Houston Astros fans: "I’ll fight anyone that says this isn’t the best pitching staff of the last decade"

The Houston Astros have achieved a feat that has only been previously done once in World Series history - a no-hitter. Houston's pitching staff combined for the the shutout of the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 4 of the World Series, tying it at two apiece.

The combined no-hitter is just the second in World Series history and the third overall in MLB postseason history. Don Larsen pitched a perfect game in Game 5 of the 1956 Fall Classic, while Phillies legend Roy Halladay shut down the Cincinnati Reds for a no-hitter in Game 1 of the 2010 NLDS.

Houston Astros fans could not help but gush over the historic achievement and of course, a sigh of relief that their team has tied up the World Series. One of them tweeted:

Starter Cristian Javier was sensational with six innings of two walk and nine-strikeout baseball. Bryan Abreu, Rafael Montero, and Ryan Pressly held the fort down to complete the historic combined shutout.

The historic game by the Astros pitching staff is the second postseason no-hitter at Citizens Bank Park since Halladay in 2010. It is also their second overall no-hitter this season. The first, coincidentally, had Cristian Javier start the game as well.

Houston Astros' two no-hitters in a season

Out of the 319 official no-hitters in MLB history, the Houston Astros have been responsible for 19 of those occurrences. Of those 19, four have been recorded by the Astros in the last three years.

Just earlier this season, with Cristian Javier as the starter, the Astros blanked the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium during a regular-season match on June 25. In Game 4 of the World Series, with Javier as the starter once more, they recorded just the second (albeit combined) no-hitter in World Series history.

No team has thrown two no-hitters in the same season since the Houston Astros did it back in 2019. Before the Astros' pitching staff achieved the feat, Josh Beckett and Clayton Kershaw threw two no-hitters for the LA Dodgers in the span of three weeks in 2014.

About the author

Daniel Santiago is a journalist who has been reporting on baseball at Sportskeeda since 2022. He was drawn towards the sport after the underlying statistics and the analysis surrounding it grabbed his attention.

Daniel particularly enjoys furnishing reports about historic events in baseball and analyzing the game through a statistic-based outlook, based on Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference. This is in line with how he enjoyed watching baseball as a pastime. As a writer, he is very particular about cross-checking from reputable sources and doing his due diligence.

He became a lifelong Hideki Matsui fan after his exploits in the 2009 World Series for the New York Yankees. Among the current generation, Daniel's favorites include Shohei Ohtani and Jung Hoo Lee. Daniel is a huge follower of Asian baseball and both Ohtani and Lee have been in the top echelon of their respective leagues during their time with the NPB and KBO.

His favorite moment as a baseball fan was the final at-bat of the 2023 World Baseball Classic between Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. He believes there aren't many words to fittingly describe the intensity of the moment.

As an avid sports fan, Daniel watches other sports and Esports when not writing about baseball.

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