In Major League Baseball, no-hitters pop up 1-3 times a season. For those that don’t know, a normal no-hitter is recorded when the starting pitcher of record gets the win in a game where no hits and no runs were allowed. Theoretically, a run could be scored by a team without a hit, but it’s still a no-hitter. Theoretically, a pitcher could actually lose a game where no hits were allowed to the losing side. It’s still a no-hitter. These exceptions aside, 99.9% of all no-hitters are won by the pitcher that allow no hits and no runs.
Experienced sports bettors are always looking for a betting angle that might give them at least a temporary advantage. In the world of sports betting, unusual trends are likely to pop up out of nowhere. If you are a sports bettor who knows sometimes online bookmakers like MaxFreeBets.co.uk have an exclusive Betfred promo code, you may want to pay attention to the following information for future use.
Just this past week, Mike Fiers of the Oakland Athletics pitcher a complete game no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds. He got the win 2-0. It’s worth noting this was Fiers second career no-hitter with the first one coming on August 21, 2015. After beating the Reds last week, he returned to pitch very well against Seattle Mariners this past weekend. He didn’t get the decision in a 6-5 loss, but he only allowed 2 hits and 1 run in 5 innings before going to the bench.
The performance was good enough to prompt some research. Covering the last 10 no-hitters dating back to Fiers’ no-hitter in 2015, every single pitcher followed up their respective no-hitters with another dazzling performance. Collectively, there were only 35 hits and 12 runs given up in the next games by the pitchers who recorded the 10 no-hitters. That’s an average of 3.5 hits given up and 1.2 runs scored per game. That’s a truly remarkable stat.
Where’s the betting angle? In the next starts by the pitchers who pitched the 10 no-hitters, the game went under the total 7 times with one game landing on the total for a tie or push. The only follow-up games to go over the total came on April 28 of 2016 (Jake Arrieta no-hitter on April 21) when the Chicago Cubs scored 7 runs in a 7-2 victory with Arrieta getting the win after allowing only 3 hits and 1 run in 5 innings pitched. The other game to go over the total was the aforementioned game pitched this past weekend by Fiers, who himself pitched extremely well before the bullpen caved.
It doesn’t take a stats nerd to recognize that pitchers who pitch a no-hitter are usually in top form. There’s every reason to believe they would come back in the next game and continue pitching well. However, it’s near impossible to predict they would pitch as well as they have. The fact it leads to a trend where the under has a record of 7-2-1 is worthy of serious consideration in the future. An opportunity to play into this trend might only come once more this year, but the betting alert has been sounded.
