Maddon not worried when it comes to being no-hit

BOSTON -- Clay Buchholz was six outs short on Sunday of becoming the sixth pitcher to no-hit the Rays, and the fifth to do so since 2009.

Of course, Kelly Johnson's leadoff single in the eight ended those thoughts.

Of those previous four no-hitters since 2009, three were perfect games, making the Rays the only team in baseball history to have three perfect games thrown against them during the regular season.

Mark Buehrle (July 23, 2009, for the White Sox), Dallas Braden (May 10, 2010, for the A's) and Felix Hernandez (Aug. 15, 2012, for the Mariners) threw the perfect games; Edwin Jackson (June 25, 2010, for the Diamondbacks) and Derek Lowe (April 28, 2002, for the Red Sox) threw the two no-hitters against the Rays.

Rays manager Joe Maddon smiled when asked what it is about his team that has them constantly staring down the barrel of a no-hitter.

"I don't know, I honestly don't know," Maddon said. "Historically, I would say matchup-wise you might get against a guy that you don't match up well against that misses a lot of bats, and that would be the guy that you would think gives you a hard time. But even a guy like Buehrle is a contact pitcher, Braden's a contact pitcher.

"I don't have any good reason for that at all. It just seems to be happening. I don't worry about it. My biggest thing is just to get these guys swinging like they can. And a lot of it has to do with hitting the ball harder, making harder contact, more decisive contact. We're just hitting a lot of balls softly that are relatively easy outs that make it easy for the defense."