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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, July 11, 2009

MLB: Jonathan Sanchez stuns baseball world in dramatic fashion on this night


By Tim Kawakami
San Jose Mercury News

Maybe this is just going to be one of those miracle, unexplainable, unfathomable seasons for the San Francisco Giants.

What else is there to think after watching Jonathan Sanchez, of all people, throw the Giants’ first no-hitter in 33 years?
He had been terrible to this point, was justifiably pulled from the rotation, and only got this start because of Randy Johnson’s injury.
He has been, until now, a left-handed enigma. A riddle. A false and fading hope, stashed behind the Giants’ true aces. He had never thrown a complete game. Not one.
Sanchez had to be the least likely pitcher on the face of the earth to blow 110 pitches past the San Diego Padres and enrapture the AT&T Park crowd Friday night.
Yet that is exactly and stunningly what happened.
As the drama built, Sanchez, 26, did not waver. His fastballs continued to explode across the plate and his slider dove hard to places the Padres could not reach.
As the final moment neared, the TV cameras zoomed in, and Sanchez looked calm. But around him, the entire landscape seemed to shake.
It was as if he knew precisely what was happening, even if nobody else could quite believe it.
In fact, only Jose Uribe’s eighth-inning error on a two-hop ground ball prevented Sanchez from throwing a perfect game.
He finished it by striking out Everth Cabrera with a slider, called strike three, for Sanchez’s 11th strikeout of the game and first giddy no-hit celebration of his career.
So the Giants’ first no-hitter in decades didn’t come from Cy Young-winner Tim Lincecum or workhorse Matt Cain, though Lincecum threw six no-hit innings against San Diego on Thursday and Cain gets his shot on Saturday.
The no-hitter didn’t come from Johnson, a future Hall of Famer.
It came from Sanchez, who was 2-8 before this game, throwing to back-up catcher Eli Whiteside.
Where did that come from? How did this happen?
Maybe it was the presence of his father, Sirgfredo, who flew in from Puerto Rico to see his son pitch in the majors for the very first time.
Maybe it was a cosmic collision of talent (which Sanchez has always had), defensive gems (Aaron Rowand’s fence-crashing catch with one out in the ninth), timing (the Padres are a woeful offensive team) and fate (2009 miracle Giants season).
Maybe the Giants, in the middle of their best season since 2003 and easily their most surprising since long before that, are just having one of those seasons.
You know, miracles and all.
Whatever the explanation, it was the Giants’ first no-hitter since John Montefusco against the Atlanta Braves in September 1976 and the first home no-hitter since Ed Halicki over the New York Mets in August 1975.
Certainly, just by listing those names, you can tell there is some randomness to no-hit history. Montefusco and Halicki were not great pitchers, and the Giants were not very good in either of those years.
Sometimes, it’s a moment — a pitcher finds something magic for a night, he stumbles upon the right opponent, his teammates make a play or two for him, and history is made.
Sometimes it’s just meant to be — Rowand’s catch, or All-Star Adrian Gonzalez’s deep fly in the eighth that just fell into John Bowker’s glove on the warning track, Sanchez’s laser-focus.
But Sanchez’s achievement, added to the entirety of this developing Giants season, felt like more than that.
This was the most exciting event to happen to the Giants since Barry Bonds’ home run chase, and absolutely the most surprising in decades.
And at the end, his father wept as Sanchez embraced him in the dugout.
If the Giants don’t throw another no-hitter for another 33 years, that is a scene you will always remember, amid a season that might produce a few more of these miracles.
You can’t explain it. I’m not sure anybody wants to.