 |
| Nathan Wilson |
Wilson induces Joker Troy Tracy to ground to second for the game's final out. The dome erupts in cheers, but Wilson, eyes focused intently on the ground ahead of him, starts to walk back to the mound, as if to face the next batter. Catcher George White races up to him, slaps him on the back and makes to grasp him in a bear hug, but Wilson jumps back, startled.
While White yells "you did it!" a shocked Wilson looks to the scoreboard, back to White, and back to the scoreboard—only then realizing that he's just completed a no-hitter and breaking out in a huge grin.
"Throwin's what I do, 'bout all I've ever done," said Wilson after the game, "I was in the zone, you know, and blockin' out everything except the next pitch. Can't say I heard the crowd, even, just thinkin' the next pitch. I gotta make the next pitch."
"He would've pitched 10 innings if we'd let him," said White, "Heck, he'd pitch both games of a double-header."
The no-hitter is the second in the history of the Adult Baseball League. Seattle's Nolan Lyons threw the league's first in May of last season.
Boston needed Wilson to pitch his best as Las Vegas sent the best pitcher in baseball to the mound, Maurice Gould. Gould (6-2) gets the loss despite pitching all eight innings, striking out nine and allowing just four hits (all singles), one walk, and one run.
Nearly all the day's offense occurs in the bottom of the second. Gould surrenders a singles to right off the bat of John Everhart. José Gonzáles taps a ball towards first and reaches on an infield hit. Ed White lines a hit through the hole on the right side, and Everhart comes around to score the game's only run.
Gould's only walk comes later that inning, and he proceeds to retire 19 of the final 20 batters that he faces. Ed White's single in the fourth is the only other hit that he allows.
"Now the league knows the secret to beating Doughboy," said George White, "All you need to do is get your pitcher to throw a no-hitter, then pray that you manage to score a run off Gould."
Nathan Wilson, meanwhile, takes a perfect game into the eighth inning. With one out, José Ortíz draws a walk. Wilson regroups and gets Erik Bennett to fly to center. The next batter, Carlos García, hits the ball on the button, but lines it straight at second baseman Dave Lane. In the ninth, Wilson retires the side in order.
The biggest threats to the no-hitter come in the early innings when Wilson allows deep fly balls off Ortíz and Tracy, but St. Sebastian's is spacious, and Jorge Esparza tracks down both balls, catching them at the warning track. Esparza, Boston's utility infielder, was getting his first major-league start in center field.
Unusually for Wilson and his trademark splitter, he gets more outs via the fly ball than via the ground ball, 12 to 10. He also strikes out only five batters, despite averaging more than six this season.
In the seventh, Tracy, the Jokers pesky leadoff hitter, fights Wilson tooth-and-nail, working a nine pitch at-bat before grounding to second.
The no-hitter is just the latest surprise in an unusual career. Wilson began as a reliever. Boston GM Gray Ulery thought highly enough of him that he drafted him in the seventh round of ABL's inaugural draft. Wilson rewarded him with an amazing 2012: he went 10-0, pitched 113 innings from the bullpen, struck out 141 batters, walked 23, and posted a 2.30 ERA. He was the very definition of a rubber-armed reliever.
However, the constant use took its toll. While pitching in the second to last game of the season, on a splitter thrown to Los Angeles third baseman Andy Miller, Wilson felt a sharp pain on the inside of his elbow. Doctors diagnosed him with a partial tear in his ulnar collateral ligament. He missed the playoffs. For a while that autumn, it looked as if he might need Tommy John surgery, which would mean missing a full year of baseball. But non-operative treatment seemed to work, and he gradually resumed throwing.
Wilson returned to the Boston Cardinals after the 2013 season had started. He took his familiar place in the Cardinal bullpen, but Ulery, thinking outside the box, had a new plan. Midway through 2013, Ulery switched Wilson to the rotation. Wilson thrived. In 2013, he went 14-4 with a 2.56 ERA.
This year, Wilson continues to be one of Boston's top pitchers. He leaves today with a 5-4 record and a 3.03 ERA.
"Throwin's what I do," said Wilson, "You know, as a kid in Jacksonville I'd wander out to the river banks—the St. Johns river, that is, a wide and lazy river. I'd take stones and throw them out across those waters. Overhand, sidearm—didn't matter, I just liked throwin' 'em. When I'm pitchin' good, like tonight, that's what I feel like. Like I'm a kid on the river banks pitchin' stones."
"Nights like that, I feel like I could pitch forever."
No comments:
Post a Comment