Cristian Javier led an Astros pitching staff that tossed the second no-hitter in World Series history on Wednesday, evening up the series against the Phillies 2-2
The Philadelphia Phillies entered Game 4 of the 2022 World Series with all the momentum, the heart of an entire city behind them, and their ace, Aaron Nola on the mound. The Houston Astros, though, had Cristian Javier, and he went out and spun a gem for the ages.
What began as a party in Philadelphia soon turned into a somber night as the Phillies, who managed five home runs in Game 3, couldn’t even get a hit off Javier and three relievers in Game 4.
Javier went six no-hit innings before Bryan Abreu, Rafael Montero, and Ryan Pressly finished off the second no-hitter in World Series history, and first since Don Larsen’s perfect game in 1956.
The Astros’ 5-0 win on Wednesday not only silenced the raucous crowd at Citizens Bank Park, it evened the series at two games apiece and guaranteed there will be another game in Houston. They came to celebrate the Phillies taking another step toward the franchise’s first title since 2008. Instead, they got to witness another bit of history.
Here are three stats that tell the story of a night to remember.
Stats that defined Astros no-hitter: 1. Six consecutive starts
Simple physics shows that a human pitcher can’t make a baseball rise. Any upward movement of a pitch is nothing more than an optical illusion, a batter perceiving a ball dropping less than it normally would.
Javier put on quite a magic show for the Phillies and their 45,693 screaming fans at Citizens Bank Park. And he did it with a fastball that, while not lighting up the radar gun, can fool even a lineup like the Phillies time and time again.
Javier threw 70 fastballs in Game 4. The Phillies couldn’t hit any of them. But no one has been able to hit Javier’s fastball in a long while. He now has six straight starts, going back to the regular season, of at least five innings giving up no more than two hits and no runs. No other pitcher in history has ever had more than three such starts in a row.
Javier has given up seven hits over his last 34.1 innings as a starter, including only one extra-base hit and no runs. He’s the first ever to give up that few hits over a six-start span. His historic gem against the Phillies was just the culmination of a long run of dominance for the Astros right-hander.
It’s impossible to predict when a no-hitter is going to happen, but Javier did have someone who believed he was capable of it. His parents told him the night before he was going to throw a no-hitter. “We’re going to stay positive, and with God helping us we could do it,” Javier told Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal on what he told his parents about their bold prediction.
His “rising” fastball, and his ability to create a flat trajectory with his arm angle, left the Phillies swinging at smoke all night.
Stats that defined Astros no-hitter: 2. 97 pitches
Dusty Baker had a decision no manager would relish making. Javier, on cruise control, came off the mound after the sixth inning at 97 pitches on the night.
Javier was the first pitcher to take a no-hit bid into the seventh inning of a World Series game since Jerry Koosman of the “Miracle Mets” of 1969. He had a chance to join Don Larsen as the only pitchers to throw a no-hitter in the World Series, and Roy Halladay (who threw his on the same mound 12 years ago, against Baker’s Reds) in the postseason no-hit club.
But he wouldn’t get a chance to finish it. Javier had only eclipsed 100 pitches twice this season, including the 115 he threw in his seven no-hit innings against the Yankees in June. He hadn’t pitched in 11 days and had only two outings in the last month. So Baker made the call: Javier’s night was done.
“It’s baseball in 2022,” Baker said following the game. “You think about, especially a young player, you think about his health and his career as much as you think about that game. We had a really fresh bullpen. Extremely fresh bullpen. One of the best bullpens around. I had full faith that they could do the job.”
Shutouts in the World Series are becoming an extinct species. There hasn’t been a complete game shutout in eight years, since Madison Bumgarner in 2014, and only two over the last 20 years.
Just this season, 12 pitchers were removed from a game in the same situation as Javier, with a no-hitter intact into the seventh inning or later. That is more times than in the seven decades between 1920 and 1989, when it only happened 11 times.
Baker never envisioned having to make that decision, but what really mattered for the Astros was the scoreboard and the fact the series, now even up at two, is headed back to Houston. “I don’t know. I’ve never been in that position,” Baker said about removing a pitcher in the middle of a World Series no-hitter. “The important thing is we won the game…and we get to go back to Houston no matter what happens tomorrow. And tomorrow is as big a game as it was today,”
Larsen’s place alone in the baseball record books is secure, and given how starting pitchers are treated in today’s game, likely will be for much longer. But the Astros still did something historic on Wednesday, even if they have to share it four ways.
Stats that defined Astros no-hitter: 3. 18 consecutive batters
When Javier walked Brandon Marsh with one out in the third inning, it put a man on base with the top of the Phillies lineup coming up in what was still a scoreless game. Another Phillies batter wouldn’t get even that far for a long time.
Astros pitchers combined to retire 18 consecutive batters, from Marsh’s walk to another issued by Pressly to Kyle Schwarber in the ninth inning. Eleven of those 18 outs were strikeouts.
Javier finished off the last 11 batters he faced. He struck out five in a row at one point, and six out of seven. Nothing off the bat of a Phillies player even threatened to become a hit. No batted ball off Javier had an expected batting average above .320.
Not until the eighth inning would the Astros bid for history face its first scare. Jean Segura lined a ball off Montero to right field. According to Statcast, it would’ve been a hit 91 percent of the time. Instead, it nestled safely in Kyle Tucker’s glove for the final out of the inning.
Javier finished with nine strikeouts over his six innings, along with two walks. Astros’ pitchers combined for 14 strikeouts and allowed only three Phillies to reach base.
When Pressly got J.T. Realmuto to ground to third for the final out in the ninth, he embraced catcher Christian Vazquez as the club converged at the mound to celebrate the historic moment. They’re now forever a part of baseball history.