Randy Johnson and Madison Bumgarner have quite a few similarities in their careers. Both are former World Series MVPs, Johnson with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Bumgarner with the San Francisco Giants. Both have played with the Giants - who Johnson won his 300th game as a member of - and the Diamondbacks, who currently employ Bumgarner.
One thing that Johnson doesn't think the two have in common, though, is having thrown no-hitters against the Atlanta Braves while playing for the Diamondbacks.
There's been quite a debate about whether Bumgarner - who allowed no hits in a seven-inning doubleheader game against the Braves on April 25 - threw a no-hitter. Johnson weighed in with his thoughts over the weekend.
“Uh, I don’t know,” Johnson said during a Diamondbacks telecast on Bally Sports Arizona, as relayed by Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic.“Let’s play nine innings. Isn’t that the way this game is meant to do and been done for the last 100 years?”
“I’m sure if you looked me up then you probably looked up Nolan Ryan and you know what that big number is,” Johnson said. “I think it was 16 or 17 times he lost. I kind of look at it as — I don’t think it was (a no-hitter). It’s out of respect more for the people who played the game when I was playing it and the hundred years up to the point when I did start playing it. Can you imagine Nolan Ryan having 24 no-hitters? Come on.”
Johnson tossed two no-hitters during his illustrious career. The first came as a member of the Seattle Mariners, when he no-hit Alan Trammell and the Detroit Tigers at the Kingdome on June 2, 1990. Nearly 14 years later, Johnson tossed a perfect game against Chipper Jones, Andruw Jones and the Braves at Turner Field, allowing him to become the oldest pitcher (40) to ever complete a perfect game.
As Johnson noted in his answer, he and Nolan Ryan are among an impressive list of pitchers who would have had a few more no hitters if some of their starts had ended after seven innings. Johnson did call Bumgarner's seven-inning complete game a "great feat," but it's going to be hard to convince pitchers who lost no-hitters in the eighth or ninth inning that going seven innings of hitless ball should count for a no-hitter.
If baseball plans to move forward with seven-inning doubleheaders, which are seemingly relatively popular, they may need to give a once-and-for-all answer on this topic. Currently, going seven innings and allowing no hits doesn't count as a no-hitter. That's fine, but it seems to be at odds with the fact that you get credited for a complete game if you pitch all seven innings. At the very least, there needs to be consistency.
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