At the Hardball Times today, Chris Jaffe has a “fun” article that deals with little-known facts about one-hitters. Fun is in scare-quotes because the very first fact is about guys that have more than one game in their career with the only hit in a one-hitter. Neil Walker has fewer hits than anyone to have accomplished this (he did it once in 2010 and once in 2011). That wouldn’t be terribly alarming, except that Ronny Cedeno has the fourth fewest hits of anyone that’s done it. I did my homework and found that both of Cedeno’s “only hit in a one-hitter” games did, in fact, come with the Pirates in 2009 and 2010.
Using Chris’s numbers, let’s put this into perspective. In the history of baseball, there have been exactly 138 players to get the only hit in a no-hitter more than once in their career. Two of them did it for the Pirates between August of 2009 (when Cedeno joined the club) and the end of 2011. The odds against this happening must be astronomical. Unless you’re a Pirate fan, of course. In that case, not only does it not surprise you, but you probably read this and said to yourself, “So you’re saying that without Ronny Cedeno in the lineup in 2012, the Bucs are going to get no-hit. Figures.”
I mean, that’s what I took from this whole thing.
