![\"CovHlSq\"](\"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/wp-content\/CovHlSq.jpg\" "\\"CovHlSq\\"")
We very nearly got our first no-hitter of the season last night.\u00c2\u00a0 The Marlins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Anibal Sanchez has done it before and came oh-so-close to repeating the trick against the Rockies, only for Dexter Fowler to break up the no-no in the ninth inning.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Maybe we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get a no-hitter today?\u00c2\u00a0 David Price, Chris Carpenter, Tim Hudson and Tim Lincecum would seem the most likely contenders in the early games, but then again it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not always the big names that make history, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one of the great things about baseball.\u00c2\u00a0 Edwin Jackson got one of the strangest no-hitters last year (walking 8 hitters and throwing 149 pitches), while Brandon Morrow came close to one in 2010 as well.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Barry Enright and Dillon Gee both look unlikely contenders, but who knows what today might bring for them?<\/p>\n
Here are the early games, those starting before midnight UK time, that are taking place today.\u00c2\u00a0 All times are in BST.<\/p>\n
18.05. LA Dodgers at Chicago Cubs (Ted Lilly – Ryan Dempster)<\/strong><\/p>\n Ted Lilly returns to Wrigley to take on one of his former clubs.\u00c2\u00a0 He enters the game on the back of his best start so far this season in which he pitched seven scoreless innings against the Braves on Monday.\u00c2\u00a0 Ryan Dempster is seeking a similar performance to get his season on track after battling through his first four starts.\u00c2\u00a0 The Dodgers took the series opener 12-2 yesterday after the sides waited out a rain delay.<\/p>\n 18.07. Tampa Bay at Toronto (David Price – Brandon Morrow)<\/strong><\/p>\n John McDonald hit a walk-off homer in the eleventh inning last night to give the Blue Jays a 6-4 victory.\u00c2\u00a0 Toronto will be glad to get that win on the board before facing David Price today.\u00c2\u00a0 The Rays\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 ace was in top form last time out, dominating the White Sox over eight scoreless innings.\u00c2\u00a0 Morrow is making his season debut today after dealing with an elbow injury.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n 18.10. Cleveland at Minnesota (Fausto Carmona – Brian Duensing)<\/strong><\/p>\n The Indians and Twins were rained out last night, so Carmona and Duensing will pitch the series opener today instead.\u00c2\u00a0 The two teams are at opposite ends of the AL Central.\u00c2\u00a0 That was expected by many, but it was supposed to be\u00c2\u00a0the Indians propping up the division and the reigning-champion Twins leading the way.\u00c2\u00a0 The Tribe are hoping Carmona can keep their excellent start to their season going today, while prolonging the Twins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 struggles.<\/p>\n 18.10. Arizona at NY Mets (Barry Enright – Dillon Gee)<\/strong><\/p>\n The Mets received a much-need decent display from Mike Pelfrey yesterday as they beat the D-Backs 4-1 at Citi Field.\u00c2\u00a0 That victory took their season record to 7-13 which is still joint-worst in the Majors (alongside the Houston Astros), so there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plenty of work for the Amazins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 to do before they even become respectable.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Enright and Gee are not exactly headliners to catch your attention, so the reason to watch would be the Mets\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 catcher Mike Nickeas, if he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in the lineup today.\u00c2\u00a0 Nickeas represented Great Britain in the 2007 European Baseball Championships and he hit his first big league home run on Thursday.\u00c2\u00a0 Nickeas has generally been playing against left-handers and with Enright being (appropriately enough) a righty, that might well take away the one main reason for a neutral Brit to choose this one today.\u00c2\u00a0 Sorry D-Backs and Mets fans!<\/p>\n 21.10. Chicago White Sox at Detroit (Edwin Jackson – Brad Penny)<\/strong><\/p>\n The Tigers pounced on Mark Buehrle early yesterday and Justin Verlander took control from there, leading Detroit to a 9-3 victory.\u00c2\u00a0 Penny was hit around by the normally offensively-challenged A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in his most recent start, while Jackson pitched well against the Rays only to take a loss.<\/p>\n 21.10. Cincinnati at St. Louis (Travis Wood – Chris Carpenter)<\/strong><\/p>\n The beat writers have already got \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcCarpenter and Cards cut Wood down to size\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 typed on their draft game reports for this one.\u00c2\u00a0 That would seem appropriate considering the two pitchers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 contrasting fortunes last time out.\u00c2\u00a0 Carpenter went seven strong innings against the Dodgers, while Wood lasted just 3.1 innings against the Pirates.<\/p>\n 21.10. Atlanta at San Francisco (Tim Hudson – Tim Lincecum)<\/strong><\/p>\n You wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t usually expect a battle between two Tims to set the pulse racing, but this is a definite exception.\u00c2\u00a0 The Braves\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 batters knocked Madison Bumgarner out early last night as Tommy Hanson kept the Giants\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 offence in check for a 4-1 win. \u00c2\u00a0San Fran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bullpen could do with a rest today and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a good chance of that happening with Lincecum taking the mound.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n All of these games are available to watch live via the <\/em>MLB.TV subscription<\/em> at <\/em>MLB.com<\/em><\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 ESPN America is concentrating on the NHL playoffs.\u00c2\u00a0 The full schedule for today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s games can be found on <\/em>MLB.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We very nearly got our first no-hitter of the season last night. Maybe we’ll get one in the early games today?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[82,25,70,553,66],"class_list":["post-10664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball-coverage","category-mlb-2","tag-bst-guide","tag-espn-america","tag-gamedayaudio","tag-mlb-2","tag-mlb-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10664"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10667,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10664\/revisions\/10667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}