Rangers no-hitter history

The Rangers have done their part to make sure the Lone Star State is no stranger to no-hitters.

Since the team moved to Arlington in 1972, Rangers fans have seen no-hitters thrown by a pair of the game's greatest pitchers -- and a few less likely candidates, too. But that's the beauty of baseball. Any pitcher can find magic for a game and put together one of the game's rarest and most impressive feats.

MLB.com takes a look back at every no-hitter thrown in Rangers franchise history.

July 28, 1994: Kenny Rogers
Rangers 4, Angels 0 (Perfect Game)

In 1994, a little more than 30 years after coming to Texas, the Rangers got a perfect game. Even better -- it was at home.

Kenny Rogers did the honors in front of a crowd of 46,581 at The Ballpark in Arlington. He delivered an absolute masterpiece -- striking out eight, including Jim Edmonds twice and Bo Jackson three times, and needing just 98 pitches to retire all 27 batters he faced. It was the 14th perfect game pitched in Major League history.

"I never thought about a perfect game," Rogers would say afterwards. "I was thinking about the no-hitter until the last out."

The whole thing was saved in the ninth inning by a miraculous diving catch by rookie center fielder Rusty Greer, who somehow kept Rex Hudler's line drive off the turf.

"I never thought he was going to get it," Rogers said. "I thought that ball was going to drop, no matter what. … Rusty Greer, gosh, what can you say after a guy makes a catch like that?"

May 1, 1991: Nolan Ryan
Rangers 3, Blue Jays 0

This was the last of Ryan's Major League-record seven no-hitters. It was also the first Rangers no-hitter to come at home, making for an unforgettable moment in franchise history.

Now 44, Ryan took the mound on the first night of May in front of 33,439 fans at Arlington Stadium. He actually felt terrible that day, telling manager Bobby Valentine before the game to have a reliever ready in case he couldn't pitch.

But after a somewhat shaky first, Ryan collected himself and started to dominate once again. He struck out the side in the second, and two more batters in each of the next two innings. By the time the ninth rolled around, the Ryan Express was at full steam, sitting on 15 strikeouts. He got one more: fellow future Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar to end the game and seal no-hitter No. 7.

"I knew how hard they were to get," Ryan recalled to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram 25 years later. "Besides, I thought that part of my career was behind me. I was shocked when I got the one in Oakland a year earlier. To get another one at 44 was something I'd never even dreamed might happen."

June 11, 1990: Nolan Ryan
Rangers 5, A's 0

Ryan was 42 years old when he became a Ranger in 1989, and he had five no-hitters under his belt already -- four with the Angels, and one with the other Texas team, the Astros. But he wasn't done yet.

The future Hall of Famer pitched his first Rangers no-hitter in Oakland 1990, with 33,436 fans in attendance at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Like the A's team that Jim Bibby no-hit nearly two decades earlier, this one was a powerhouse -- the Rickey Henderson-led A's went on to win the AL pennant that season. But they had no chance against Ryan that night. Even at age 43, Ryan was as dominant as ever, striking out 14 Oakland hitters and walking only two while throwing 130 pitches.

"It seemed like every pitch he made was perfect," his catcher, John Russell -- who had never caught Ryan before that night -- told Sports Illustrated in 1991. "Behind the plate, the pitches looked unhittable. The intensity in his eyes was unlike anything I've ever seen. That's why I never got nervous. I looked into his eyes."

Sept. 22, 1977: Bert Blyleven
Rangers 6, Angels 0

Blyleven came to the Rangers in 1976 in a midseason trade with the Twins, so 1977 was his first full season with the team. The Hall of Famer was excellent that year, posting a 2.72 ERA in 234 2/3 innings.

His no-hitter came late in the season against the Angels. It was Blyleven's final start of the year -- and, in fact, it would be his final start for the Rangers, as the right-hander would be traded to the Pirates in a four-team deal that winter.

Like Bibby's, Blyleven's no-hitter also came on the road, at Anaheim Stadium, in front of a crowd of 8,031. Blyleven struck out seven and allowed only two baserunners, one reaching on an error in the third inning and the other on a walk in the ninth.

July 30, 1973: Jim Bibby
Rangers 6, A's 0

The Rangers' first no-hitter came during the team's second season in Texas. It was one of the brightest moments of a 57-105 season for the American League West newcomers, who finished at the bottom of the division that year.

Bibby had only been with the team since June, when he was traded to Texas by the Cardinals. On July 30, he was making just his 10th start for the Rangers. (Interestingly, he had already thrown a one-hitter for the club a month earlier, on June 29.)

In start No. 10, Bibby went on the road to face the A's team that would go on to win the World Series that year, led by league MVP Reggie Jackson. But in front of a crowd of 21,606 in Oakland, the right-hander stymied the A's. Bibby walked six but struck out 13 -- including Jackson twice -- and threw 148 pitches to finish the job. "You couldn't dig in against him because he was wild," Jackson would say afterwards. "He's close to Nolan Ryan."