15-year Marliniversary: Aníbal Sánchez one-hits Giants

[Mike Ferguson]

One of six members of the Florida/Miami Marlins to throw a no-hitter, Aníbal Sánchez came close to duplicating that feat more than once. One of those occasions came on this day 15 years ago.

In the fourth and final game of a series against the San Francisco Giants on July 29, 2010 at AT&T Park, Sanchez was virtually unhittable for the Florida Marlins. In fact, the Giants managed just a single hit off the right-hander in a 5-0 victory for the Marlins.

Through four innings, Sánchez was perfect. To that point, he had struck out seven, including the side in the bottom of the fourth inning.

The perfect game and the no-hitter would fall by the wayside in the San Francisco fifth. With Florida leading 3-0, Sánchez started the frame by striking out catcher Buster Posey. The perfect game ended when Florida third baseman Jorge Cantú committed a throwing error on a ground ball off the bat of San Francisco’s Juan Uribe. Two pitches later, Pablo Sandoval singled to bring the tying run to the plate on what would be the Giants’ lone hit of the day.

Sánchez would settle in to retire Aaron Rowand and former Marlins World Series hero Edgar Rentería to get out of the inning.

Throughout the rest of the contest, the Giants would managed just one more baserunner. That came on a lead-off walk to Aubrey Huff to open the bottom of the seventh, but his time on base would be short-lived; two pitches later, Posey grounded into a double play. Sánchez would go on to retire the final seven batters he faced.

Sánchez threw 118 pitches in the one-hit, complete-game shutout. He finished the day with eight strikeouts. Andres Torres and Posey were each fanned twice. Pitcher Madison Bumgarner allowed three runs in six innings to take the loss for the Giants.

The day belonged to Sánchez, but offensively, Giancarlo (then known as Mike) Stanton and Cantú carried the load. Stanton finished 2-for-3 with RBI doubles in the second and fourth innings. Cantú was 2-for-4 with a pair of runs scored. Dan Uggla and Ronny Paulino were each hitless, but Uggla scored twice and Paulino drove in a pair of runs on sacrifice flies.

Sánchez threw his only no-hitter in 2006, but flirting with those became a common occurrence. In 2011, he took a no-hitter into the ninth in a win over the Colorado Rockies. Sánchez would also take no-hitters deep into contests as a member of the Detroit Tigers and Washington Nationals as well.

Through his 16 seasons in Major League Baseball, Sánchez has tossed four one-hitters. The first came on this day 15 years ago.

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