Also, someone was mocking all the no-hitters this year, and said that to be noticed pitchers have to do something different, and suggested that some pitcher “walk 30 batters, lose the game”. (Clearly not possible with the pitch-counts, but the fact remains, if you could somehow walk 30 batters, you could easily lose the game on a no-hitter!) I agree whole-heartedly that when a pitcher walks so many batters, it’s hard to be as impressed with a no-hitter. It’s when there’s three walks through nine innings (or less!) that I’ll be really impressed.

But above all, I was surprised more people weren’t impressed with Blackburn. I mean, we all know how he struggled before he got sent down to Rochester, so to have him churn a quality start against a good offensive team is relieving to see. Plus, it seems he got a lot of ground balls (from this report), and ground ball pitchers run into times when every ground ball is hit to a player and times when every ground ball finds the little holes in infield. But ground balls from ground-ball pitchers is what I want to see/hear!