And yet on a Sunday afternoon on April 16th, 1978, St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Bob Forsch kept them all hitless, as well as the rest of the Philly line-up, for the first of his two Big League no-hitters.
Here’s the next “no-hitter” special in my on-going thread through the decade, as we’re in the home-stretch:
It only took Forsch one hour and fifty-two minutes to dispatch the Phillies 5-0 on that day, as he struck out only three while issuing two walks.
He was off to a scorching start that year, improving to 3-0 with a microscopic 0.71 earned run average, getting help from pinch-hitter Roger Freed who hit a three-run double in the sixth.
Forsch was coming off his one and only 20-win season in 1977, and would fall a bit to a record of 11-17 in 1978, though no fault of his own.
The Cardinals were not exactly a juggernaut, and Forsch would average about 11 wins a season over the rest of his career, capped off with a season and a half with the Houston Astros in 1988 and 1989.
In 1983 he would again work that magic, as he pitched a second no-hitter, this time against the Montreal Expos, winning 3-0, at the time becoming the 25th pitcher in Big League history to throw multiple no-hitters.
All told, over the course of 16 seasons, Forsch would go 168-136, with an ERA of 3.76 in 498 appearances, 422 of them starts, with 19 shutouts and 1133 strikeouts.
