Mike Fiers Throws A No-hitter with Some Help From Pine Tar, A Breakdown
What Happened
On May 7, 2019, Oakland's Mike Fiers threw the second no-hitter of his career, blanking the Cincinnati Reds 2-0 at the Coliseum. Jomboy's breakdown zooms in on Fiers repeatedly regripping the baseball between pitches, with shots of a sticky substance that appears to leave Marcus Semien staring at his own hand after fielding a grounder. The video tracks the close calls too, including a hard-hit ball that Semien turned and a Joey Votto liner snagged in the outfield. Fiers finished the no-no while the camera kept catching him reaching for grip.
Why This Matters
Foreign substances on the baseball were technically illegal under MLB rules even in 2019, but enforcement was nonexistent until the league's June 2021 crackdown that brought mid-inning checks and ten-game suspensions. Fiers throwing a no-hitter while visibly loading up shows how openly pitchers used grip aids before that reckoning, and it's why this clip aged into a useful piece of evidence. Plenty of hitters genuinely preferred pitchers having control, since a 90-plus fastball with no grip is a safety problem. Fiers had already broken Giancarlo Stanton's face with a 2014 pitch, so the control argument carried weight. This was also Fiers' second career no-hitter, the first coming with Houston in 2015, making him one of a small group with two.
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Key Moments
Who / What Is Involved
Players: Mike Fiers. Teams: Athletics.
Full Transcript
Click timestamps to jump to that momentalright let's take a closer look at Mike
fiers no-hitter here's the first pitch
of the game whoa no control let's fix
that get some grip real quick there we
go oh that's much better but [ __ ] now
that ball is out of play got to do it
again god damn it alright here we go now
this ball is good to go we're in the
first inning here got him
let's go going back to the still on the
top of first thing now that ball is out
of place [ __ ] ok here we go whoo we just
rocked this one 398 feet maybe that
scares the hell out of them regrip here
we go next pitch in the dirt foul ball
BRE grip get that grip right here we go
3 & 2
top 4 now ground ball to Simeon he
throws at the first base they get the
easy out Simeon looks at his hand like
what the [ __ ] Mike how much goop you got
on here Oh gross
alright next pitch here we go OOP ground
her up the middle that's the air that is
the first base runner allowed in the
fourth inning next pitch up in the dirt
I'm just gonna want that ball me regrip
real quick here we go foul ball [ __ ]
hold on gonna have to regrip forget this
new ball break it in just how I like it
next pitch in the dirt another foul ball
ok here we go let me get some of this
stuff down here put it on there here we
go we're good to go
in play is this gonna drop the first hit
of the game oh oh
every no-hitters got a beautiful play or
two and there was a very nice play next
batter
Joey Votto tattoos one boom nice catch
fires is like wow this is my luckiest
day ever this is going great here's the
other replay ooh that is nice there we
go oh [ __ ] foul ball to Puig let me
regrip real quick okay there we go
next pitch oh that's in the dirt here we
go oh that's it that's the game he did
it guys he did it I'm not trying to talk
[ __ ] or anything every pitcher uses
grips batters say they would rather it
because it gives them the grip and they
don't want to get hit Mike Fiers broke
Stanton's jaw no one time but it's
pretty funny how blatant that was
Congrats Mike Fiers no-hitter