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Derek Lowe No-Hits the Devil Rays |
ON THIS DATE (April 27, 2002) ... Derek Lowe recaptured the region's adoration by inducing Jason Tyner of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays to ground out to second base for the last out of a no-hitter. Yet even after Derek's teammate, Jose Offerman presented him with the ball in the clubhouse, the pitcher struggled to absorb the magnitude of his feat. His outing in a 10-0 victory over Tampa Bay marked only the 10th no-hitter by a Red Sox pitcher at Fenway Park With Jason Varitek calling the pitches, Derek shook him off just once. Together, they stymied the Devil Rays and allowed only one base runner leading off the third inning. He was so dominant that the Rays never came seriously close to mustering a hit. Derek allowed only one base runner, when he walked a batter to lead off the third inning. And the Devil Rays, who knew they were in trouble as early as the fourth, immediately began talking about the prospective no-hitter in a desperate effort to jinx the Sox pitcher. Otherwise, Tampa Bay had few solid chances. With one out in the fourth, right fielder Trot Nixon gave chase and caught a line drive toward the corner. Derek was perfect afterward. His control of his signature pitch, a sinking fastball, was so sharp, in fact, that he threw as many as three balls to only four Devil Rays as they flailed in vain. The closer he approached the no-hitter, the more perilous the outing became. But he had catcher Jason Varitek at his side. The two played together since their unpolished minor league days in the Seattle organization back in 1995. Together, they stymied the Devil Rays into the ninth, when Russ Johnson hit a soft line drive to second baseman Rey Sanchez.
Then Felix Escalona drilled a line drive to the gap in
left-center field that Ricky Henderson raced toward and
ran down.
That brought up Tyner, who grounded to Sanchez, who fired the ball to Jose Offerman at first, setting off a jubilant celebration from the mound to the most distant corner of Kenmore Square. Derek Lowe was the first Sox pitcher to throw a no-hitter since Hideo Nomo, and it hardly seemed to matter that he knew nothing about Morehead, whose no-hitter before a tiny crowd late in a dreary season in '65, had gone unmatched at Fenway for nearly two generations. Even the great Pedro Martinez has not pitched a no-hitter and Derek pitched his in only his 27th big league start. |
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