The traditional no-hitter is going away as teams look to protect arms

The traditional no-hitter, with one starting pitcher throwing nine no-hit innings on their own, is rapidly disappearing from Major League Baseball.

No-hitters still exist, and they are still happening with some degree of regularity, but they are now starting to require multiple pitchers to finish, or even attempt to finish, the job.

We were given another reminder of that on Thursday afternoon when the Pittsburgh Pirates replaced rookie starter Paul Skenes after seven dominant no-hit innings in their 1-0 win over the Milwaukee Brewers. 

The decision ruffled some feathers around baseball, as fans felt robbed of the opportunity to see Skenes make history. But it is a decision that probably every team in baseball would have made in the same situation.

It is all about protecting arms. In this case, it was about protecting the most important young arm in the Pirates organization (and perhaps all of baseball). 

Skenes’ start on Thursday was already the seventh time this season that a starter threw at least six no-hit innings and was lifted without getting a chance to finish their no-hit attempt. 

It is the second time it has happened to Skenes. Atlanta Braves starter Max Fried has also had it happen twice, while Kyle Bradish, Ben Brown and Ronel Blanco have all had it happen once. 

Having seven of those instances in only half a season is a truly staggering number, especially when compared to Major League history.

Prior to the late 2010s, if a pitcher took a no-hitter into the sixth or seventh inning, it was almost a given they were going to get a chance to see it through no matter what their pitch count was. But as teams have become protective of their arms, and as relief pitchers have become good enough to also shut teams down, teams are more willing to pull their starters in these games. 

Let’s look at some numbers (via the Baseball-Reference Stathead database).

Pulling a starter with a no-hitter is a newer trendFrom 1900 through 2009, there were only 45 instances of a starting pitcher throwing at least six no-hit innings and being pulled before the ninth inning. Of those 45 instances, 19 of them happened after 1990.

Since the start of the 2009 season, it has happened 69 times.

But let’s break it down by decade to get a true sense of how much the game has changed:

1900s: Six
1910s: Six
1920s: One
1930s: One
1940s: One
1950s: Two
1960s: Three
1970s: Two
1980s: Four
1990s: 14
2000s: 5
2010s: 29
Now, the past individual seasons in the 2020s:

2020: One (shortened season)
2021: Nine
2022: 12
2023: 11
2024: 7 (and counting)
There are a few additional factors at play here that could be juicing those recent numbers. 

There are more teams in baseball now with more pitchers, adding to the number of games. The quality of pitching has certainly increased in recent decades, as more pitchers are taking no-hitters deeper into games. 

Even with that, teams are simply no longer letting pitchers throw 120 or 130 pitches in an attempt to complete a no-hitter on their own. As soon as they get to within the 100-pitch range, they are usually done.

The true line in the sand for this was around the 2018 season when we really saw a jump in these early hooks.

Combined no-hitters continue to increaseThere have been 323 no-hitters in baseball history, with only 20 of them being combined (about 6%). 

Prior to the 2017 season, only 11 of the 296 no-hitters thrown to that point were combined no-hitters (only 3.7%). 

But since 2017? A whopping nine of the 27 no-hitters that have been thrown (33.3%) were of the combined variety. 

It is just another small change to a game that continues to evolve from a strategic outlook.