Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers baseball team made one of the most impressive feats in sports recently. He pitched a “no-hitter” against the Toronto Blue Jays leading his team to a 9-0 victory.
Very few pitchers have ever thrown a no-hitter. It’s very difficult and very rare. But Verlander has now done it twice in his seven seasons playing baseball professionally.
The Milwaukee Brewers were the first victim of Verlander’s no-hitter back on June 12, 2007.
A no-hitter is when a pitcher doesn’t allow any hits from the opposing team’s 27 batters.
A “perfect game” is a pitcher’s ultimate goal, and it’s even better than a no-hitter. In a perfect game, none of the opposing hitters are able to reach first base. Verlander nearly pitched a perfect game against the Blue Jays, but he walked Blue Jays’ catcher, J.P. Arencibia right near the end of the game – in the eighth inning.
Verlander’s pitches were hard and well-aimed. He only pitched 108 pitches in the whole game, which is low. However, he only struck out four batters.
Verlander’s magnificent performance was the second no-hitter of the MLB season, which started in April. Minnesota Twins pitcher, Francisco Liriano, pitched a no-hitter against the Chicago White Sox four days before Verlander’s no-hitter.
The last Detroit pitcher to throw a no-hitter before Verlander was Jack Morris, against the Chicago White Sox on April 7, 1984.
Verlander has already thrown two no-hitters and he’s only 28 years old. Detroit Tiger fans are expecting a lot from their young pitcher, and they wouldn’t be at all surprised if he threw a third no-hitter before his career is over.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
Writing/Discussion Prompt
Pitching a no-hitter is a tremendous accomplishment. It takes a lot of skill and a little bit of luck too. What other great accomplishments are similar to pitching a no-hitter? Why are they similar and how are they different?
Reading Prompt
The speed and expression with which we read impacts our ability to understand what it is we are reading greatly. It’s easy to imagine that if someone was reading very fast it would be hard to understand the text, but did you know that it is also very hard to understand a text when it is being read very slowly? Re-read today’s article by yourself or to a friend and focus on the expression, confidence, and speed of your reading.
Primary
Read appropriate texts at a sufficient rate and with sufficient expression to convey the sense of the text readily to the reader and an audience (OME, Reading: 3.3).
Junior & Intermediate
Read appropriate texts with expression and confidence, adjusting reading strategies and reading rate to match the form and purpose (OME, Reading: 3.3).
Grammar Feature: Compound Words and Hyphens
A compound word is a single word that is made by combining two words. For example, the words: lifetime, somewhere, and earthquake, are compound words because they are a combination of two words.
Sometimes compound words are separated by a hyphen, like in the word “no-hitter.” Other examples include: well-dressed, old-fashioned, and best-known.
Write 12 compound words, with or without a hyphen, to show what you know.
