It could have been a no-hitter. But Lester had to leave the game due to a lat injury, and in the end we had to settle for a combined shutout 3-0 win. Or so we thought--Pap gave up a two-run dong to the Bautista regime, and then put the tying run at second with two out. On a base hit to left, Darnell fired to the plate, nailing the runner to end the game. The runner's foot kicked some dirt across the plate just before Tek got the tag on him. Whether the foot itself dragged across the plate's surface was hard to determine. What I do know is, it was fucking sweet. It's fun to have the celebratory victory fun when you're in the field. You only get that on no-hitters, clinches, milestone or record-setting wins, and extra-special defensive plays that end it like this one.

I wasn't watching live at the moment our no-hitter was broken up. But I was curious--since it was a different pitcher than the starter who gave it up, what would the fans do? Especially knowing the starter was most likely injured. Because normally you'd give the guy a big hand. But does the new guy deserve the hand for simply coming in and blowing the no-no? Or do you clap for all the pitchers used up to that point collectively to honor that they have gone that long without giving up a hit? So I watched the hit on line. Turns out there was a fairly big "awww" as the ball got into left field, and then...not much of anything. (From what I could tell on the Blue Jays' feed.) I guess it makes sense. But when you go through 5+ innings of a no-hitter, you should get that moment to cheer, right? Like, Woohoo, this was fuckin' fun while it lasted! But I guess in this situation you get nothing and like it.

Dicks won, so we stay 1.5 back. The Devs have fallen to 5 behind, the Jays are 10.5, and those poor Orioles have quietly slipped to nearly 15 games out.