Michael Lorenzen wasn’t the highest-profile acquisition at Major League Baseball’s trade deadline. So far, though, he’s been the greatest.
In his second career start for the Philadelphia Phillies, Lorenzen threw the 14th no-hitter in franchise history as they blanked the Washington Nationals, 7-0, Wednesday night at Citizens Bank Park.
Lorenzen, 31, won his second start in as many outings for Philadelphia since coming over from the Detroit Tigers in exchange for minor league infield Hao-Yu Lee. Though he walked four – including Nationals slugger Joey Meneses twice – Lorenzen danced around the trouble and struck out five.
Lorenzen had thrown 111 pitches – 10 over his season high – entering the ninth inning, but manager Rob Thomson stuck with him and was rewarded. Lorenzen induced a Lane Thomas groundout to third base, struck out Meneses looking and got Dominic Smith on a fly ball to center to finish the first Phillies no-hitter since Cole Hamels blanked the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on July 25, 2015.
He needed a career-high 124 pitches to do it, but got a nice boost to his resume to take into free agency this winter.
In two starts with Philadelphia, Lorenzen has a 1.06 ERA and the Phillies have seized the top wild card spot in the National League.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Michael Lorenzen throws no-hitter in Phillies’ win over Nationals