Nomo Throws No-No Dodgers Pitcher Shuts Down Rockies In Field Made For Hitters

In perhaps the best hitters’ park baseball has ever known, Dodgers right-hander Hideo Nomo no-hit the Colorado Rockies Tuesday night at Coors Field.

It is the first no-hitter ever thrown at the ballpark, where the Rockies previously batted .348, the 10th in Los Angeles Dodgers history and the 20th in franchise history.

The Dodgers defeated the Rockies 9-0 in a game delayed 2 hours by rain, and extended their lead over the San Diego Padres to 1-1/2 games in the National League West.

In his second season since the Dodgers signed him out of the Japanese Pacific League, Nomo, who pitched from the stretch after the second inning, walked four batters and struck out seven.

He joins a Los Angeles no-hit fraternity that begins with Sandy Koufax, who pitched four in the 1960s, and runs through Ramon Martinez, who pitched the last, on July 14, 1995 against the Florida Marlins.

With his typical fastball-forkball repertoire, Nomo allowed those four baserunners, two of which reached scoring position. He retired the final 11 Rockies hitters, and 16 of the final 17.

The Rockies were no-hit on May 11 by Marlins pitcher Al Leiter. That game was in Miami. The Rockies were one-hit by Pat Rapp, also of the Marlins, at Coors Field on Sept. 17, 1995, a year to the day before Nomo’s no-no.

Nomo received a standing ovation when he came to bat in the ninth inning, by what was left of an announced crowd of 48,048.

Nomo has been an almost forgotten pitcher for the Dodgers, despite his 15 victories and his 216 strikeouts in 207 innings. He won three consecutive decisions before Tuesday’s start, and five of his previous six. He has allowed more than four earned runs in a start only once since the end of June, and he won that start.

Though he had his worst start of the season here on June 30, when the Rockies scored nine runs in five innings against him, Dodgers manager Bill Russell had no concerns about which Nomo would show up this time through.

“He’s like a Fernando,” said Russell, invoking one of the ultimate Dodger compliments of the past 20 years. “Give me the ball. Ramon (Martinez) is like that, too. He’s a big-game guy. That’s how I see Nomo.

“All he wants is to be one of the guys. Nobody special, just part of the team.”

In the second inning, Raul Mondesi looped a double into left-center field, his 67th extra-base hit, which established a Los Angeles Dodgers record. He left Steve Garvey and Pedro Guerrero at 66.

More importantly, the double led to the first of two Dodgers’ runs in the second inning. Mondesi doubled with one out and Tim Wallach singled to left field. Mondesi stopped at third, until left fielder Ellis Burks skipped his throw over the cutoff man, past catcher Steve Decker and by pitcher Bill Swift. Mondesi scored and Wallach advanced to second base.

For Wallach, scoring position is third base, which he reached on a ground-out by Delino DeShields. Greg Gagne lined a 1-and-2 pitch into left field to score Wallach with a two-out RBI.

DeShields has two hits in his past 38 at-bats.

The Dodgers scored once more against Swift in the third, when Todd Hollandsworth walked and Wayne Kirby singled him to third. Hollandsworth scored when Mike Piazza bounced into a double play. They led 3-0.

In the sixth inning they widened their lead to 5-0, but wasted their chance to put the game away, as much as a game can be put away here. Rockies starter Swift allowed, in order, a double to Kirby, a walk to Piazza, a run-scoring single to Eric Karros and a run-scoring single to Mondesi.

Those were the runs. Swift was relieved by right-hander Steve Reed, who walked Wallach to load the bases. That brought DeShields, whose problems at the plate are baffling. He worked the count full, then took strike three on the outside half. Gagne then fouled out and Nomo grounded to shortstop.

The game actually was delayed one hour, fifty minutes by rain, and 10 minutes by Swift. In the second year of a three-year, $13 million contract, Swift pitched 10-1/3 innings over four appearances before Tuesday’s start, his first start since Aug. 26 and his third of the season.

In the past year he has twice had arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder, the last on June 13. Only three seasons ago Swift won 21 games for the San Francisco Giants, but has won only 10 games in 22 starts for the Rockies in nearly two full seasons.

Though umpires, the Rockies and the Dodgers were ready to play at 8:55 locally, Swift was still in the bullpen, throwing, apparently attempting to loosen his shoulder. He pitched five innings plus four hitters into the sixth inning, and allowed seven hits and five runs.