Matt Harrelson
OAKLAND, Calif. - Behind every great pitcher there's a great pitching coach, and on Saturday, Oakland A's starting pitcher Sean Manaea showed how great he can be when he threw a complete game no-hitter against a red-hot Boston Red Sox team.
Manaea gave up zero hits, zero runs allowed, only two walks and recorded 10 strikeouts on his way to history.
For A's pitching coach Scott Emerson (who makes his off-season home in Rockingham), this wasn't his first foray into a no-hit game. Emerson said in an interview with the Richmond Observer Sunday night that while coaching in the minors, he saw two of his pitchers combine for the feat in Double A back in 2009.
However, that doesn't compare to doing it at the Major League level.
"That was probably the (most fun) game I've ever been a part of," Emerson said of Saturday's no-no. "To watch one of your guys go out and compete like that."
Boston came in to the game with the best record in baseball at 17-2 and had scored at least seven runs in each of the past four games. Their offense was leading the league with 123 runs scored, a .293 batting average, .361 on-base percentage and .497 slugging percentage.
As a matter of fact, Boston had gone 3,987 games without being no-hit - the second-longest active streak.
From Emerson's point of view, he took the Richmond Observer through Manaea's game-day preparations before Saturday's first pitch, and this included a prep sheet that featured a game plan on how to attack every hitter in the Red Sox lineup. Manaea and starting catcher Jonathan Lucroy each produced prep sheets of their own.
"An hour and a half before the game we collaborate and go over the game plan," said Emerson. "They (Manaea and Lucroy) executed the game plan to perfection. I told him don't be predictable and only give up soft hits."
The soft hits Emerson is eluding to regard a new Sabermetric tool called hit probability that tracks how hard balls are hit off any given pitcher.
According to Daren Willman of BaseballSavant.com - the originator of the stat - Manaea only allowed two batted balls with a hit probability greater than 50 percent. The hardest hit ball off him was Hanley Ramirez's last batted ball of the game.
Of course, none of those batted balls made it in for a hit, and Manaea only allowed three baserunners on two walks and one error by shortstop Marcus Semien.
As is tradition in baseball, once a pitcher enters a certain portion of the game with a no-hitter or perfect game intact, his teammates must leave him alone. That almost came unraveled when Emerson thought he would have to go to the bullpen.
"The only acknowledgement was after the Andrew Benintendi walk late in the game," Emerson said. "You still need to win a ball game. We went to the bullpen in case something bad happened. Nobody wants to answer the call, and I don't want to make the call, but at the end of the day you're thinking about winning the ball game. When he walked Benintendi, we had to get the bullpen rolling."
Fortunately, the bullpen was never needed, and the only other walk Manaea gave up was to right fielder Mookie Betts in the first inning - a small jam he was able to get out of. After that inning, Emerson went over to talk to his starting pitcher but never spoke to him again until after the game was over.
"I went over in the first and talked to him about throwing strikes, and his stuff was good, and I didn't talk to him until after the game," Emerson said about leaving his no-hitting pitcher alone. "I talked to the catcher, Lucroy, and we're discussing things, but I stayed away from Sean. I just stayed on the catcher. They had a good game plan. My standpoint was just reminders to Lucroy, and those two guys went out and did the work."
Manaea, only 26-years-old and in his third Major League season, now finds his 1.23 ERA good for fourth in the American League. For Emerson, Saturday's performance was no surprise.
"He had good stuff and executed the game plan," said the proud pitching coach. "He had a good change-up and slider going. He was able to spot his fastball to both sides of the plate. He cooled them off and did a great job."
