We've almost grown immune to great pitching performances in recent years. Since 2010, there have been 24 no-hitters, including Roy Halladay's in the playoffs, and five of those were perfect games.
But Corey Kluber's game on Wednesday wasn't just another no-hit bid. It wasn't a quest for perfection. No, the Cleveland Indians ace hit a batter in the first inning and lost his no-hitter in the seventh on a base hit up the middle just past a diving Jose Ramirez.
No, this was something even more impressive. This was dominance at its highest level, perfection of a craft beyond not allowing any baserunners. This was a pitcher making the best hitters in the world appear helpless. This was going to be, arguably, the greatest performance in major league history.
Kluber had pitched eight innings and struck out 18 St. Louis Cardinals. He had thrown 113 pitches, averaging 14 pitches per inning. He would come out for the ninth on a cold night in Cleveland with the chance to tie or break the nine-inning record of 20 strikeouts, done twice by Roger Clemens and once by Kerry Wood.
Except Terry Francona didn't send him back out there. (Or Brad Mills, who had replaced Francona as manager when Francona was ejected earlier in the game.)
I don't know whether to applaud Francona/Mills for not letting the moment dictate the decision and stick to the conviction that Kluber should come out, or whether to denounce them for denying Kluber a chance at history. After all, what's another 14 pitches?
"Millsy knows what he's doing," Francona said after the game. "You can't manage with your heart."
At least the bullpen didn't blow the game and the Indians held on for the 2-0 victory, Kluber's first in the win column. (Yes, he's fine, for those of you worried about his start.)
Bill James created Game Score as a way of evaluating a start. Fifty is about average, 80 is great and each season a handful of games will top 90. The method: Start with 50 points; give one point for each out recorded and each strikeout; give an additional two points for each inning completed after the fourth; subtract two points for each hit and one point for each walk allowed; subtract four points for each earned run and two for each unearned run.
Kluber's Game Score was 98. There have been just 11 games of nine innings in which a pitcher scored at least 100:
105 -- Kerry Wood, Cubs, May 5, 1998 (9 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 20 SO)
102 -- Clayton Kershaw, Dodgers, June 18, 2004 (9 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 15 SO)
101 -- Matt Cain, Giants, June 13, 2012 (9 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 14 SO)
101 -- Nolan Ryan, Rangers, May 1, 1991 (9 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 16 SO)
101 -- Sandy Koufax, Dodgers, Sept, 9, 1965 (9 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 14 SO)
100 -- Brandon Morrow, Blue Jays, Aug. 8, 2010 (9 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 17 SO)
100 -- Randy Johnson, Diamondbacks, May 18, 2004 (9 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 13 SO)
100 -- Curt Schilling, Diamondbacks, April 7, 2002 (9 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 17 SO)
100 -- Nolan Ryan, Angels, July 15, 1973 (9 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 17 SO)
100 -- Nolan Ryan, Angels, July 9, 1972 (9 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 16 SO)
100 -- Warren Spahn, Braves, Sept. 16, 1960 (9 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 15 SO)
If Kluber had gone through the ninth inning unscathed while getting those record-tying two strikeouts, he would have earned an additional seven points -- tying Wood with the identical line of 9 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 20 SO. (Wood, like Kluber, hit a batter, which aren't counted.) If he had struck out the side, he tops Wood for the highest Game Score ever ... and arguably the most dominant game ever pitched.
Instead, Kluber will have to settle for the 45th score of 98 or higher since 1914, via the Baseball-Reference Play Index, and the first pitcher to do so while pitching just eight innings.
Should Mills/Francona have taken Kluber out? The arguments for doing so are clear: It's a long season and this is just one game; bringing in closer Cody Allen was the better option to win the game than a tiring Kluber; if you do leave Kluber in for the ninth, there's a chance he gets up to 130 pitches and managers rarely do that in 2015.
On that last one, there's no doubt managers have become slaves to pitch counts. That's mostly a good thing. It's done to help prevent injuries (in theory) and with the realization that it is a long season. Since 2012, only 10 times has a pitcher thrown 130 pitches. Managers saw what happened to Wood and Mark Prior with the Cubs, when Dusty Baker ran them out for 120-plus pitches start after start and both later broke down. That was an important turning point in the way pitchers are handled. But Prior was a young guy and Wood had Tommy John surgery in his past.
The two highest pitch counts since 2012 were both no-hitters: Tim Lincecum with 148 in 2013 and Johan Santana with 134 in 2012.
That's the ironic part: If Kluber had a no-hit bid, you have to wonder if he would have returned for the ninth, even though the 20 strikeouts would have been more remarkable than a no-hitter, a result as much reliant on where the ball bounces as to the pitcher's performance.
I'd argue -- even though Francona said you can't manage with your heart -- that the Indians overreacted to a pitch count that shouldn't have been a big factor, not for a 29-year-old pitcher with no history of arm trouble. There's no evidence that throwing 125 to 130 pitches in a game is any more damaging than throwing 113, and the spate of arm injuries in recent seasons would seem to suggest that lower pitch counts aren't preventing injuries. While there's probably a legitimate concern that throwing 130 pitches game after game is dangerous, Kluber hadn't thrown more than 107 pitches this season. He also had no high-pitch innings mixed in, cruising through the game almost entirely from the windup.
But that's pitching and managing today. The Indians sided with caution and it's hard to fault them, but another 15 pitches wouldn't have put Kluber at any greater risk.
Was it the greatest pitched game in Indians history? I'd argue that it was. One of the most impressive aspects of the outing is that the Cardinals don't strike out much, ranking seventh in the majors entering the game in lowest strikeout rate. Factor in that they had a DH in this game and the 18 strikeouts are even more extraordinary.
Kluber's Game Score is tied for 11th-best in Indians history (again, back to 1914), but the first 10 all came in extra-inning games, topped by Willis Hudlin's 106 in 1935 when he pitched 15 scoreless innings. Luis Tiant had an impressive 99 in 1968 when he struck out 19 while allowing six hits in tossing a 10-inning shutout.
Two guys scored a 98 in regulation:
Len Barker, 1981: His perfect game with 11 strikeouts.
Dennis Eckersley, 1977: A no-hitter with 12 strikeouts and one walk.
Barker's perfect game was certainly a great moment in Indians history. But it did come against the Blue Jays, and that was one of the worst offensive teams in history (they hit .226 that year and averaged just 3.1 runs per game). Eckersley's no-hitter came against an Angels team that ranked 10th in the AL in runs that year and 10th in strikeout rate.
Of course, there are also Bob Feller's three no-hitters. His no-hitter against a powerful Yankees team in 1946 was certainly impressive, with 11 strikeouts in an era when batters didn't strike out as much, but he also walked five guys.
One more to consider, another perfect game, from another completely different era. Late in the 1908 season, the Indians -- or the Naps, as they were called back then -- were in a heated pennant race with the White Sox and Tigers, all three teams neck and neck. With three games left in the season, the Tigers led the Indians by half a game with the Indians a game up on the White Sox. Addie Joss faced off against Ed Walsh of the White Sox, two future Hall of Famers. Walsh struck out 15, a huge number for those days. But Joss didn't allow a baserunner, reportedly throwing just 74 pitches, and the Indians won 1-0. (The Tigers would win the pennant with a 90-63 record while the Indians finished 90-64, the extra game for Detroit not played for some reason.)
That's ancient history, of course. Maybe some blogger will write about this game in 107 years and wonder why Kluber didn't pitch that ninth inning.