Michael Lorenzen threw his second major league baseball catch in as many weeks.
Lorenzen threw his fourth of the year on Wednesday night as he led the Philadelphia Phillies to a 7-0 victory over the Washington Nationals at Citizens Bank Park. Lorenzen had five hits and threw 124 runs in the game, which was just his second start with the franchise.
Lorenzen’s no-hitter is the first time he’s been thrown by a Phillies pitcher since Cole Hamels did in 2015. Hamels threw his own no-hitter in what was his final start for Philadelphia. Lorenzen was the 14th in the club’s history.
Wednesday’s game marked the first time the Nationals went without an injury since the organization moved to Washington, D.C., in 2005.
Lorenzen, 31, was an All-Star this season with the Detroit Tigers for the first time in his career. He was then acquired by the Phillies just before the trade deadline in exchange for prospect Hao Yue Lee. He made his first-team debut earlier this week, throwing a season-high eight home runs in a win over the Miami Marlins.
Lorenzen entered the season with a career 4.49 ERA as a starter. He had a 3.48 ERA in Wednesday’s game, and now has a 7-7 record this season.
The Phillies are the fourth team Lorenzen has played for. After seven seasons with the Cincinnati Reds to start his career, he spent a season with the Los Angeles Angels before landing in Detroit.
This is the fourth of the season, and the first since Houston Astros star Framper Valdez did it last week. Valdez threw the 16th most in Astros history with 93 runs batted in while facing a minimum strikeout of 27 in their 2-0 victory over the Cleveland Guardians. Matt Manning and the Detroit Tigers combined last month. New York Yankees quarterback Domingo German pitched a perfect game in June against the Oakland Athletics. He has since been away from the team for the remainder of the season.
The Phillies picked up three runs in the first inning Wednesday night, thanks to an RBI double from Bryce Harper and a double off Nick Castellanos. Weston Wilson hit a home run in the second inning for his first club offense in the second inning, then Castellanos hit another solo shot in the third inning. That suddenly put the Phillies up 5-0. Johan Rojas and Alec Baum hit an RBI single the rest of the way to propel Philadelphia to a seven-run win.
This victory is the seventh for the Phillies in the last 10 matches. They trail the Atlanta Braves by 10 games in the NL East. The Nationals, who trail the Braves by 23 games in the division, have lost two of their three games to the Phillies in this series.