Sensational Redemption
Jonathan Sanchez erupts with excitement after tossing a no-hitter.
Friday night the city of San Francisco erupted as Jonathan Sanchez stunned fans across the nation with a no-hitter. Sanchez was fantastic from start to finish. He dominated San Diego’s lineup with his fastball for the first three innings. Then in the fifth Sanchez unloaded the junk, dazzling the opposition, the umpires, and the crowd. Sanchez struck out a career best, 11, and 8 of those K’s came in the fifth inning or later.
As each frame read “0″ across the scoreboard, fans began to understand the uniqueness of the occasion. Sanchez was perfect through seven innings. No hits, no walks, no errors. He even managed to get by Tony Gwynn in the 7th. Gwynn had broken up Lincecum’s no-hit bid in the 7th the night before.
Meanwhile the offense poured 7 runs of support for Sanchez. Pablo Sandoval contributed to his rock-star season with a 420 ft bomb to deep right-center field. Although it didn’t matter at that point, Sanchez was untouchable.
As tension mounted around AT&T Park, fans began avoiding the words, “no-hitter” and “perfect game”. In a community full of superstitious freaks nobody wants to jinx the bid.
Sanchez is greeted in the dugout by his father.
Chase Headley was up next with five outs away from the perfect game. Headley tomahawked a ground-ball to third base. Juan Uribe jumped out in front of the ball and knocked it to the ground with his chest. Uribe, with a rocket arm, bobbled the ball one-too-many times to get Headley out at first. The perfect game was lost. As the stomaches of 30,000 plus people wrenched, the scoreboard flashed “E5″. Relief. The no-hitter was still intact. Sanchez regained the momentum by inducing a fly out and a strike out to end the inning
In the top of the ninth inning, Sanchez toed the rubber in attempt to make baseball history. Renteria fielded the first ball cleanly to put out Luis Rodriguez at first. Edgar Gonzalez batted next. Again Sanchez’s fastball was launched into the deep part of the outfield. Jonathan didn’t even bother to watch the ball, he was disgusted. But as Aaron Rowand went full sprint into the wall, he somehow ended up with the ball in his glove. There was simply magic in the air. Rowand completed yet another fantastic play in center.
26 outs of no-hit baseball and now Everth Cabrera was the only blockade between Sanchez and a trip to the history books. Sanchez threw two quick balls but got a foul and a called strike to follow up. One pitch left. Sanchez hung Cabrera up with a nasty curve that bit down from the top of the strike zone. Brian Runge, the home-plate umpire, waved his hands with authority to call the third strike. The stadium and the players burst into celebration. Possibly one of the most exciting moments since Barry Bonds set the homerun record. Fans began hugging each other, some even broke into tears. Sanchez and his father certainly did.
Jonathan Sanchez sent shock waves through the San Francisco baseball community. He let the nation be introduced to just how special 2009 baseball has been for San Francisco. He overcame his recent struggles and took advantage of his chance for redemption. Sanchez imprinted his name in the history of baseball.
Pitch Count
It was the first no-hitter by a Giant since 1976 and the first in the waterfront stadium. The last Giant to pitch a no-hitter was John Montefusco. Ed Halicki did it as well the year before Montefusco. There have been 5 players to pitch a no-hitter as a San Francisco Giant and 13 total in franchise history; Christy Mathewson did it twice (1901 and 1905).
Jonathan Sanchez tips his cap to 30,000 fans chanting his name.
