It is a special night at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium. The Chinatrust Brothers’ left-handed pitcher Nick Additon has become the eighth player in 29 years of CPBL history to throw a no-hitter.
Despite walking six batters, Additon was able to suppressed the Uni-Lions’ lineup and finished the full nine innings with seven strikeouts over 132 pitches.
NO-HITTER!!! 132 pitches later, #CTBros' LHP Nick Additon records the final out for the 8th no-hitter in #CPBL history. (9 innings, 6BB, 7K, 0H) pic.twitter.com/fSt5I9pf4e
— CPBL STATS (@GOCPBL) June 9, 2018
Tonight’s Hero: Nick Additon
“In this league, we always face the same teams over and over again. Last time the Uni-Lions had me, but tonight, it’s a great win for me. Our defense was amazing and my catcher and I were in-sync all night,” said Nick Additon in the post game interview.
Coming into tonight’s game, Additon has a 4.43 ERA and 1.49 WHIP over 61 innings. But after tonight’s stellar performance, he managed to lower that to a 3.86 ERA and 1.39 WHIP.
Where is the No-Hitter Ball?
A Brothers fans in the the outfield captured this on video. After recording the final out in the bottom of the 9th at the warning track, The Brothers’ outfielder 陳子豪 (Chen Tzu-Hao) accidently tossed away the no-hitter ball.
Chen and fellow outfielder 張志豪 (Chang Chih-Hao) ended up having to scaled over the outfield wall and retrieved the ball before joining the celebration at the mound.
#CTBros 陳子豪 (Chen Tzu-Hao) accidently tossed away Nick Additon's no-hitter ball after making the final out. ? Him and 張志豪 (Chang Chih-Hao) had to scaled over the outfield wall to find the ball and return to Additon. #CPBL (?via https://t.co/mMNiGRTnoF) pic.twitter.com/OtI4TcFQ9t
— CPBL STATS (@GOCPBL) June 10, 2018
Previous Eight No-Hitter Games in the CPBL
- 1991 July 19: Wei Chuan Dragon vs Tigers, 陽介仁 (Yang Jie-Ren), 104 pitches, 3 walks.
- 1992 May 21: Brother Elephants vs Dragons, Ravelo Manzanillo, 126 pitches, 5 walks.
- 1997 May 8: Sinon Bulls vs Tigers, Mark Kiefer, 100 pitches, 1 walk.
- 1998 March 1: Sinon Bulls vs Elephants, Alvin Brown, 111 pitches, 1 walk.
- 1999 May 13: Uni-Lions vs Dragons, 曹竣崵 (Tsao Chun-Yang), 107 pitches, 1 walk.
- 2008 July 10: Uni-Lions vs Whales, 潘威倫 (Pan Wei-Lun), 113 pitches, no walk.
- 2015 October 25: Lamigo Monkeys vs Brothers, Pat Misch, 99 pitches, 1 walk.
- 2018 June 9: Chinatrust Brothers vs Uni-Lions, Nick Additon, 132 pitches, 6 walks.
Fun Facts About CPBL No-Hitter Games
- 2015 no-hitter was at the Game Seven of the Taiwan Series. It is the only no-hitter in the CPBL history that happened in the post season.
- 2008 no-hitter was very close to be a perfect game. But the Uni-Lions first baseman made an error in the first inning.
- Eight no-hitter games in 29 years of CPBL history. Three games by Taiwanese pitchers and five games by foreign pitchers.
- Most pitches no-hitter: Nick Additon in 2018 with 132 pitches.
- Least pitches no-hitter: Pat Misch in 2015 with 99 pitches.
- Most strikeouts no-hitter: 曹竣崵 (Tsao Chun-Yang) in 1999 with 12 strikeouts.
- Least strikeouts no-hitter: 陽介仁 (Yang Jie-Ren) in 1991 with 3 strikeouts.
- Most walks no-hitter: Nick Additon in 2018 with 6 walks.
- Least walks no-hitter: 潘威倫 (Pan Wei-Lun) with no walks.
Great game for Additon. We’ll see if the 132 pitch effort effects in Additon’s next three or four starts. That’s a lot of pitches in today’s game.
He also rolled his ankles pretty badly before the 9th inning as he was warming up. Yeah, would be interesting to see how he perform next time, but luckily Additon will probably get a week rest before his next start. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R40aTPgAstE
Mike Loree hasn’t pitched as well so far this season as his last couple of seasons. Could be he’s getting older. However, I tend to think that the foreign rookies will have their ERAs shoot up in the second half, once all of the league’s hitters have seen them a few times, while Loree might yet settle into a groove. It isn’t like the league’s hitters don’t already know exactly what Loree throws and how he throws it.
Loree has been hurt by the home run ball this year, and I wonder if he isn’t throwing too many strikes. His 96/7 K/BB ratio is ridiculous, and I wonder if he isn’t sometimes giving in to hitters to avoid walking them.
Josh Roenicke had his worst start of the season today, and eight qualifiers, including Loree are grouped between 3.86 and 4.50. If Roenicke has another bad start or two, all the league’s top starters will be tightly bunched together in terms of ERA, and whoever has the best second half will be the league leader.
Right now, it isn’t looking like David Martinez or Zack Segovia is going to be around by the Second Half. The best starting pitcher in the Atlantic League right now is Bennett Parry. He’s still only 26, though, and may be ready to give up his MLB dream. It is surprising that no MLB organization has signed him yet. Zac Grotz, age 25, just signed out of the Atlantic League with the New York Mets organization.
Dallas Beeler (age 29) and Cory Riordan (32) are a couple more Atlantic League starters I haven’t mentioned previously who are pitching well right now and are probably on CPBL teams’ radar.
The heat is also another major factor, it’s the humidity that get a lot of foreign pitchers in trouble. A lot of players that I spoke with in the past, this is one factor they did not expect or able to imagine prior coming to Taiwan.
Martinez is on thin ice right now. Uni-Lions are already thinking about cutting him loose. Chinen Kohya, the Japanese pitcher in the farm team is doing pretty okay too, we might see they call him up the next few weeks to replace Martinez.
Brothers farm team pitcher Elih Villanueva fastball can hit about 149kph now, but the concern right now is he might not have enough break pitches to handle the first team batters.
As for Cory Riordan, maybe we can see him return once again. Just off top of my head, he did 2 not so impressive tours in the CPBL already. (Lamigo Monkeys and the Fubon Guardians).