Should we still care about no-hitters?

• Covers MLB for ESPN.com
• Former deputy editor of Page 2
• Been with ESPN.com since 1995

On April 9, in the 8,206th game in Padres history, Joe Musgrove threw the franchise’s first no-hitter. He was nearly perfect against the Rangers, with a fourth-inning hit batter the only runner allowed.

Five days later Carlos Rodon — a pitcher the White Sox non-tendered before re-signing this offseason — was nearly perfect in the season’s second no-hitter, hitting Cleveland’s Roberto Perez on the back foot on an 0-2 pitch with one out in the ninth inning.

Last Wednesday John Means, who had never pitched more than seven innings in 43 career starts, was even closer to perfection for the Orioles in a dominant no-hitter against the Mariners. The only baserunner reached on a third-strike wild pitch, making Means the only pitcher in MLB history to lose a perfect game under that scenario. Means struck out 12 and didn’t come close to allowing a hit — the hardest-hit ball against him was an infield popup.

Two days later, the Reds’ Wade Miley tossed 2021’s fourth no-hitter — and the second against Cleveland. He allowed just two runners, on a walk and an error. He credited his performance to a temporary tattoo of the Hulk that his 4-year-old son, Jeb, had convinced him to get. “I got no muscles at all,” Miley joked after the game. “Maybe this gave me some strength.”

The only flaw with that theory is Miley got the tattoo on his right arm. He pitches with his left. In what is quickly becoming the Year of the No-Hitter, however, anything is possible, every night seemingly featuring a no-hit watch. Even a journeyman southpaw who threw just six pitches of 90 mph can hold the opposition hitless.

We’ve had seasons like this before. There were seven no-hitters in 2015, two by Max Scherzer. In 2012, we saw six individual no-hitters — three of which were perfect games. There were six in 2010, including Roy Halladay’s perfect game and then his no-hitter in the playoffs. There were seven no-hitters in both 1990 and 1991, including Dave Stewart and Fernando Valenzuela on the same day on June 29, 1990.

The last time there were four no-hitters before the end of May was 1917, back in the Deadball Era when pitchers could legally scuff up the ball or apply substances including saliva, tobacco, mud, pine tar, petroleum jelly or good old-fashioned sweat. In 1968, the infamous Year of the Pitcher, there were five no-hitters all season. We might pass that before the All-Star break. I don’t think we’ll end up with 16 no-hitters by season’s end, but with the leaguewide batting average at .234 and ever-escalating strikeouts, it seems unlikely we’re going to stop at four.

It leaves this question to debate: Are no-hitters becoming too cheap?

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