Major League Baseball still hasn’t seen a no-hitter since Sept. 4, 2024. J.T. Ginn of the Athletics strongly flirted with snapping the drought on Monday evening in Anaheim against the Angels. In fact, he took the no-hitter to the ninth inning with a 1-0 lead. But instead of making history, he came out on the wrong side of a walk-off loss.
The game was actually tied, 0-0, heading to the ninth, and a small rally gave the A’s the lead and set the table for Ginn. Adam Frazier singled to start the ninth inning for the Halos. Three pitches later, Zach Neto hit a walk-off home run to center field.
Though Ginn isn’t the most unlikely no-hitter candidate in the majors or anything, he was a pretty hefty longshot. The right-hander had previously only gone more than six innings in an outing once in his career, though it was an eight-inning start on May 7 of this season. He entered the game having given up 36 hits in 43 ⅓ innings.
This one wasn’t a bunch of batted-ball luck, either. Ginn totally dominated the hapless Angels from the start of the game through the eighth inning. He struck out 10 against one walk. He didn’t give up hard contact until the eighth when Jo Adell lined out to center. Otherwise, it was a collection of easy outs in play and strikeouts.
Things just went off the rails for two batters in the ninth, and, due to a lack of run support, Ginn became the hard-luck loser.
Had Ginn pulled this off, it would’ve been the 14th no-hitter in the storied history of the Athletics franchise. The most recent one was on May 7, 2019 when Mike Fiers pulled off the feat against the Reds.
Of further interest here is that this was close to being the first no-hitter in the majors since September 2024, when the Cubs had a combined no-no against the Pirates. The most recent no-hitter from an individual pitcher came on Aug. 2, 2024 when Blake Snell did so against the Reds.
The Angels haven’t been no-hit since 1999, when Eric Milton of the Twins twirled a gem.
The A’s loss pushed them to 23-24 on the season, though that’s good enough for first place in the AL West. The Angels move to 17-31.
