August 12, 2015: Hisashi Iwakuma tosses fifth no-hitter in Seattle Mariners history

The roof was open for the 25,661 baseball fans in attendance at Safeco Field on August 12, 2015.1 It had been rainy in the morning, but only clouds remained when the getaway day game began in the early afternoon. Both the Seattle Mariners and Baltimore Orioles were in the middle of the American League pack, running out of time in the wild-card race. For the Orioles, it was the end of a nine-game West Coast road trip.

Right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma, in his fourth season with the Mariners, was starting against the Orioles. Iwakuma had signed with Seattle on January 5, 2012, after a successful 12-season career with Nippon Professional Baseball’s Osaka Kintetsu Buffalos and Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.2

Iwakuma had made the AL All-Star team and finished third in the league’s Cy Young Award voting in 2013. In his first three seasons in Seattle, he won 38 games and posted a 3.07 ERA, displaying a quirky delivery and excellent control. A strained lat muscle had sidelined the 34-year-old Iwakuma for more than two months in 2015, and he entered the game with a 3-2 record (in 10 starts) and a 4.41 ERA.

Sharp Mariners defense kept the Orioles hitless in the early innings. Leading off the game, Baltimore’s Manny Machado bid for extra bases with a liner to left center, but left fielder Brad Miller made a leaping catch for the out. In the second inning Kyle Seager, playing shallow at third with a lefty at bat, fielded Jimmy Paredes’ dribbler and threw him out at first base.

Ryan Flaherty hit a ball past a diving Seager in the third inning. It might have been difficult for Seager to get to his feet and throw out Flaherty at first base even had he made the play, but 21-year-old shortstop Ketel Marte – in just his 11th big-league game – made a slick play, moving to his right, backing up Seager, and throwing across his body for the out.

Opposing Iwakuma was Kevin Gausman, making his eighth start of the season. Seager and Austin Jackson were left on base after hitting one-out doubles in the first and second innings, but the Mariners broke through in the third. Gausman walked Marte with one out. After Seager struck out for the second out, Marte took second on a wild pitch with Franklin Gutierrez batting. 

Marte went on to score on a long double to left-center field by Gutierrez, putting the Mariners up 1-0. Robinson Canó followed with a base hit to left field, scoring Gutierrez, who had a nifty slide to avoid the tag by catcher Caleb Joseph. Seattle’s lead was 2-0.

The fourth inning was a challenge for Iwakuma. Machado walked to start the inning. The next hitter, Gerardo Parra, hit a grounder between first and second base. Second baseman Canó made a great play, ranging to his left to field the ball and throw across his body, getting Parra at first while Machado advanced to second. Iwakuma struck out Adam Jones for the second out. Chris Davis walked to give the Orioles runners on first and second, but Iwakuma struck out Paredes to end the inning. 

Seattle added another run in the bottom of the fourth. Jackson led off with a double to left-center that got stuck in the bottom of the wall. Gausman fanned Mark Trumbo and Miller, but backup catcher Jesús Sucre, batting .091 coming into the game, doubled down the left-field line to score Jackson and push the lead to 3-0.

Iwakuma retired the side in order in the fifth and sixth innings. In the seventh, Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon sent in Logan Morrison to replace Trumbo at first base. After Jones flied out to center to start the inning, the Mariners shifted the infield on the left-handed-batting Davis, moving Marte and Canó to their left. It was not needed as Davis – who went on to lead the majors in both home runs (47) and strikeouts (208) in 2015 – struck out for the second out of the inning.

Davis’s strikeout left the Orioles hitless through 6⅔ innings. Dave Sims and Mike Blowers, broadcasting the game on Root Sports Northwest in Seattle, began to discuss the possibility of a no-hitter. Even Gausman was unaware when he came out of the game after seven innings. “I didn’t even know [about the no hitter] because we had guys on base … when I came out of the game, that’s when I looked up and I was like, ‘Oh, it’s the eighth inning and we don’t have any hits,’” Gausman said afterward.3

Paredes grounded to Canó for the third out of the seventh. Iwakuma had set down 10 in a row.

With the excitement in the ballpark perceptible, Iwakuma opened the eighth inning by walking Jonathan Schoop in a seven pitch at-bat. Iwakuma recovered to strike out Flaherty for the first out; the pitch appeared low, but home-plate umpire Jeff Nelson had been calling these types of pitches for strikes all game, for both sides. Joseph then hit into a 6-4-3 double play, the only double play of the game, to end the inning.

When Iwakuma took the mound for the ninth inning, he had thrown 107 pitches.4 David Lough popped up into foul territory, and Seager made a running over-the-shoulder catch near left field for the first out. Machado grounded to Seager for the second out; Iwakuma was still pitching faster than 90 MPH at this point in the game.

With two outs, Parra hit Iwakuma’s first pitch to center field. Austin Jackson was there to make the final out. “To be honest, when [Parra] first hit that ball, I thought that ball was going to drop for a base hit,” Jackson said afterward. Iwakuma would say about that moment, “I was like, ‘Uh oh.’ Right when I saw Jackson showed his glove up in the air, I was like, ‘Yes!’”

Hisashi Iwakuma had thrown a 116-pitch no-hitter, the fifth in Mariners history and the first (and only major-league) complete game of his career.5 Iwakuma said, “When I was young, when I first signed, I said to myself, ‘One day, it would be nice to throw a no-hitter.’ Today I’m very happy I accomplished it, but it was just taking one hitter at a time to become true.”1 Adam Jones tipped his cap to Iwakuma’s effort, “Iwakuma threw his game. We hit some balls hard right at guys, they played good defense.”6  

Peter Schmuck of the Baltimore Sun commented that this “watered-down, overaggressive O’s lineup was ripe to be no-hit,”7 going as far to call it “self-defeating lack of plate discipline.”  Iwakuma, however, effectively took advantage of this vulnerability with his control and discipline. Schmuck did concede, “Maybe none of that mattered. Maybe Iwakuma was just too good. He certainly was in control. …”8

Iwakuma finished the year with a 9-5 record and a 3.54 ERA over 20 starts, giving him a 2.6 WAR for the season. This game was his moment, his contribution to baseball lore, in what turned out to be a six-season stint with the Mariners through 2017. His 19-year professional career ended with a two-game return to Nippon Professional Baseball and the Yomiuri Giants in 2019. 

Author’s Note

After over 40 years of watching and following baseball, this was the author’s first no-hitter ever seen in its entirety (TV or otherwise) and represents a “bucket list” item. It was awesome to be able to see this in person. We all stood on our feet for the last three outs and screamed our heads off when Jackson caught the final out. The crowd was deafening (the roof had been closed during the game) in celebration of the accomplishment. Thankfully, I scored the game! 

Author’s ticket stub from the game

Author’s scorecard from the game

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Gary Belleville, Kurt Blumenau, and John Fredland along with Jim Sweetman. It was copy-edited by Len Levin. I am grateful for their advice and suggestions to make this a better article. I am indebted to them because of their kindness and support! 

Photo credit: Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the specific sources cited in the Notes, the author used Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for general player data and the box score and play-by-play.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SEA/SEA201508120.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2015/B08120SEA2015.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2vZVLIyJfk

Notes

1 Matt Pentz, “Hisashi Iwakuma Throws Fifth No-Hitter in Mariners History,” Seattle Times, August 12, 2015, https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/mariners/hisashi-iwakuma-throws-fifth-no-hitter-in-mariners-history/.

2 Iwakuma won the Sawamura Award (Japan’s version of the Cy Young Award) and the Pacific League’s MVP Award in 2008.

3 Eduardo A. Encina, “Hitless in Seattle,” Baltimore Sun, August 13, 2015: B5.

4 Iwakuma’s major-league high for pitches thrown came in his previous start. He threw 118 pitches (in only seven innings) against the Texas Rangers.

5 Iwakuma was the second person of Japanese descent to throw a no-hitter. Hideo Nomo was the first, throwing two no-hitters in his major-league career. Nomo no-hit the Colorado Rockies on September 17, 1996, as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He also no-hit the Baltimore Orioles as a member of the Boston Red Sox on April 4, 2001.

6 Encina, “Hitless in Seattle.”

7 Peter Schmuck, “Watered-Down, Overaggressive O’s Lineup Was Ripe to Be No-Hit,” Baltimore Sun, August 13, 2015: B1.

8 Schmuck.