Twice in the span of less than two weeks, the Boston Red Sox, whose pitchers have thrown the last two no-hitters in Major League Baseball, have nearly found themselves the victims of one themselves. On 29 July, Los Angeles Angels pitcher John Lackey came within two outs of a no-no at Fenway Park before Dustin Pedroia ended Boston’s drought at the plate with a single to left; Lackey and the Angels eventually settled for a complete-game, 6-2 victory over the Red Sox Then, on Monday night in Chicago, White Sox pitcher John Danks retired the first 17 Red Sox batters he faced and then surrendered his first hit with one out in the seventh to Kevin Youkilis, as Boston eventually won 5-1 to earn a split of the four-game series at U.S. Cellular Field. In club history, Boston pitchers have combined to throw 18 no-hitters, including a perfect game by the legendary Hall of Fame pitcher Cy Young; that is the most thrown by a single franchise. On the flip side, the team has also suffered at the hands of 11 opposing pitchers who managed to keep Red Sox batters from recording a hit over the course of a game.

The first pitcher to throw a no-hitter against Boston was Bob Rhoads of the Cleveland Naps on 18 September 1908. Cleveland actually trailed Boston at one point 1-0 thanks to a walk, a sacrifice, an error, and a wild pitch, but the Naps managed to score single runs in the fourth and eighth to give Rhoads a 2-1 win. The most recent no-hitter against the Red Sox was thrown by Seattle Mariners pitcher Chris Bosio on 22 April 1993. Bosio walked the first two batters of the game, then retired the next 27 Boston batters as Seattle won 2-0 behind his no-no. New York Yankees pitchers hold the mark for the most no-hitters thrown against the Red Sox by a single club; the most recent came in 1983, when Dave Righetti yielded just four walks to Boston batters in a 4-0 for the Bombers at Yankee Stadium on 4 July. The White Sox and the Washington Senators (now the Minnesota Twins) have each managed the feat twice against Boston; one was thrown by Hall of Fame pitcher Walter “Big Train” Johnson on 1 July 1920, the only instance in which the Red Sox lost a no-hitter by a 1-0 score. Also of interest: the last opposing pitcher to manage the feat at Fenway Park was another Hall of Fame pitcher, Jim Bunning, who no-hit Boston 3-0 at Fenway Park in the first game of a doubleheader on 20 July 1958.

Tags: Boston Red Sox, Cy Young, Dustin Pedroia, Fenway Park, Kevin Youkilis, Walter Johnson

Life keeps getting better for third-year Boston Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester; having already won the deciding game of the 2007 World Series for his team and thrown a no-hitter in May, his efforts for the month of July earned him American League Pitcher of the Month honors from Major League Baseball. In a month in which his team suffered its first losing record for a month since September 2006, going 11-13, and dropped from 1-1/2 to three games behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the race for first in the AL East, Lester was brilliant in four starts for the Red Sox. In his first start, he bested New York at Yankee Stadium with a complete-game effort, yielding just five hits and two walks in a 7-0 shutout of the Bronx Bombers. After a no-decision against Minnesota at Fenway Park, he won his next two starts in Seattle against the Mariners and back at home against the Yankees to give him a record of 3-0 for the month with a 2.05 ERA and 28 strikeouts; more importantly, Boston won all four of his starts.

After winning his last start over the weekend against Oakland at Fenway, in which he allowed two runs on seven hits and a walk while striking out five in a 12-2 win for Boston, Lester is now 10-3 with a 3.14 ERA and 101 strikeouts in 146-1/3 innings pitched. Lester has not lost a start since a 6-3 loss for the Red Sox in Oakland, winning seven of eleven starts since then. Others considered for the honor included Angels closer Francisco Rodriguez, Yankees starter Mike Mussina, Twins closer Joe Nathan, Indians starter Cliff Lee, and Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay.

Tags: Boston Red Sox, Jon Lester