Diamondbacks' Tyler Gilbert throws no-hitter vs. Padres to break MLB record

Arizona Diamondbacks rookie Tyler Gilbert threw the eighth no-hitter of the season on Saturday night in just his first major league start, which snapped a modern day Major League Baseball record.

Gilbert completed the no-hitter on 102 pitches with five strikeouts to lead Arizona to the 7-0 win over the San Diego Padres at Chase Field. The 27-year-old was playing in just his fourth MLB game.

Gilbert is the first pitcher to throw a no-hitter this early in his career since Clay Buchholz did so in his second game in 2007. Gilbert is also just the fourth pitcher to throw a no-hitter in his first start, the first since Bobo Holloman of the St. Louis Browns did so in his debut in 1953.

The former USC standout is now the first Diamondbacks pitcher to throw a no-hitter at Chase Field, and the first Arizona pitcher to throw one period since Edwin Jackson’s in 2010.

2021 now MLB's year of the no-hitter

Gilbert’s no-no is the eighth no-hitter of the season, and the first since the Cubs’ combined no-hitter in June. That breaks MLB's modern single-season record matches the all-time record that was set in 1884, the first year that overhand pitching was allowed.

A rash of no-hitters early in the season put this record in jeopardy before the calendar flipped to July, but the pace has slowed down in the summer months, perhaps in conjunction with MLB's crackdown on sticky substances.

The record-tying seventh no-hitter came on June 24 when Zach Davies and the since-disassembled Chicago Cubs bullpen blanked the Los Angeles Dodgers. (Another no-hitter by fellow Arizona starter Madison Bumgarner technically doesn’t count in the record books because it was a seven-inning game.)

The overall league batting average is, as you might expect, historically low. At .242 entering Saturday’s action, it would be the lowest leaguewide average since 1968 and fourth-lowest since 1900.

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