Astros Ace Justin Verlander Throws His 3rd No Hitter

Chron reports:

Justin Verlander tracked the throw across the diamond, raised both arms in the air and sunk to his knees. The Astros poured from the third-base dugout to dogpile the greatest pitcher any of them have ever played alongside, who again authored another awe-inspiring effort in his Hall of Fame career.

Bo Bichette's groundout in the ninth inning finished the third no-hitter of Verlander's career. The Astros beat the Blue Jays, 2-0, climbing on the shoulders of their ace during his best start of the season.

Verlander struck out 14 and allowed only one baserunner. He threw 120 pitches, overpowering a Toronto order littered with rookies and unfamiliar faces.

The Blue Jays starting nine on Sunday had 29 combined at-bats against Verlander. Justin Smoak accounted for 26 of them. The top three hitters in their lineup were all rookies — Bichette, Cavan Biggio and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. They combined to finish 0-for-10 with three strikeouts.

A first-inning walk to Biggio was Verlander's lone mistake. His four-seam fastball was fabulous, generating 15 of his 23 swings and misses. Verlander required less than 20 pitches to finish every inning but the first. He sailed through the fifth, sixth and seventh on only 27.

Only six other major league pitchers have thrown three or more no-hitters. Verlander threw two as a member of the Detroit Tigers, including another in Rogers Centre on May 7, 2011. The Tigers beat the Jays 9-0 that day. Run support on Sunday was not so plentiful. A two-run home run from Montreal native Abraham Toro in the ninth inning was its extent.