Guttormson Pitches No-Hitter

Thanks for posting that. I was just getting ready to write something up about it from today's Nikkan Sports, which has a full page color photo of Guttormson riding on the shoulders of Furuta-kantoku and Ramerez.

I like the quote about his team mates not talking to him after the 6th inning. Nobody wanted to jinx him by stating the obvious. But that didn't make him nervous. In fact, he says that he wasn't nervous until after the game. Nikkan Sports reports that Furuta-kantoku was worried about Guttormson's pitch count after the 8th (128 pitches at the time), but merely approached him and informed him "you're going the 9th, too" ("9回も行くよ").

The 29 batters he faced had the following results:

9 Strike outs
8 Infield grounders (1 error)
4 Infield flies
7 Outfield flies
1 Base on balls

Some side notes:

Yakult is 11 and 3 and on top in inter-league play. The win brings them to 1 game over .500 on the season (good for 4th place in the Central League).

Guttormson is the first Swallow to throw a no-hitter since Ishii Kazuhisa no-hit the BayStars back in 1997. (I remember listening to that game on the radio. Yokohama was just getting momentum to make the Central League race interesting, but never recovered after that loss, finishing somewhere around 10 games behind Yakult in 2nd place.)

Furuta-kantoku, after 7 consecutive starts behind the plate, had Yoneno catch Guttormson. Yoneno went 0 for 4 at bat, but led the near perfect game.

Furuta's Swallows are 5 and 0 against their former skipper, Nomura-kantoku.

Some other related facts:

• Guttormson's no-no was the 83rd no hitter in NPB history, and he becomes the 72nd pitcher to throw one. He becomes the 33rd person to accomplish it in the Central League (36th time)
• Guttormson also becomes only the 7th foreigner pitcher to throw a no-hitter after the establishment of the Two League system. (The last foreigner to throw a no-no was Narciso Elvira of the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes back in 2000.
• Guttormson stated he's going to keep the winning ball from the no-hitter in his newborn son's room.

On a side note, after throwing a no-hitter, Rick was dropped down to the farm team, but only as a formality, because Dicky Gonzalez is scheduled to start against the Nippon Ham Fighters in the next 3 game series. With the number of foreigners on the Swallows' roster, they have to do some shuffling around to get everyone playing time.

Does any one know Greg Wells? He is my great uncle.

- Furuta-kantoku, after 7 consecutive starts behind the plate, had Yoneno catch Guttormson. Yoneno went 0 for 4 at bat, but led the near perfect game.

I don't mean to be picky, or I may be misunderstanding what you wrote, but Furuta has not started at catcher for quite some time now. You may have meant that he has caught Guttormson's last 7 games.

Anyways, fans out there should know that Furuta has pretty much made Yoneno the primary catcher for the Swallows. I don't blame him. Furuta's batting this year has not been great. Also, although I don't have facts to back this up, it ironically seems to me like the opponents score less runs whenever Yoneno is catching. Maybe Furuta had become predictable, having caught over 90% of the Swallows games over the last 10 years?

- ... Furuta has not started at catcher for quite some time now. You may have meant ....

You're right. I mis-interpreted the article. Here is the original text from Nikkan Sports (paper version):

「選手・古田」を自らの判断で7試合連続スタメンから外し、采配に徹した。

Better translation: "'Furuta the player' has taken himself out of the starting lineup for 7 games in a row, devoting himself to the command."

Looking back, he last appeared as the starting catcher in the game on May 17 against the Eagles. Yoneno caught Guttormson's previous game as well.

Thanks for catching that error. Keep me honest.