Salem Avalanche No-Hit

by rastronomicals on Apr 12, 2006 3:10 PM CDT in News

The Astros' Fast-A affiliate Salem were no-hit in a noon start Wednesday by their Carolina League opponent Frederick Keys.

A pitcher for the Keys by the name of Radhammes Liz struck out 13 Avs in only five innings while walking three, and three relievers finished up for Frederick.

Drew Sutton and Matt Cunningham "led" Salem with two walks apiece, while five different players for Salem struck out twice, including cleanup hitter Mario Garza and five-hole guy Francisco Caraballo. Jimmy Barthmaier only pitched four innings, but got tagged with his first loss anyway. Salem, who started 3 - 0, drops to 3 - 3.

The no-no comes on the heels of a 4 - 1 loss the Avalanche absorbed yesterday, also to Frederick, in which they managed only two hits.

The last pitcher in the Astros' organization to throw a complete game no-hitter was Brian Powell, who tossed one for AAA New Orleans on May 7, 2001. Of course, you had that ridiculous six pitcher affair at Yankee Stadium at the the major league level on June 11 of 2003.

You can find a box of the Keys game here, and a game log over there.

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I didn't comprehend this quite as well as I might have when I wrote the post at work with the phone ringing and the boss walking by.

This Liz guy struck out 13 batters in five innings. Now I know that Ron Necciai struck out 27 men during his no-hitter in 1952, but that was just supernatural. I wonder if anyone has had a greater K/men retired ratio than Liz anytime recently.

Minor League Baseball.com tells us that the Avs first put a ball in play with two outs in the third, and that it was on a popout to the catcher.

The story also notes that Liz wwas pulled after five innings simply because it was his first start, and he'd been working with a five inning/85-pitch limit. I understand you need to ~~coddle~~ be careful with your young pitchers, but it might have been interesting to see what Liz could have done over 9 frames. . . .

by rastronomicals on Apr 12, 2006 7:12 PM CDT reply actions

More on Liz

In their last preseason game against a local college, he struck out 9 in 4 innings.

According to the game log, the pop to the catcher was in foul territory. Which means a ground ball in the 5th was the first ball to reach fair territory.

I have heard that Torbert's reaching on an error in the 6th was a home field advantage scoring call to keep the no no intact.

by Gville Astros Fan on Apr 13, 2006 1:44 PM CDT reply actions

Baseball America's take

Here is a snippet from their story on the game:

Liz threw 81 pitches, mixing his sinking fastball with his slider and curveball to keep hitters off balance. He topped out at 95 mph with his fastball and consistently sat in the 91-94 range. His slider was 86-87 and his curveball ranged from 73-75.

"He mixed speeds and his pitches very well," Figueroa said. "He was throwing gas, man. He had good run and sink on his fastball and his slider was probably his second-best pitch. But it was one of those days when everything was working. It was his day."

The Orioles signed Liz out of the Dominican Republic in 2003, and he spent two years in the Rookie-level Dominican Summer League before making his domestic debut last season. He dominated in the New York-Penn League, going 5-4, 1.77 for Aberdeen, and ranked fourth in the league with 82 strikeouts even though he pitched just 56 innings there.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/minors/news/261002.html

by Gville Astros Fan on Apr 13, 2006 1:52 PM CDT reply actions

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