What a day for the Philadelphia Phillies.
First rookie Weston Wilson hit a home run in his first major league at-bat and then starter Michael Lorenzen threw a no-hitter in Philly’s 7-0 win over the Washington Nationals on Wednesday night.
Lorenzen struck out five batters on the way to the Phillies’ 14th no-hitter in franchise history.
The righty threw 124 pitches total in the win and marked the first no-hitter for a Phillies’ pitcher since Cole Hamels did it in 2015.
The Phillies’ starter completed the memorable night with a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the ninth.
Lorenzen was able to get Nationals’ outfielder Lane Thomas to ground out to third and then was able to strike out Joey Meneses on three pitches.
The righty got infielder Dominic Smith to fly out to center on the first pitch of the at-bat to end the game. Lorenzen leaped into the arms of catcher J.T. Realmuto in celebration as the rest of his Phillies teammates mobbed him on the mound.
The NBC Sports Philadelphia cameras caught Lorenzen’s mom, who was in attendance, jumping up and down in excitement.
“I was upset with myself for those first few innings. They were long innings,” Lorenzen said on the TV broadcast. “Walking guys and I knew like ‘man I just ruined my chances to go deep in this game. I had a couple quick (innings), so I just kept trying to make them quick and thankfully skip pulled me aside and said ‘how ya feeling?’
“I said, ‘I’m feeling good, it’s nice and cool outside. It’s not too hot I’m recovering nicely.’ Was just kind of trying to buy some more innings and he gave it to me.”
Lorenzen had walked three batters through the first four innings and had several at-bats go longer than he would have liked. Thomas’ first inning at bat went eight pitches before Lorenzen finally was able to strike him out.
The no-no was the second one in as many weeks and the fourth this season by a major league pitcher.
The Phillies picked up Lorenzen before the deadline in a trade with the Detroit Tigers that sent infield prospect Hao-Yu Lee to the Motor City.
Lorenzen had a 3.48 ERA and a 6-7 record going into Wednesday’s start, his second for Philadelphia since the trade.