You’re not over it, right? I’m not over it. While the thrill is still fresh, it’s worth emphasizing how brilliant and dominant a performance John Means’s no-hitter against the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday really was.
You knew that Means pounded the strike zone, but his command was truly elite. Of Means’s 113 pitches, 79 were strikes, a strike percentage of 70%. Most impressively, he threw 26 of 27 first-pitch strikes, an absurd 96.3% first-pitch strike rate overall. This is a feat that’s only been achieved by one other pitcher who’s faced least 25 batters in a game since 2000 (the Twins’ Brad Radke, who tossed first-pitch strikes to 27 of 28 batters on June 30, 2004).