White Sox Fall To Twins In No-Hitter
UPDATED 05/04/11 5:13 a.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A no-hitter wasn't such happy news in Chicago Tuesday night, given that it meant a shutout for the White Sox.
The Minnesota Twins' Francisco Liriano pitched the Major Leagues' first no-hitter of the season Tuesday night, and the White Sox found themselves the victims of his performance with a 1-0 loss.
The White Sox were no-hit for the 13th time, the first since they were beaten by Kansas City's Bret Saberhagen on Aug. 26, 1991.
In more recent times, no-hitters were good news for the White Sox. On April 18, 2007, Mark Buehrle pitched a no-hitter against the Texas Rangers in a 6-0 victory, and on July 23, 2009, he pitched a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays.
The White Sox also pitched a no-hitter just about two weeks before they last fell to one. Wilson Alvarez threw one at Baltimore on Aug. 11, 1991.
But this time, Liriano (2-4) walked six and struck out two, throwing 123 pitches in the 95th major league start for the 27-year-old left-hander.
He survived a briefly promising ninth inning for the White Sox that began when Brent Morel grounded to shortstop and Matt Tolbert made a one-hop throw that first baseman Justin Morneau scooped. Juan Pierre walked and Alexei Ramirez popped to shortstop.
Liriano fell behind Adam Dunn 3-0 in the count, then got a pair of strikes. After a foul ball, Dunn lined out to Tolbert as Liriano and his Twins teammates celebrated at the mound.
Liriano threw just 66 of 123 pitches for strikes but kept the Sox off-balance in a game that took just 2 hours, 9 minutes.
In his previous start, he lasted just three innings in an 8-2 loss to Tampa Bay. The shutout lowered his ERA for the season to 6.61.
It was the seventh no-hitter for the Twins-Washington Senators franchise and the first since Eric Milton's against the Angels on Sept. 11, 1999. It was the first no-hitter in the major leagues since Philadelphia's Roy Halladay's against Cincinnati in last year's NL division series.
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