July 2, 1970: Yankees’ Horace Clarke spoils yet another no-hit bid in the ninth inning

Three times over a four-week span in June and July of 1970, the New York Yankees entered the ninth inning of a game on the wrong end of the score and hitless. Each time, second baseman Horace Clarke delivered a hit, saving the Yankees from the ignominy of getting no-hit.

The 31-year-old Clarke first played spoiler on June 4 at Yankee Stadium. With New York trailing 1-0, Clarke’s leadoff single ended southpaw Jim Rooker’s bid for the first no-hitter in the Kansas City Royals’ two-season history. Moments later, Clarke scored the tying run on a double by Bobby Murcer, then won the game in the 11th inning with a sacrifice fly.

The second time Clarke erased a no-hitter, on June 19 at Boston’s Fenway Park, he again led off the ninth with a single, ruining Sonny Siebert’s attempt to fashion the Red Sox’ 15th no-hitter. That hit ignited a four-run rally, which fell short of overcoming the Yankees’ seven-run deficit.

When Clarke connected at Detroit’s Tiger Stadium for a one-out single in the ninth inning off Joe Niekro on July 2, he became the first American or National League player to ever spoil three no-hitters in the ninth inning or later.1 Unlike Clarke’s previous two victims, Niekro retired the next two Yankees he faced, and closed out his one-hit, 5-0 win.

Off to their best start in six years, the Yankees began that day with a 43-31 record, second in the AL East Division and four games behind the first-place Baltimore Orioles. New York won five straight AL crowns (and two World Series) between 1960 and 1964, but fell into an abyss as stars like Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, and Bobby Richardson faded away, and others, including Roger Maris and Ralph Terry, were traded. They were second-division finishers from 1965 to 1968, then fifth in the AL East in 1969, the first year of division alignment.

Promoted from Triple-A Toledo in 1965 after parts of eight seasons in the minor leagues, Clarke was installed by manager Ralph Houk as Richardson’s second base successor in 1967. His perceived mediocrity (from a low OBP and struggles turning double plays, in particular) so typified the Yankees of the mid/late-1960s and early 1970s that New York Daily News sportswriter Beth Fallon called that period “The Horace Clarke Years.”2 

The solid play of several home-grown products in the first few months of the 1970 season gave Yankees fans a glimpse of the good times that lay a few years off.3 Left fielder Roy White was leading the AL with a .344 batting average, Murcer was demonstrating that his 26-homer, 82-RBI rookie campaign was no fluke, and catcher Thurman Munson was Rookie of the Year-bound. In the pitching department, 1968 Rookie of the Year Stan Bahnsen was having a bounce-back year and southpaw Fritz Peterson was finally getting enough run support to join ace Mel Stottlemyre as a 20-game winner.4

The Tigers’ July 2 matchup with New York was the finale of a three-game series. Trailing the Yankees by five games, Detroit won the opener behind a four-home-run barrage and took the second game in 11 innings on a walk-off single by Mickey Stanley. That game was played before more than 53,000 fans, lured by two-time reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Denny McLain’s first start since returning from a half-season suspension imposed by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn for “bookmaking activities.”5

Angling for a series sweep, Detroit manager Mayo Smith turned to 25-year-old Joe Niekro, who had joined the Tigers in a December 1969 offseason trade with the San Diego Padres after reaching the majors with the Chicago Cubs two years earlier.6 Niekro had an 8-6 record and a 3.28 ERA so far in 1970. Six days earlier, he’d come within an out of shutting out the Cleveland Indians in a complete-game four-hitter. Opposing Niekro was Stottlemyre, carrying the same 8-6 mark after losing his previous two starts, with a 3.18 ERA. Lifetime 10-12 against Detroit in seven seasons, he had been on the short end of an Earl Wilson four-hit shutout the last time the two teams had met in the Motor City.

The Tigers were set down in order in the first inning, then gave the crowd of 18,787 something to roar about in the second. Batting with the bases loaded after walks to Norm Cash and Jim Price sandwiched around a Stanley single, Niekro stroked a two-out opposite-field single to right, scoring two. A single up the middle by Dick McAuliffe handed Niekro a 3-0 lead.

Niekro walked White leading off the second and Danny Cater leading off the fifth but was otherwise perfect over the first six innings. Relying on a sinking fastball, he coaxed batter after batter to ground out, including all three he faced in the seventh.7

With one out in bottom of that frame, Jim Northrop deposited a Stottlemyre offering into the right-field upper-deck seats, giving him a team-leading 14 home runs and 45 RBIs.8 A single by Willie Horton and a walk to Cash put Stottlemyre on the ropes, but he escaped when Stanley lined into a 4-6 double play.

Leading off the New York eighth, Curt Blefary flied out to center. Jake Gibbs followed by driving the ball to deep right-center field, where right fielder Northrop ran it down. On a hot and humid night in which he went through three undershirts,9 Niekro retired light-hitting Gene Michael on a grounder to second base, bringing him three outs from his first career no-hitter.

The Tigers stretched their margin to five runs in the bottom of the inning on a one-out homer to deep left field by Price. The future color commentator for the Detroit Tigers Radio Network was catching in place of six-time All-Star catcher Bill Freehan, who despite hitting only .209 (and .155 over his last 44 games) was about to be voted in by fans to start in the All-Star Game.10 The blast was Price’s first home run of the season.

Buoyed by a standing ovation he received after Price’s homer (he was the next batter), Niekro was primed for the ninth.11 Up first was Pete Ward, pinch-hitting for Stottlemyre. A nine-year AL veteran, he had never faced Niekro. Ward sent the ball to deep center field, where Stanley snared it for the first out.

Next to bat was the switch-hitting Clarke.

Hitless in his last 12 at-bats and only 4-for-his-last-38, Clarke had grounded out twice and, in his last at-bat, lined out to center field. Clarke took Niekro’s first pitch for a ball, then pulled the next offering toward the hole between Cash at first and McAuliffe at second.

McAuliffe had retired Clarke on a close play in the third inning after he slapped a ball to the same location, but this time the Detroit second baseman had to go deeper to get it. Cash had ranged too far to his right, so Niekro had to cover first.

Niekro beat Clarke to the bag, but he misjudged his steps. When McAuliffe’s low throw from the outfield grass arrived, Niekro was off the bag on the foul side. By the time Niekro reached back with his foot, Clarke was already there.12 First-base umpire Don Denkinger ruled him safe.

The crowd booed, but Niekro had no complaint. “He made the right call,” Niekro told reporters after the game. “My momentum carried me over the bag.”13 Official scorer Watson Spoelstra of the Detroit Press gave Clarke a hit. “This was pretty close,” Clarke said later. “I could see that Niekro was off the bag and that I had him. I’m glad that’s over.”14

His no-hitter gone, Niekro went back to work. He retired Jerry Kenney on a force at second and Murcer on a grounder to end the game.

Asked about his penchant for thwarting no-hitters, Clarke told reporters, “It’s just one of those things. I just happen to be the guy, but maybe I do try harder. I know I don’t like to be on a team that’s no-hit.” As to how he felt about the hurlers he had denied glory, Clarke added, “No, I don’t feel sorry for the pitcher. His job is to get me, my job is to get him.”15

Sitting in front of his locker, Niekro said, “I’ll remember that one for a few nights,” thinking of what might have been. “But what can you do? I guess I just wasn’t supposed to pitch a no-hitter tonight.”16

Niekro made more than 350 starts over the next 18 years but never again came as close to throwing a no-hitter; his gem at Tiger Stadium was his sole career one-hitter.17 Clarke retired in 1974 having never played in a major-league game in which his team was no-hit.

On June 11, 2003, six Houston Astros pitchers combined to end the Yankees’ AL-record 44-year, 9-month streak of not getting no-hit – a feat made possible by Horace Clarke.18

Nearly 43 years after this game, on May 24, 2013, Joe Mauer of the Minnesota Twins became the second major leaguer to end three no-hit bids in the ninth inning or later. He did it over five seasons.19

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kevin Larkin and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Horace Clarke, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted SABR member Stew Thornley’s compilation of no-hitters lost in the ninth inning or later, “Lost in the Ninth,” posted at https://milkeespress.com/lostninth.html; Rory Costello’s SABR Biography of Horace Clarke; and the Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and Stathead.com websites, including box scores and play-by-play at these links:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/DET/DET197007020.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1970/B07020DET1970.htm

Notes

1 Before Clarke, Ossie Bluege, Frank Howard, and César Tovar were the only major leaguers to have spoiled two no-hitters in the ninth inning or later. Tovar, a Minnesota Twin, notched both of his triumphs in 1969, denying southpaws Dave McNally and Mike Cuellar of the eventual American League champion Baltimore Orioles in May and August, respectively. Between 1876 and Clarke’s first quashed no-hitter on June 4, a total of 116 no-hitters had died in the ninth inning of a regular-season game or later. Stew Thornley, “Lost in the Ninth,” Milkees Press, https://milkeespress.com/lostninth.html, accessed December 2, 2025.

2 Beth Fallon, “Loving the Yankees Is Worth the Hate,” New York Daily News, October 10, 1980: 31.

3 The Yankees, who came in second in the AL East in 1970 at 93-69, 15 games behind the Orioles, reverted to average from 1971 to 1973 but won three consecutive AL pennants and two World Series crowns between 1976 and 1978.

4 Despite ERAs of 2.55 and 2.63 in the two previous seasons, Peterson had recorded only one more win than loss in each (12-11 in 1968 and 17-16 in 1969).

5 Jim Hawkins, “Denny Doesn’t (KO’d in the 6th) But Tigers Do … Beat Yanks, 6-5,” Detroit Free Press, July 2, 1970: 1D; George Vecsey, “Baseball Suspends McLain for Ties to Gambling,” New York Times, February 20, 1970: 1; “The Downfall of Denny McLain: McLain-Kuhn: The Prequel to Rose-Vincent,” Baseball Prospectus, February 28, 2003, https://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/1666/the-downfall-of-denny-mclain-mclain-kuhn-the-prequel-to-rose-vincent/.

6 Coming as it did a day after the return of McLain, a fan favorite, Niekro told reporters before his start that the game “was going to seem about as exciting as ‘the consolation game of the NCAA basketball tournament.’” Jim Hawkins, “Yank Ruins Niekro’s No-Hitter in 9th,” Detroit Free Press, July 3, 1970: 1D.

7 Jim Ogle, “Clarke Bar (to No-Hitter) Yanks’ Lone Sweet Spot,” Staten Island Advance, July 3, 1970: 25. Later in Niekro’s career, his most effective pitch was a knuckleball, which, like his Hall of Fame brother Phil, he learned to throw from his father.  

8 Hawkins, “Yank Ruins Niekro’s No-Hitter in 9th.”

9 Hawkins, “Yank Ruins Niekro’s No-Hitter in 9th.”

10 Not playing may have been a blessing for Freehan.  He’d been drawing boos from hometown fans all year over unflattering remarks he’d made about McLain and Smith in his tell-all book about the 1969 Tigers, Behind the Mask, that was published before spring training, and over the last few days had been hounded by the media in anticipation of McLain’s return for his suspension. Michigan newspapers appear to have made no mention of Freehan getting booed at home until after he’d taken a verbal beating from fans during McLain’s July 1 return. Joe Falls, “Freehan’s Booming Bat Changes Jeers to Cheers,” Detroit Free Press, July 12, 1970: 2D. Jim Hawkins, “Kaline Passes Up All-Stars,” Detroit Free Press, July 10, 1970: 2D; Al Cotton “One Thing Sure – He’s Not Denny of Old,” Jackson (Michigan) Citizen Patriot, July 2, 1970: 21.

11 Curt Sylvester, “’Guess I Wasn’t Supposed to Get No-Hitter,’” Detroit Free Press, July 3, 1970: 1D.

12 Joseph Durso, “Niekro of Tigers, With No-Hitter Till 9th, Tops Yanks, 5-0,” New York Times, July 3, 1970: 17.

13 Dick Young, “Niekro 1-Hits Yanks, 5-0; Tigers Sweep 3,” New York Daily News, July 3, 1970: 51.

14 Ogle, “Clarke Bar (to no-Hitter) Yanks’ Lone Sweet Spot.”

15 Ogle.

16 Sylvester. Niekro had a 12-13 record and 4.06 ERA in 38 apperances — 34 starts – for the 1970 Tigers, who finished fourth in the AL East at 79-83.

17 Thirty-six of those starts came while Niekro wore Yankees pinstripes.

18 Hoyt Wilhelm of the Orioles last no-hit the Yankees on September 20, 1958. Only the Chicago Cubs have had a longer streak, 49 years, 11 months between Sandy Koufax’s 1965 perfect game at Wrigley Field and a no-hitter that Cole Hamels also threw at Wrigley, in 2015.

19 Prior to denying Anibal Sanchez of the Tigers on May 24, 2013, Mauer ended no-hit bids by Gavin Floyd of the Chicago White Sox on June 6, 2008, and reliever Neftalí Feliz, one of four Texas Rangers pitchers vying for a combined no-hitter on August 23, 2010.