Justin Verlander tossed the third no-hitter of his Major League career as the Astros beat the Toronto Blue Jays 2-0 Sunday afternoon at Rogers Centre.
Verlander struck out 14, the last of which was Reese McGuire for the second out of the ninth inning. The next batter, Bo Bichette grounded out to third baseman Abraham Toro to complete Verlander's first no-hitter since May 7, 2011 when he no-hit the Blue Jays as a member of the Detroit Tigers. His first no-hitter came on June, 12, 2007 against the Milwaukee Brewers, and he is now just the sixth player in Major League history to have thrown three no-hitters, joining Nolan Ryan, Sandy Koufax, Bob Feller, Cy Young, and Larry Corcoran.
Wilmer Font, Sam Gaviglio, and Zack Godley matched Verlander with zeroes for eight innings, but then former Astro Ken Giles took over the ninth. Alex Bregman greeted him with a broken-bat bloop double. Giles responded by striking out Yordan Alvarez and then got Aledmys Diaz to flyout to center, but then Toro smacked a 1-1 fastball over the rightfield wall for his second home breaking the tie.
With the win, Verlander improves to 17-5 on the season while lowering his ERA to 2.56, best in the league. The only baserunner he allowed was first inning walk to Cavan Biggio. He retired the final 26 men he faced.
The Astros are no 89-49 in 2019 and have two no-hitters in the same season for the first time in franchise history after holding the Seattle Mariners without a hit August 3. Verlander's no-hotter is the 13th in franchise history.
