston Astros, and is now among just seven major leaguers who have thrown no-hitters for more than one team. He got help from his defense, including a reach-over-the-fence to bring back a home run catch by A's center fielder Ramon Laureano. He did walk two batters to miss out on a perfect game, but that's quibbling, because he's in the history books, again.
The Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles 8-5 at Camden Yards. Mitch Moreland connected for his tenth home run of the year and JD Martinez hit one of the milestone variety, number 200 for his career. Xander Bogaerts also went yard.
Hector Velazquez gave up two runs in three innings and Marcus Walden followed allowing just one run through the sixth. Brandon Workman pitched a perfect seventh, but Ryan Brasier struggled in the eighth, giving up two runs before Matt Barnes shut the door in the 9th.
The NY Yankees rallied for three runs in the bottom of the 9th to stun the Seattle Mariners in a 5-4 win at a rain-soaked Yankee Stadium. Gio Urshela got the party started with a 2-run homer to tie the game at four and the Yankees won it when DJ LeMahieu knocked a base hit that drove in Cameron Maybin on a play so close at the plate it had to undergo a video review. But Maybin did beat the throw and the Yankees continue to roll despite their spate of injured stars. The Mariners, meanwhile, have really come back down to earth, losers of eight of their last nine and are just 19-19 on the year after starting the season on a 13-2 run.
In San Diego, NY Mets rookie Pete Alonso had a much better go of it last night against the Padres than he did a game earlier when he went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts against Chris Paddack. He got revenge by blasting a home run in the 9th that led the Mets to a 7-6 win.
The Toronto Blue Jays are in struggle mode, getting shut out for a second straight night in a 3-0 loss to the Minnesota Twins.
But folks in Toronto can at least celebrate their NBA Raptors going up three games to two against the Philadelphia 76ers in their second round playoff. Kawhi Leonard had a double double with 21 points and 13 rebounds and the Raptors ran the Sixers out of the building in a 125-89 laugher. Game six will be back in Philly.
The Denver Nuggets are also up three games to two in their series against the Portland Trail Blazers after a 124-98 win in Denver. 34 year old veteran Paul Millsap scored 24 points to lead the Nuggets.
In the Stanley Cup playoffs there is hope still alive in St. Louis for the Blues to win the franchise's first-ever Stanley Cup. The Blues punched their ticket to the western conference finals with a thrilling 2-1 double overtime win against the Dallas Stars in St. Louis.
Pat Maroon was the hometown hero for the Blues, the St. Louis native potting the game winner when he followed up a shot that had bounced off Stars goalie Ben Bishop and over his head near the lip of the goal line. Maroon muscled his way into the area and slammed home the sudden death winner that drove the home crowd wild. The Blues will go on to face the winner of another winner take all game seven tonight in San Jose with the Sharks hosting the Colorado Avalanche