Oh no! Mariners Combined No-hitter Zeroes Out Dodgers

Dodgers 0 0 0

Mariners 1 8 1

WP- Pryor (1-0)

LP- Elbert (0-1)

S- Wilhelmsen (3)

The Dodgers might as well have just packed up their bats and headed back to their Seattle hotel, because they weren’t planning on using those wooden thing-a-ma-jigs anyways. Seattle threw a combined no-no versus the Dodgers tonight, and they tied a MLB record by using six pitchers to do so. Milwood, Furbush, Pryor, Luetge, League, and Wilhelmsen all had their turn embarrassing the Dodgers as they went 0 for infinity. The 1-0 loss wasn’t even that bothersome to me in the face of the no-hitter. Underscoring the pathetic showing was the fact that Nathan Eovaldi pitched six scoreless innings, and once again received absolutely no run support whatsoever. It was Elbert who is tagged with this loss, as his two-out meltdown in the seventh inning lead to Seattle’s sole run. Here’s how things went down…

Kevin Millwood begins the game how many pitchers do against the Dodgers-by striking out Dee Gordon. Elian Herrera flies out, and Andre Ethier grounds out as the Dodgers go down in order.

Nathan Eovaldi is making his third start of the year, and he is still looking for that elusive first win of the season. He’s pitched very well, but the Dodgers have not given him any run support to help his cause. He’ll try things again here at Safeco. Nate gets out number one as Ichiro Suzuki grounds out. Dustin Ackley strikes out on a high fastball. Up comes up Kyle Seager, the older brother of the Dodgers’ first round draft pick Corey Seager. Eovaldi is throwing very hard, and his fastball is getting up to 96-97 mph. He overthrows a little to Seager, and Kyle walks with two outs. The inning ends when Jesus Montero, the catcher, pops out.

Juan Rivera, who is the designated hitter tonight, flies out to start the second inning. Bobby Abreu grounds out, and Jerry Hairston Jr. grounds out.

Eovaldi has another nice 1-2-3 inning. He whiffs Michael Saunders for good measure.

Millwood also sends the Dodgers down 1-2-3 in the top of the third as Loney lines out, A.J. Ellis strikes out, and Tony Gwynn pops up.

Mike Carp leads off the bottom of the third with a walk. Munenori Kawasaki grounds into a force out. Suzuki, the other motorcycle sounding  Mariner, singles to left field for the first hit of the game. Ackley strikes out for the second time, and it’s an important second out in the inning for Eovaldi. Seager pops out to Herrera in foul territory, and the Mariners strand two base runners.

In the fourth Dee Gordon attempts to lay down a bunt single, but alas Dee cannot beat out Seager’s throw. Can we please stop bunting! Elian Herrera whiffs, and Ethier pops up. Millwood has retired all twelve Dodgers he has faced thus far.

Eovaldi strikes out Montero with an off speed pitch to begin the home half of the fourth inning. Michael Saunders gets a broken bat single with two outs. John Jaso strikes out to give Eovaldi five Ks on the night.

The game quickly moves to the fifth inning, and the Dodgers get their first base runner of the game on a Juan Rivera walk. Then Bobby Abreu hastily erases said base runner as he hits into a 3-6-3 double play. Hairston strikes out, and the Dodgers remain hitless against Millwood.

In the bottom of the fifth, Ichiro singles as the diving Tony Gwynn comes up short. Ackley singles past Herrera and Gordon. The Mariners have two on with two out. Seager grounds into a force, and the Mariners strand another pair of base runners in the still scoreless game.

James Loney flies out, and A.J Ellis and Gwynn both strikes out in the sixth. Still not one hit for the Dodgers.

Montero leads off the bottom of the sixth by singling off Hairston’s glove. Justin Smoak strikes out looking after a seven pitch at bat. Saunders pops out, and Jaso grounds out.

Before the seventh inning commences Kevin Millwood somehow gets injured during his warm up pitches, and he has to come out of the game. Later we find out Milwood suffered a mild right groin strain. The no-hitter is still intact for Seattle, but their bullpen will have to try to continue Millwood’s work. Charlie Furbush comes in to relieve Millwood. Gordon flies out for the first out. Herrera reaches second on a throwing error by Furbush. Dre strikes out. Stephen Pryor comes out of the Seattle bullpen to pitch to Juan Rivera. Rivera strikes out, and the Dodgers are still looking for their first hit through seven.

Kevin Millwood pitched 6 no-hit innings, allowing 1 walk, and 6 strikeouts on 68 pitches.

Nathan Eovaldi pitched 6 innings, allowing 5 hits, no runs, 2 walks, and 6 strikeouts on 103 pitches.

Scott Elbert comes in to pitch the bottom of the seventh in relief of Eovaldi. Elbert strikes out Carp and Kawasaki back-to-back. Suzuki reaches safely on an infield single. With Ackley at the plate, Suzuki easily steals second. Ackley draws the walk which triggers the Rick Honeycutt mound meeting. Kyle Seager singles off Dee’s glove into left field, and the first and only run of the night scores with Suzuki. 1-0 Mariners. Josh Lindblom is brought in, and he gets Montero to fly out. The damage has already been done, and once again Don Mattingly is unable to spot the oh so obvious bullpen meltdown as it’s happening.

Stephen Pryor stays in to pitch the eighth for the Mariners. Bobby Abreu and Hairston start the inning off with back-to-back walks. The Mariners hook Pryor, and bring in loogy Lucas Luetge. Loney is asked to sacrifice, and he bunts over the runners to second and third. Seattle goes to their pen once again for the fifth time tonight, and they bring in Brandon League. Alex Castellanos will pinch run for Abreu at third. A.J.’s fly ball is too shallow for Castellanos to tag up on as Chone Figgins throws the ball in like a crazy man, and now there are two outs. Tony Gwynn strikes out, and the Dodgers will be down to their final three outs in the ninth as they try to stave off a Mariners no-hitter.

Lindblom is back out to pitch the bottom of the eighth. He allows a two-out single to Jaso, but that is all.

The sixth pitcher of the game for the Mariners, Tom Wilhelmsen, will pitch the top of the ninth. Dee Gordon grounds out, and Mattingly comes out to argue the close play. That’s one out. Elian lines out. That’s two out. Ethier grounds out. That’s three.

The Dodgers are no-hit by the Mariners, and that’s the first time they have been no-hit since Kent Mercker of the Braves back in 1994. The Dodgers fall to 37-22, but the Giants lost to the Rangers earlier so their four game lead in the NL West remains. We couldn’t muster one hit? This was an aggravating one, Dodger fans.

Tomorrow Clayton Kershaw will try to muzzle out the celebration in Seattle in a 4:15 pm game. Jason Vargas will go to the mound for the Mariners. It’s ok, Dodger fans! We are still in first place.