The Texas Rangers were six outs away against the Houston Astros on Saturday night from becoming the first team in Major League Baseball history to be no-hit in three nine-inning games in a single season. The Rangers, as with the Minnesota Twins earlier Saturday, also avoided recording the season's eighth no-hitter, which would've made league history.
Astros left-hander Framber Valdéz had held the Rangers without a hit through the first six innings before departing because of pitch economy reasons. (He'd issued six walks, running up his pitch count.) Reliever Bryan Abreu kept the no-hit bid alive through seven, but Rangers shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa welcomed Ryne Stanek to the game in the eighth with a blooper to the outfield that just did fall in.
As Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News noted after the seventh inning, the only other teams to have three no-nos thrown against them in a single season were the 1906 Brooklyn Superbas and the 2021 Cleveland franchise that will soon be known as the Guardians. Two of the three no-hitters against the Superbas were seven innings in length; ditto for one of the three against this year's Cleveland team.
MLB's modern record for most no-nos in a season remains seven. That number has been achieved five times over the course of league history, including this season and in 2015. The league has seen one season with eight no-hitters, but that occurred in 1884. (This year's figure does not include the multiple seven-inning no-hitters thrown as part of doubleheaders; the league itself does not consider those games to be official no-nos.)
MLB hasn't seen anyone throw a no-hitter since June 24, when four Chicago Cubs pitchers combined for a joint effort against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Prior to that, no-hitters had been thrown by Corey Kluber (May 19), Spencer Turnbull (May 18), Wade Miley (May 7), John Means (May 5), Carlos Rodón (April 14), and Joe Musgrove (April (9).
The Rangers' offense entered the night ranked as the third-worst in the majors, according to FanGraphs' wRC+ metric; only the Pittsburgh Pirates and Colorado Rockies have had more inept attacks this season.
