The ghosts of great pitching performances past slipped through the turnstiles at Chase Field Monday for the opening of a three-game series with the Dodgers.
It was the 25th anniversary of a baseball oddity: no-hitters thrown on the same day by Dave Stewart, now the Diamondbacks general manager, and Fernando Valenzuela, a TV analyst for Los Angeles.
It was also the 11-year anniversary of Randy Johnson recording 4,000 strikeouts, one of only four major league pitchers to do so.
It was quite the juxtaposition to what happened in real time: Diamondbacks starter Allen Webster walking the first two batters in eight pitches, plunking the third and yielding three home runs in 3 2/3 innings.