Oakland's Sean Manaea Throws Majors' First No-Hitter, Over Red Sox, 3-0; Hyun Jin Ryu Blanks Nats On 2 Hits In 4-0 Dodger Win

Players of the Day for Saturday, April 21, 2018

American League

Manaea tosses no-hitter

At 17-2, the Boston Red Sox had the best record in the majors heading into game two of their three-game series at Oakland.

Enter Sean Manaea with the treatment to cool off the hottest team in baseball.

Manaea threw the season's no hitter, as the A's downed the Red Sox 3-0, evening the series at a game apiece.

Oddly enough, Manaea didn't start off his night right. He walked Mookie Betts to open the game, but it didn't matter, as the 26-year-old lefty set down the next 14 straight batters. With two out in the fifth, Sandy Leon reached on an error by shortstop Marcus Semien. Leon became the only Red Sox to reach second base when Manaea uncorked a wild pitch, but he ended the threat by fanning Jackie Bradley Jr., one of 10 strikeout victims.

After retiring the Sox in the sixth, seventh and eighth in order, Manaea got to within one out of the no-hitter before walking Andrew Benintendi with two outs. Getting Hanley Ramirez to ground into a fielder's choice, nailing Benintendi at second, the feat was complete.

Manaea threw 108 pitches, of which 75 were strikes. Semien, who made the error in the fifth, redeemed himself by scoring all three of Oakland's runs, one of which came on a double by Jed Lowrie, who is leading the majors with 23 RBI and a .367 batting average, .001 better than Boston's Betts.

Manaea improved to 3-2 and sports an ERA of 1.23.

The win got the A's closer to .500, at 10-11. Boston, helped by the Yankees' 9-1 win over Toronto, remained four games up on the Jays in the AL East. The two teams will settle their differences on Sunday, 1:05 pm PDT.

National League

Ryu: 7IP, 2H, 0ER

In what could be a preview of the playoffs, the Washington Nationals and LA Dodgers are playing a three-game series in Los Angeles. On Friday, Washington took the first game, 5-2, but the Dodgers evened the series as Hyun-Jin Ryu blanked the Nats on two hits over seven innings for a 4-0 Dodger victory.

Ryu was backed by solo homers by Joc Pederson (second inning) and Enrique Hernandez, who pinch hit for Ryu in the bottom of the seventh, and Cody Bellinger's two-run shot in the eighth.

Striking out eight and walking three, Ryu allowed two harmless singles in his dominating performance, throwing 58 of 89 pitches for strikes. Tony Cingrani and Kenley Jansen held the National;s hitless over the eighth and ninth innings, preserving Ryu's third win of the season without a loss.

The Dodgers improved to 9-10 with the win, dropping Washington to 10-11. One of these two will reach .500 when they wrap up the series Sunday night in LA. Starting at 8:00 pm EDT, the game will be televised nationally on ESPN.