A comprehensive list of everyone who ruined Mike Clevinger’s no-hitter
Jinxing no-hitters probably isn’t a real thing. But Jonah Keri may be a warlock.
Mike Clevinger had a no-hitter through six innings. It was the best outing of his young career. Jonah Keri is an evil warlock. All of these are facts.
Whether or not you believe in jinxing a no-hitter, the coincidence of it all and quickly “blaming” someone is all in good fun. There will always undoubtedly be someone who tweets about it, starts watching the game, or otherwise coincidentally does something right before a player gets breaks up a potential no-hitter.
In tonight’s case, there appear to be a few key components of “Operation Stop The Flow.” This list could start and end with “Jose Altuve because he got a hit,” but I won’t let it. Something else happened here, something evil. Something... Jonah.
Jonah effing Keri
Just turned on Indians-Astros, so if you're a Tribe fan, you can now safely go out and enjoy your day.
— Jonah Keri (@jonahkeri) May 20, 2017
You may know this handsome, ageless man as the host of The Jonah Keri Podcast and author of several books on the analytical side of baseball. But you should also know his as a perennial ruiner of no-hitters. Perhaps as a joke, or perhaps because he knows how to harness his ill-gotten powers, Keri tweeted that he began following the game at 6:00 p.m. ET. At roughly 6:01 p.m. ET, Jose Altuve got the first hit of the game.
What.
The.
Shit.
Jonah.
MLB themselves.
.@Indians RHP @Mike_Anthony13 has a no-hitter through 6 vs. Astros in Houston: https://t.co/frCUL4BOzp pic.twitter.com/dU4eDkWvWt
— MLB (@MLB) May 20, 2017
But it wasn’t all Keri. No, no. This kind of evil can’t work alone. MLB was not quite as accurate with their killshot, as they tweeted about the no-hit bid at 5:51 p.m, but the effort will not go unnoticed here. And it didn’t go unnoticed by the Indians, either.
CBS Sports
Mike Clevinger has now thrown six no-hit innings against the Astros.
— CBS Sports MLB (@CBSSportsMLB) May 20, 2017
Two minutes after MLB shot its shot, CBS Sports decided to follow up with a tweet of their own, announcing Clevinger’s no-hitter and effectively destroying it before our very eyes.
This guy
Mike Clevinger has a no-hitter through 6 innings.
— Anthony™ (@AnthonyG729) May 20, 2017
Screw you.
Me
I'M SO SORRY I JUST TURNED ON THE GAME WHAT HAVE I DONE
— Let's Go Tribe (@LetsGoTribe) May 20, 2017
Whoops, how did this one end up here?
Regardless of who did or did not ruin Mike Clevinger’s no-hitter (Jonah Keri, it was absolutely Jonah Keri), it doesn’t diminish the greatness of the start this young man had today, unless something horrific happens before I publish this post, his ERA on the season is now under 2.00 and he set a new personal best for strikeouts. More importantly, he only walked a couple batters, effectively solving his biggest issue of his budding career.
Take a moment to thank the Los Angeles Angels if you haven’t already.