An epic night took place on the grounds of Citizens Bank Park, home of the Philadelphia Phillies. The Houston Astros defeated the Phillies 5-0 while making World Series History by throwing a combined no-hitter to tie the series at two games apiece.
Starting Game 4 for Houston, Cristian Javier pitched six innings, fanning (strike outs) nine with a combined 97 pitches thrown, clocking 70% of those pitches thrown as fastballs, according to baseball analysts — also marking the lowest earned run average in this postseason (1.30) versus dominate playoff teams.
After the game was over, Astros manager Dusty Baker said, “When I first met Javier, Javier told me that he had a ‘disappearing fastball’ and I responded, ‘Disappearing fastball? There’s no such thing.’ “But who knew, I guess there is such a thing.”
Sports analysts, Alex Rodriguez, David “Big Papi” Ortiz, and Frank “The Big Hurt” Thomas, went on to talk about how sharp Javier’s focus was during Game 4. One of them commented, “It looked like the Astros got their swagger back.”
What makes this moment even more amazing is what Javier said when he was interviewed after the game. The MLB pitcher was grateful to have his family present to witness the historic moment, and believe it or not, they predicted the no-hitter.
“To be able to have them here meant the world to me…they wanted to be here and this was the best gift I could give them,” Javier said in an interview with ESPN. “They told me yesterday that I was going to throw a no-hitter, and thanks to God I just held on to God today and had a lot of faith and you know I was able to do it.”
During this pursuit of history, the Astros scored five runs in the 5th inning. Javier exited after the 6th inning and turned it over to an Astros bullpen that is full of talent. The combination of Bryan Abreu, Rafael Montero, and Ryan Pressly put the finishing touches with one inning apiece to cap off the 1st combined no-hitter in World Series history.
