The 7th MLB no-hitter has been thrown this season, tying the modern era record

By CNN Newsource

Published June 24, 2021 11:41 PM

By Jill Martin, CNN

There have now been seven no-hitters thrown this 2021 Major League Baseball season — tying the modern-era record.

The latest came Thursday, when Chicago Cubs pitchers Zach Davies, Ryan Tepera, Andrew Chafin and Craig Kimbrel combined for the feat against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. This is the first combined no-hitter of the season.

Davies started the game and pitched six innings, giving up five walks and striking out four. Tepera pitched the seventh inning while Chafin handled the eighth, each walking a batter. In the ninth, Kimbrel walked his first batter on four pitches, but would close out the game, giving the Cubs a 4-0 win.

“I’m not going to lie. I had no idea until the last out and everybody came running out,” Kimbrel said to reporters after the game.

Earlier Thursday, the Boston Red Sox also were working on a combined no-hit bid in their road game against the Tampa Bay Rays. However, it was broken up in the bottom of the eighth inning, and the Rays would go on to win the game in the bottom of the ninth inning on a walk-off wild pitch.

The record for the most no-hitters thrown in a given year is eight in 1884. The most no-hitters in any modern-era season since 1900 is seven, happening in 1990, 1991, 2012, 2015 and now this season, according to Major League Baseball.

Madison Bumgarner of the Arizona Diamondbacks also no-hit the Atlanta Braves in April, but the performance did not count as an official no-hitter because the game was shortened to seven innings for a doubleheader that day.