SEATTLE — With the trade deadline looming, and a 34-year-old starting pitcher nearing the end of a contract year, the Seattle Mariners toyed with the idea of trading Hisashi Iwakuma to get a splash of youth in the organization.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Mariners were glad they never pulled the trigger.
Iwakuma threw the fifth no-hitter in team history, and the fourth in baseball this season, while beating the Baltimore Orioles 3-0.
“To be honest, I never thought I would accomplish a no-hitter,” Iwakuma said through interpreter Antony Suzuki. “… I can’t find words to express my feelings. Extremely happy.”
Since the trade deadline passed, Iwakuma is pitching some the best baseball of his career. His last three starts have seen the veteran go 2-0 with a 1.46 ERA as he continues to prove that he’s over a strained lat muscle that forced Iwakuma to miss nearly two months.
He returned to action in July and was pitching pretty well before his final pre-deadline start — a 10-hit, six-run performance in an 8-4 loss to Arizona on July 28. After that, the trade deadline passed and Iwakuma was still with the team.
Manager Lloyd McClendon made his feelings about dealing Iwakuma known after Wednesday’s performance, when he hinted that he suggested to the front office he didn’t want the veteran pitcher to be traded.
“I would have been going with him,” McClendon joked.
McClendon also made a joke about managing being the key to Wednesday’s 3-0 win, which was met with a laugh, but the truth was that he almost had a tough decision to make in the ninth. Iwakuma’s pitch count reached 100 in the eighth inning, when he gave up a leadoff walk and had the tying run in the on-deck circle. The starter got out of that jam with a strikeout and an inning-ending double play, then he needed just five pitches to get through the ninth.
McClendon had the bullpen going in the ninth inning, but he was going to ride Iwakuma for as long as he had the no-hitter going.
“At that point,” the manager said, “it’s hit ball game.”