On Monday night, Athletics starting pitcher J.T. Ginn was cruising. He reached the bottom of the ninth against the Los Angeles Angels without allowing a hit, and had ten strikeouts to his credit as he took the bump to close out the contest.
Six pitches later he had lost the no-hitter, and the game.
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Ginn was masterful through the first eight innings, allowing just two batters to reach base, one via a walk and another via a hit-by-pitch. He was also perfect through the first 4.1 innings of the game, the Angels failed to even put a runner on base. As the ninth inning began the Athletics held a slim 1-0 lead, but with Ginn on just 99 pitches and yet to allow a hit, he took the mound hoping to close out his third win of the season, and a no-hitter.
But the tide turned, and rather quickly.
Infielder Adam Frazier, the number nine hitter in the Angels’ lineup, led off the inning and laced an 0-2 pitch low and away over the shortstop’s head for a single, breaking up Ginn’s bid for a no-hitter:
That brought Zach Neto to the plate, the batter that Ginn had plunked in the sixth inning.
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Neto got his revenge:
Ginn fell behind in the count 2-0, and Neto drilled a 93-mph sinker low in the zone to deep center field, giving the Angels a 2-1 win.
Had he completed the no-hitter, Ginn would have thrown the first no-no since Shota Imanaga combined with Chicago Cubs relievers Nate Pearson and Porter Hodge for a 12-0 win over Pittsburgh on Sept. 4, 2024.
Instead, he fell to 2-2 on the season with a loss.
