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Kenta Maeda almost made history on Tuesday night for her new team.
After eight clean innings, Minnesota Twins starter Maeda gave the Milwaukee Brewers his first hit in the ninth, when Eric Sogard started off with a single that looped just past second base.
Maeda threw 115 shots – surpassed his own career high of 111 shots and the 2020 record of 112 thrown by Derek Holland and Max Scherzer in that shortened season. The 32-year-old right-hander, who is in his first season with the Twins after being traded from the Dodgers, looked tired as he sat the Brewers down in eighth.
Manager Rocco Baldelli sent Maeda in for the ninth which wasn’t a guarantee given how managers rarely allow pitchers to go too far in games these days – especially this season. In the ninth, Sogard took Maeda’s first strike but chose a change.
The Twins then went to the reading pen and it didn’t take long for their 3-0 lead to disappear. A brace by Avisail Garcia followed, then Christian Yelich walked in and Keston Hiura opted to bring Sogard home. When Jedd Gyorko failed on the shortstop, the Twins attempted to make a double play, but a pitching error allowed two Brewers runs to score and tie the game.
It went from a possible non-hitter to a Twins disaster in about 10 minutes.
MLB’s last scorer was on September 1, 2019, when Justin Verlander failed to hit the Toronto Blue Jays. In all, there were four non-hitters pitched to the big league in 2019 – two of them combined without hitters. Maeda has started a no-hitter before, but not in MLB. In April 2012, Maeda launched a no-hitter in her native Japan, pitching for Hiroshima carp.
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