Over the past two seasons in Major League Baseball, we have seen some experimentation being done, for this piece specifically shortening the length of doubleheaders. Instead of two nine-inning games, we are now seeing two seven-inning games to help make the games go quicker. Though baseball purists have expressed their disinterest for this rule (rightfully so) one of the biggest issues his has caused is what happens when a pitcher puts together a great outing.
While the double-header rules have changed, the rules for pitchers have not. In order to be qualified for a win a pitcher has to go at least five innings and depart while his team has the lead (one that has to be maintained throughout the remainder of the game). This inherently causes one problem because the rule has always been five innings, but over a nine-inning game that would be just over half the game at 55.6% of the game, now they would have to pitch a majority of the game at 77.8%. While an issue does arise with this, wins and losses have fallen out of favor in recent years when determining a pitchers worth so it is not a huge deal. Whether it earns them a win or loss, a good outing is determined by what the pitcher can do and that almost always means at least five innings pitched.
That itself is one problem, another much larger problem is how to quantify a seven-inning no-hitter or perfect game. According to the MLB seven-inning rules, a full outing allowing zero runs will still count as a shutout, but if you allowed zero hits (and zero walks) it would not count as a no-hitter (or perfect game).
No-hitters have only been quantified as such since September 1991 when baseball’s committee for statistical accuracy, chaired by then commissioner Fay Vincent established an official definition of a no-hitter “an official no-hit game occurs when a pitcher (or pitchers) allows no hits during the entire course of a game, which consists of at least nine innings”, the same goes for perfect games except they cannot allow any batter to reach base.
Before the rule change, we saw a total of 13 “official” no-hitters that went less than the required nine (two of which were perfect games).
Therein lies the biggest issue with the seven-inning doubleheaders.
The seven-inning rule was a rule specifically made for the odd 2020 season, but they transferred that to this season and there is a chance it could become a permanent change. One of the first questions that was brought forward when understanding this change was, what would happen if a pitcher through a no-hitter or perfect game that only went seven innings? Though the question came up we did not have to worry about that last season, this season is a little different though.
Coming into the April 25th second game of the Braves-Diamondbacks game there had been two no-hitters on the season; Joe Musgrove on April 9th (marking the first no-hitter for a Padres starter in franchise history) then five days later Carlos Rodon on April 14th for the White Sox‑oddly enough both pitchers lost it due to a hit batter. If the seven-inning no-no counted then Madison Bumgarner would have made it the third no-hitter of the season and the first time there has been three no-hitters in a single month since August 2015.
Vintage Bumgarner stepped on the mound against the Braves and over the course of the game he allowed zero walks to go along with seven strikeouts with a total of 98 pitches thrown. For the third time this season it could have been a no-hitter that occurred without a base on balls (Albies reached first on an error in the second).
If the game were to go nine innings it is likely that Bumgarner may not have had a chance to finish out his masterpiece anyway, he was almost at 100 pitches and with two more innings to go in today’s game that is asking a lot. Of course, Mad Bum would have wanted to push through but with how weary we are of pitch count he may have been limited either way.
While it may not count as an official no-hitter in the history books, no one who watched the game will forget just how dominant he was on the day.
It is completely understandable for the game to not go down as an official no-no for as many reasons as it is ludicrous that it is not official.
How many potential no-hitters have we seen get lost in the eighth or ninth inning simply due to a pitcher losing steam? There are way too many to count, and it is entirely possible that is what we would have seen with Bumgarner, while it is also entirely possible, he would have been able to finish it. That is why it makes sense to not make it official.
Why it doesn’t make sense is because the length of the game was seven innings, he had no control over that. In the early days of baseball there were specific reasons to call a game short outside of weather, this includes darkness (no lights), traveling and doubleheaders. However, today there is no legitimate reason why a game will be shortened outside of weather unless otherwise stated by MLB. That is what happened here with the seven-inning doubleheader rule.
This game will not be recognized as an official no-hitter (at least for this season), but if they make a permanent rule change to seven-inning doubleheaders then they will need to start to recognize these as official, even if they make a distinction between nine-inning and seven-inning doubleheader no-hitters.
All we can say for certain is that Bumgarner pitched great as he helped the Diamondbacks sweep the doubleheader and that everyone watching the game will remember what type of game he had on the day.
It is very unfair to not give him credit for a no-hitter. Hopefully MLB can right this wrong and make it official.