ALTOONA, Pa. -- Three Indianapolis Indians pitchers combined to throw the first no-hitter in professional baseball this season in a 5-0 win on the road Wednesday night against the St. Paul Saints.
Chase De Jong started and tossed seven brilliant innings for the win, striking out nine with two walks while throwing 80 pitches (49 strikes).
Coincidentally, De Jong threw the same number of pitches as Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw threw in seven perfect innings before getting pulled Wednesday. And even more ironic is that Kershaw also was pitching in Minnesota, against the Twins, while De Jong and the Indians were in St. Paul facing the Twins' Class AAA club.
Austin Brice came on in the eighth inning and struck out one. Hard-throwing Yerry De Los Santos finished off the no-no in the ninth, striking out two.
THE FIRST NO-HITTER OF THE SEASON BELONGS TO THE @indyindians!@Pirates Chase De Jong, Austin Brice and Yerry De Los Santos combine for the gem. pic.twitter.com/MP3ue7SyCR
— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) April 14, 2022
Making the no-hitter even more impressive is that it was only a 1-0 game most of the way. Indianapolis scored a run in the fourth, and De Jong made that hold up for his seven innings.
The Indians then scored four insurance runs in the eighth inning to make finishing the no-no a little easier.
De Jong made nine starts for the Pirates last season, going 1-4 with a 5.77 ERA. He gave up 49 hits in 43 2/3 innings for the Buccos.
Rodolfo Castro hit his first homer of the season for Indy, which is off to a 6-2 start featuring a bunch of the Pirates' top prospects.
It was the 15th no-hitter in Indianapolis history and first since 2012. It also was the first time the St. Paul Saints have ever been no hit since they became an affiliated franchise. The Saints were an independent team from 1993-2020 and became a Triple-A affiliate of the Twins in 2021.
