20-year Marliniversary: Sánchez no-hits Diamondbacks

In nearly three and a half decades as a franchise, six pitchers for the Florida/Miami Marlins have thrown no-hitters. The last to do so at the club’s original home stadium tossed his no-no on this day 20 years ago.

In the rubber game of a three-game series at Dolphins Stadium on Sept. 6, 2006, Aníbal Sánchez worked around four walks to become the fourth Marlins pitcher to throw a no-hitter. Sánchez needed 103 pitches to no-hit the Arizona Diamondbacks in a 2-0 victory.

Sánchez was perfect the first time through the Arizona order. For Diamondbacks starter Édgar González, however, that was not the case.

Florida squandered a lead-off triple by Hanley Ramírez in the first, but went ahead for good in the second. Joe Borchard, who hit the go-ahead home run in the first game of the series against Arizona, put the Marlins in front in the second inning with a solo shot. That’s all Sánchez would need.

Sánchez worked around a pair of one-out walks in the fourth by retiring Eric Byrnes and Chad Tracy on flyouts to left field. Miguel Cabrera extended the lead to 2-0 with a solo home run on the very first pitch from González in the bottom of the fourth.

The Diamondbacks would bring the tying run to the plate in each of the next two innings, but Sánchez had answers. After working around an error to lead off the fifth, Sánchez needed just one pitch to get Byrnes to line out following a two-out walk to Luis Gonzalez in the sixth.

The Marlins had just one hit after the fourth inning, but that was one more than Sánchez would allow for the evening. The right-hander worked a 1-2-3 seventh on just nine pitches before neutralizing a walk to former Marlins World Series hero Craig Counsell by getting the speedy Orlando Hudson to hit into an inning-ending double play in the eighth.

Sánchez didn’t need to throw more than 10 pitches in any of his final three innings. Sánchez struck out Conor Jackson to open the ninth and then got Gonzalez to pop out. On an 0-1 pitch, Byrnes rolled a routine grounder to short. Ramírez took his time and fired a strike to first, getting Byrnes by half a step to complete the no-hitter.

Sánchez finished with six strikeouts in the win. While Arizona had no hits, Borchard finished with two of the five hits for the Marlins.

Sánchez flirted with no-hitters on other occasions throughout his career and even completed multiple one-hitters. His lone no-no, however, came for the Marlins on this day two decades ago.