Those no-hitters

[Bob Of Burleson]

Lincecum's second no-hitter: Did you know?

By Doug Miller / MLB.com

Tim Lincecum (of the San Francisco Giants) threw his second career no-hitter on Wednesday. How many pitchers in Major League history have thrown more than one?

Twenty-seven so far -- one for every out a pitcher needs to finish a no-hitter. Nolan Ryan heads the list with seven, Sandy Koufax is next with four and Cy Young himself, Bob Feller and Larry Corcoran each uncorked three.

The rest of the list spun two apiece, and Lincecum joined some heady company with, in alphabetical order: Homer Bailey (2012, '13), Mark Buehrle (2007, perfect game in '09), Jim Bunning (1958, perfect game in '64), Steve Busby (1973, '74), Carl Erskine (1952, '56), Bob Forsch (1978, '83), Pud Galvin (1880, '84) Roy Halladay (both in 2010; one a perfect game, one in postseason), Ken Holtzman (1969, '71), Randy Johnson (1990, perfect game in 2004), Addie Joss (perfect game in 1908, no-hitter in '10), Dutch Leonard (1916, '18), Jim Maloney (1965, '69), Christy Mathewson (1901, '05), Hideo Nomo (1996, 2001), Allie Reynolds (both in 1951), Warren Spahn (1960, '61), Bill Stoneman (1969, '72), Virgil Trucks (both in 1952), Johnny Vander Meer (in consecutive starts in 1938), Justin Verlander (2007 and '11) and Don Wilson (1967, '69).

Have there ever been as many active pitchers with multiple no-hitters in their career as there are now?

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, there are four active pitchers (Lincecum, Bailey, Buehrle and Verlander) this season with multiple career no-no's. The last time there were four players active in a season that had multiple career no-hitters before this season was 1974, when there were five such players: Busby, Holtzman, Ryan, Stoneman and Wilson. Busby threw his second no-hitter in 1974, and Ryan threw his third that year.

We've seen three no-hitters (Josh Beckett on May 25, Clayton Kershaw on June 18 and Lincecum on June 25) within the last month. Have there ever been as many no-hitters within a month's time?

Surprisingly, it's happened quite a few times in the live-ball era (since 1920) alone. There were four no-hitters from June 2-June 29, 1990 (Johnson on June 2, Ryan on June 11, and Dave Stewart and Fernando Valenzuela on the same day, June 29). That's the record for most within a month.

MORE

[dublusk]

I thought Dizzy Dean had one?

[dublusk]

And Bob Gibson?

[Bob Of Burleson]

Just a smidgen of bad luck will spoil a no-hitter. Ask Yu Darvish.