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On Saturday, Detroit’s Justin Verlander became the 30^th player in MLB history to throw multiple no-hitters in a career.  He walked one and struck out four in a dominant performance over the Toronto Blue Jays that saw him touch 100 mph in the ninth inning.

Verlander’s first career no-hitter came against the Milwaukee Brewers.  In that game, he stuck out a whopping twelve batters.

If he wasn’t before today, Verlander is firmly solidified among the top ten pitchers in baseball.  However, where exactly does he sit among the best of the best?

Here now are the top ten pitchers in MLB.

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Around 6:45 p.m. EST, Detroit Tigers ace Justin Verlander threw a no-hitter against the Toronto Blue Jays, facing the minimum 27 batters in leading his team to a 9-0 victory.

It is Verlander’s second no-hitter of his stellar six-year career and the seventh in franchise history. He threw the team’s most recent no-hitter in Detroit’s 4-0 victory over Milwaukee on June 12, 2007. 

The difference between that performance and this one is the fact that today’s performance was oh so close to being a perfect game. In fact, Verlander’s lone mistake came with one out in the eighth inning when he walked Blue Jays catcher J.P. Arencibia on a 3-2 pitch after a back-and-forth 12-pitch at-bat.

With his performance today, he becomes the 28th pitcher in MLB history to throw multiple no-hitters.

Verlander improves to 3-3 on the season and lowers his ERA from 3.75 to 3.16. He is currently tied for fifth in the Majors with 55 strikeouts.

“I had really good control of my fastball,” said Verlander of his performance. “I was able to move the ball around, keep guys off balance and get some quick outs. Having been in this situation before, I was able to calm myself down a little bit better.”

The Tigers, who currently stand at 16-18, good for third place in the AL Central, were expected by many to contend for the division crown this season, yet have struggled through the first 34 games.

Who knows? This performance may be the spark the team needed to get them out of their early-season funk. Should Austin Jackson and Magglio Ordonez began to hit their stride, this lineup could look quite potent.

With a starting rotation that features three pitchers with an ERA under 4.00, it is reasonable to believe that the Tigers are on the verge of breaking out.

Detroit took a 3-0 lead in the third inning, scoring runs on a walk, a wild pitch and a groundout. Two home runs in the fourth inning pushed the lead to 6-0, effectively putting the game out of reach.

Verlander had some help from his teammates, as his defense came up with some stellar plays behind him.

In the fifth inning, after being hit on the forearm off a line drive from Edwin Encarnacion, Verlander picked the ball up and rifled a one-hopper to Miguel Cabrera, who handled it for the close out at first.

Cabrera outdid himself one inning later, jumping and catching a liner to end the sixth, and a great, back-handed scoop was made by shortstop Jhonny Peralta for the first out of the seventh.

The No. 2 overall pick in the 2004 MLB Draft, Verlander has been part of a resurgence in Detroit that has seen the Tigers go from perennial losers to legitimate playoff contenders year in and year out.

Going into today’s game, Verlander’s career stats showed that he had a 85-55 record with a 3.80 ERA in 1112.1 innings pitched with a K/BB ratio of 1016/370. Only once has he finished a season with an ERA above 3.66.

In just his short career, Verlander, with his second no-hitter, has etched his name with some of the game’s in the history books.

“It’s really amazing when you consider that Greg Maddux never pitched a no-hitter,” said ESPN Baseball Tonight analyst Tim Kurkjian. “Throwing two (no-hitters) puts you on a very special list in baseball history.”

And this may just be the beginning of greater things for the Cy Young candidate.

“Keep in my how young he is,” said Kurkjian. “It’s relatively safe to say at his age (28) that’s he’ll get another no-hitter.”

Could this be a signal that baseball is becoming more dominated by pitchers after an era that saw incredible performances from hitters in recent years.

There were six no-hitters last season, two this season, and we nearly had another one by Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Yovani Gallardo early in the day. Gallardo lost his no-hiiter when he gave up a single to St. Louis third baseman Daniel Descalso to lead-off the eighth inning.

“I’ve been charting this for years now,” said Kurkjian. “Pitching has been making a comeback for the last five years now. Look at how many players and how many teams are really struggling. Pitching is really close to being all the way back.”

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There is perhaps nothing more exciting in sports than watching a no-hitter. 

The Detroit Tigers, one of the oldest most storied franchises in MLB, now have seven no-hitters, the latest by Justin Verlander, who joined Virgil Trucks as the only Tigers to hurl two. 

Verlander didn’t have his best stuff, striking out only four, but he had it all working. 

What makes a no-hitter so exciting? 

It’s the anticipation. Twenty-seven chances to hit, and after the sixth inning we begin to think no-hitter. With each hitter retired we do the math: only “x” number of outs to go to achieve history. 

Last summer I attended Armando Galarraga’s one-hitter at Comerica Park—a perfect game until the last hitter was called safe at first base on a play that wasn’t even close. 

In the eighth inning, my former colleague’s husband leaned over to me to ask if any Cleveland Indian had reached base. I was remiss to saying anything for fear of jinxing Galarraga. 

I watched Verlander’s gem, pitched in Toronto, and watched the zeros mount, inning by inning. Even Mario Impemba and Rod Allen, the play-by-play analyst and the color commentator, took care not to mention we were watching a no-hitter in the making. All we got was, “Justin Verlander has retired (insert number) straight hitters.” 

While Verlander was doing his thing, the Tigers hitters quietly put up nine runs. 

And in the bottom of the ninth inning, Verlander retired the first hitter on one pitch. He’d tossed 99 pitches and was still throwing three-digit fastballs. He was on a mission. 

When the third batter came to the plate, Blue Jays fans were on their feet cheering mightily to see history made—only in Canada do you see the home team cheer for the visitors. 

The camera showed the Tigers bench: everyone was sitting back, no one was at the railing straining to see what happens—from the looks on their faces you’d think they were about to lose the game. It was just another game to them, for fear of jinxing immortality. 

Verlander got the last hitter to swing at and miss a pitch out of the strike zone and all bedlam broke loose. The bench cleared to join the position players to congratulate Verlander. A lot of hugs—but no hug was tighter than the one Verlander gave his catcher, Alex Avila. 

Congratulations, Justin. Somehow I think that perfect game is still on the horizon.

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Justin Verlander tossed his second career no-hitter Saturday against the Toronto Blue Jays, joining only 29 other pitchers in Major League Baseball history to throw two or more no-hitters in a career.

Verlander lost his bid for a perfect game in the eighth inning when he allowed a walk to J.P. Arencibia on a 12-pitch at bat with one out.

Verlander threw only 108 pitches in the game, and was still reaching 100 MPH in the ninth inning. He struck out four batters.

He threw his first no-hitter on June 12, 2007 against the Milwaukee Brewers, striking out 12 Brewers while walking four.

The remarkable part of Verlander’s accomplishment is that it comes while he is still just 28 years old. To put this in full perspective, only five pitchers have ever thrown three or more no-hitters in their career; at only 28 years old and still in the prime of his career, Verlander could join that exclusive club.

From this point forward, every start Justin Verlander makes will have the potential to be a historic event for Major League Baseball.

In addition to being able to break into one of the most exclusive clubs in baseball history, Verlander also has the potential to reach the record for most no-hitters with a single team (four). While it seems like a long shot, he could reach the record for most no-hitters in the American League (six) if he can throw four more no-nos during his career (assuming he doesn’t move to the National League at some point).

Mark Buehrle and Roy Halladay are the only other active pitchers with multiple no-hitters. Halladay is 33 years old, though, and Buehrle is 32. Verlander is the youngest of the three and will stand the best chance of repeatin.

Three+ No-Hitter Club

Only Cy Young (three), Larry Corcoran (three), Bob Feller (three), Sandy Koufax (four) and Nolan Ryan (seven) have more no-hitters in their career.

Two+ No-Hitter Club

Brandon McClintock covers Major League Baseball for BleacherReport.com. You can follow him on Twitter:  @BMcClintock_BR.

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Justin Verlander threw his second no-hitter today (the first was against Milwaukee in 2007) on the road in Toronto.  It was a masterful performance; 12 strikeouts, 108 pitches (74 for strikes) and one walk, in the eighth inning. This is a pitcher with the right stuff, and one of the best in baseball.

In the long and mostly storied history of the Detroit Tigers, no one has ever hurled a perfect game.  Verlander is the first to throw two no-hitters since Virgil Trucks threw two in 1952 and finished 5-19. Trucks is still alive—born in 1917, same year as Jack Kennedy.

But I digress. I’ve been a Tigers fan since I was a kid in 1961, and I’ve seen some greats, and some close calls. Lolich and McLain, despite their great years, didn’t throw no-hitters, let alone perfect games. Jim Bunning threw a no-hitter in 1958, and that was the last one until Morris twirled one in Comiskey against the White Sox in the incredible 1984 season. 

Ironic that it came in Comiskey against the White Sox, because a year earlier in the same venue, Milt Wilcox pitched an absolute gem that I will never forget as one of the most mesmerizing games I have ever seen—perfect, in fact, until with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Jerry Hairston lined a clean single. Heartbreaking, but still a great memory.

And then there’s Armando Galarraga. June 2, 2010. Two outs, bottom of the ninth, you remember.  Jim Joyce called the runner safe at first, and he was clearly out. By a mile. Joyce wept tears of regret, but baseball is a game of history.

If Joyce had made the right call, Galarraga would be remembered for the Tigers’ first perfect game, as he deserved. And more than that, it would have been marked down as one of the greatest pitching performances ever, as Galaragga threw just 88 pitches, 67 of them for strikes.

If he had completed the perfect game, it would have been the lowest number of pitches thrown since Addie Joss in 1908(!), and the shortest game since Sandy Koufax’s perfect game in 1965.  Galarraga now toils in relative obscurity in Arizona.

Tears won’t bring that moment back, Joyce.

But congrats to Justin Verlander, and maybe at least a few of these articles on how close he came to the Tigers’ first perfect game could tip a hat to Milt Wilcox and Armando Galarraga. The rest of us can tip a glass to all three. Bless You, Boys.

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Down to his team’s final out, Rajai Davis stood in against Justin Verlander. Two balls, two strikes and the crowd is at its feet. It didn’t matter matter that their hometown Blue Jays were getting crushed 9-0, or that the opposing pitcher was a single strike away from a no-hitter—fans could recognize history when they saw it.

Davis swung through a breaking ball off the outside of the plate, and catcher Alex Avila raised his arms in celebration: the game was over. Verlander had cemented his place in history as one of only 28 pitchers to be un-hittable not once, but twice in his career.

Verlander was very nearly perfect—he walked only one batter, J.P. Arencibia, and that came in the eighth inning after a 12 pitch at-bat. 

Even though he was pitching into the ninth inning, the Tiger’s ace was no worse for the wear, his fastball touching 100 MPH in the final frame.

Justin Verlander turned in a performance to remember. The thing is, he’s not the only one.

Twins pitcher Francisco Liriano turned in a surprise no-no earlier this week in Chicago.

In just over a month, baseball has already seen two no-hitters, reminding us of the 2010 season that was widely acclaimed as the “year of the pitcher” because of the utter dominance of starting pitchers.

While a perfect game by Phillies ace Roy Halladay may not have been predicted, it was hardly surprising—the guy has been one of the premier starters in the majors for the better part of a decade.

But a perfecto by the A’s Dallas Braden, no-hitters by Matt Garza, Ubaldo Jimenez and Edwin Jackson, and the nearly perfect performance of Armando Galaraga were hardly foreseen.

Neither was Ubaldo’s run of nearly half a season with an ERA under 1.00. Before 2010, Jimenez had a career record of 31-28—not bad, but hardly overpowering.

Ten years ago, unremarkable hitters like Phil Nevin and Richard Hidalgo hit over 40 home runs in a season, a plateau normally reserved for superstars like Barry Bonds, Lance Berkman or Ken Griffey Jr.

Now, completely forgettable pitchers like Liriano are being mentioned in the same breath as truly elite hurlers like Justin Verlander.

This season is definitely shaping up to be year of the pitcher version 2.0.

It is a league-wide phenomenon. In the year 2000, teams were scoring upward of five runs a game (5.14) and hitting .270 on average. So far in 2011, the average has been 4.22 runs per game, a drop of nearly 20 percent, and a batting average of .249.

Those numbers are even lower than those from 2010, when teams scored an average of 4.38 runs per game and hit .257

39 pitchers have an ERA at 3.00 or under as of May 6. Yes, it’s only been a month of the season. But consider that in 2001, only two pitchers, Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson, had ERAs under 3.00 for the season. 

Striking difference?

It could be that April is just a bad hitting month. We saw Albert Pujols hit under .200 for an uncharacteristically long time, and there are still plenty of hitters sitting on the interstate this late in the season. 

But one thing’s for sure: Verlander’s no-hitter will not be the last one thrown this year. After over a decade of watching home runs smashed against them at an alarming rate, the pitchers have the upper hand, and they aren’t afraid to take advantage of it.

The 2010 campaign was not a fluke; 2011 will prove that. 

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The 2010 Major League Baseball season was coined as the “Year of the Pitcher,” but after two no-hitters in a week, will 2011 be the same? Or are pitchers just taking over the MLB?

This time, Detroit Tigers ace Justin Verlander shut down the Toronto Blue Jays, allowing just one walk over nine innings. With his second no-hitter since 2007, Verlander has developed into one of baseball’s top pitchers.

The 2010 MLB season contained five no-hitters, including two perfect games, and after 2011’s two no-hitters thus far, Major League Baseball may experience one the greatest two-year runs in pitching.

In contrast with the League from the mid-’90s through 2000s, where hitting the home run was supreme (mostly due to a wide usage of illegal, performance-enhancing drugs, but that is another story), baseball has no changed its appearance into a lower-scoring, pitching-heavy league.

But, writers, analysts and fans should start changing the name attributed to the season of 2010, because pitching is now making its recovery to the most dominating facet of the game.

The talent level of the pitching in Major League Baseball isn’t going anywhere.

With the exception of the handling of last year’s pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg by the Washington Nationals, Major League Baseball clubs have begun to take more pride and more importantly time in developing their pitching before they approach the big leagues.

In 2003, Mark Prior of the Chicago Cubs was 22 years old and had been pitching in the Majors for just one season. He was an outstanding 18-6 before he was injured in September. And he was never the same after that.

During the next five seasons, Prior was on the disabled list an unfortunate nine times. His talent seemingly went by the wayside after he was rushed, in some respects, by the Chicago Cubs into the majors at just 21 years old.

By contrast, the Tampa Bay Rays drafted David Price with the first overall pick in the 2007 MLB Draft. He was called up to the major leagues and made some appearances for the Rays during the 2008 MLB Playoffs out of the bullpen. The next season, Price was expected to be one of the top players in the league, but the Rays conservatively held Price in the minors through the first month of the season.

Without rushing him to the big leagues too soon, the Rays and Price reaped the benefits in 2010. During the season, Price won 19 games for the Rays as they made the American League playoffs.

As both Verlander and the Minnesota Twins‘ Francisco Liriano have tossed no-hitters already this season, what was once thought as a fad in Major League Baseball has now become a reality.

Like the first decade of the 21st century was highlighted by exceptional hitting, the century’s second decade will be known as one where pitching excelled yet again.

So, instead of calling every season the “Year of the Pitcher,” save your breath and just realize this: Pitching is back at the pinnacle of Major League Baseball, and it is here to stay.

Josh Rosenblat is a high school student from Chicago looking to find a way to break into sports journalism. He often writes about the NBA (primarily the Chicago Bulls), as well as the MLB, College Basketball, and the NFL. You can email him at joshua.m.rosenblat@gmail.com or follow him on twitter @JMRosenblat. Feel free to send him comments.

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Detroit Tigers right-hander Justin Verlander posted his second career no-hitter tonight, shutting down the Toronto Blue Jays 9-0. The win improves Verlander’s record to 3-3 on the season, though he’s pitched better than those numbers suggest (3.75 ERA coming into today’s game).

In 2007, Verlander gave the Tigers their first home no-hitter in more than half a century by dominating the Milwaukee Brewers at Comerica Park. He now has a road no-no to match it, as he allowed just one baserunner (an eighth-inning walk to J.P. Arencibia) at the Rogers Centre this afternoon.

Verlander finished off his no-hitter with his fourth strikeout of the game, fanning Rajai Davis on a 3-2 pitch. Ricky Romero got rocked for six runs in 3.1 innings to take the loss for the Jays.

Verlander becomes the second pitcher in Detroit history to record two no-hitters, joining 1950s star Virgil Trucks, who was also the last Tiger before Verlander to throw a no-hitter at home.

Homers from Jhonny Peralta and Alex Avila ensured that Verlander wouldn’t be lacking for run support today. He needed just 108 pitches to complete the victory, thanks in part to some solid defensive work behind him.

Twelve of Verlander’s 108 pitches came in walking Arencibia, who was immediately erased on a double-play grounder from Edwin Encarnacion.

As he’s only 28, Verlander may not have thrown his last no-hitter. Only 24 pitchers in major league history can match his career total of two, but he could easily move up that list before he’s done.

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Every sport has their own set of unwritten sins, for instance a left tackle not helping their quarterback up after a blindside sack, or in hockey not giving the goalie your stick after his breaks, but no sport has more unwritten rules than baseball.

In most big league clubhouses you can find a kangaroo court trial being held every so often, namely for breaking some rules on their long list of no-no’s. Just like in our judicial system, some laws carry a higher punishment than others, and this list of the seven deadliest sins is something all ballplayers should try to avoid.

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What the heck was that? 

It appears Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers just did a one-two step and threw directly at David DeJesus. 

The umpires discussed it and called a balk on Verlander. DeJesus had to head back to the plate and Daric Barton was awarded second base. 

Verlander tried to explain the whole thing to

Well, Justin, when you do a hop step before your pitch, people are going to notice. Had Verlander not thrown right at the feet of DeJesus, then maybe, just maybe he could’ve gotten away with it. I highly doubt it, though, because it sure was a strange situation. 

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