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95 years ago today, May 2, 1917, these same two teams met at Clark & Addison in Chicago, the ballpark we now know as Wrigley Field then known as Weeghman Park.
What happened that day, in front of only 2,500 fans on what was described in this article about that game as "a cold, blustery afternoon" was the only game in major league history where both pitchers, the Cubs' Jim "Hippo" Vaughn, and the Reds' Fred Toney, threw nine no-hit innings:
On and on it went, inning after inning, with neither team managing a hit. It was the ultimate pitcher’s duel. When the Reds were retired in the ninth (with Toney fanning for the final out), the sparse crowd cheered lustily, both for Vaughn’s magnificent pitching and for the prospect of a Cub rally in the bottom half of the inning. But the Cubs went down easily. Both Vaughn and Toney had gone a full nine innings without yielding a hit. But only Toney would go into the record books as having pitched an official no-hitter.
The details of how the Reds broke up the no-hitter in the 10th inning and won the game are at the link, well worth reading. 1917 was the Cubs' second season in what is now Wrigley Field. There wasn't another no-hitter thrown there by anyone until the Cubs' Sam Jones no-hit the Pirates 38 years later, on May 12, 1955, and none by a visiting player until Jim Maloney threw a 10-inning no-hitter on August 19, 1965, the last 10-inning complete-game no-hitter in MLB history (and the one with the most walks -- 10).
Toney and Maloney, Cincinnati Reds pitchers with rhyming names, are the only visitors to ever throw a no-hitter in Wrigley Field.
I don't think it's a stretch to say that neither Jeff Samardzija nor Bronson Arroyo will repeat that feat tonight in Cincinnati.
Cubs lineup:
DeJesus RF, Campana CF, Castro SS, LaHair 1B, Soriano LF, Stewart 3B, DeWitt 2B, Soto C, Samardzija P
Reds lineup:
Cozart SS, Stubbs CF, Votto 1B, Phillips 2B, Bruce RF, Rolen 3B, Heisey LF, Hanigan C, Arroyo P
Same lineups as were supposed to take the field Tuesday night.
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Copy/paste is a useful computer writing tool. Since the same pitchers who were scheduled for Tuesday's rainout are going tonight, you get to read the same pitcher previews again.
Jeff Samardzija did not pitch in the series against the Reds at Wrigley Field in April; overall, current Reds don't have that much of a track record against him. In 36 at-bats, they have just seven hits and no home runs. Joey Votto, the Reds' best hitter, is just 1-for-9 against Shark. Maybe there's hope for this game after all.
Bronson Arroyo made three starts against the Cubs last year, combining for 19⅔ innings and eight earned runs allowed (3.66 ERA). The Cubs managed to win two of the three games, somehow. Arroyo has a long history against the Cubs; current members of the team, though, are hitting just .222 (30-for-135) against him with just five home runs.
Both pitchers look like they're posing for artsy-fartsy portraits in the pictures above. FWIW, Samardzija is listed with five games played because he was in one game as a pinch-runner.
Today's game is on WGN. Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Reds site Red Reporter. As always, be careful over there.
Today's first pitch thread will post at 6:10 p.m. CDT and the overflows at 7:10, 8:10 and 8:55 p.m. CDT. If you need more overflows due to extra innings or rain delays, post them in the fanshot section.
Discuss amongst yourselves.