Seattle Mariners Top 5 (Near) No-No’s In Franchise History

4. Taijuan Walker Stumps The Angels- September 13th, 2016

Yes, Walker’s stellar outing last week does make the list. You might be saying, “how does he make it while allowing three hits?” If you watched the game, you should know why. But, if you still don’t think so, I’ll explain why.

As we have written, Walker has recently made major changes to his mechanics. Adjustments (usually)  take time to show themselves. But Walker was in a hurry to rebound from his outing earlier this month, which he called, “rock bottom”.

He took the mound on Tuesday and began his mastery. Walker calmly ran through the first seventeen Angels without giving up a hit. four of those at-bats were facing two of the best hitters in the game, Albert Pujols and Mike Trout. They went 0-4 in this span.

There was a close call at first challenged in the third, but after review, it was called an out.

In the sixth, with two outs, Ketel Marte rushed his throw to first base. Newly called up, Dan Vogelbach, couldn’t field the ball properly, and it sailed by him, allowing the runner to reach base. Of course, the play was ruled an error, but it meant the end of Taijuan’s perfect game.

Marte was devastated. He walked off the field at the end of the inning yelling at himself.

In the very next frame, Walker would give up, not one, but two hits. He would squirm out of that jam, but the no-no was no more. In the ninth, as he was trying to close out the game, the Angels got one more hit.

In the end, Walker would finish the game with a line of: 9IP, 3H, 0BB, 10K. He became one of two Mariners pitchers (aside from Hernandez and Randy Johnson) to throw double-digit strikeouts in a near no-no situation. He joined another group by become one of five Mariners in a near no-no to not allow a walk over nine innings.