Yankees: Ranking Corey Kluber’s no-no among recent NYY pitching surprises

The New York Yankees have mostly been built on pitching disappointment over the past several years rather than unexpected pitching success.

OK, fine, past decade and a half. Same point still stands.

Despite the proliferation of no-hitters in 2021 thus far (does the “new baseball” automatically come loaded with resin and tar?), that didn’t make Corey Kluber’s individual accomplishment any less impressive on Wednesday night in Texas. Though he joined a club and didn’t blaze his own trail, it still proved that Brian Cashman bet on the right comeback story this offseason instead of taking a second flyer on James Paxton.

In terms of the surprise factor of the whole event, though, it was somewhere between David Cone tossing his amazing first career no-no (a perfect game of course) at the age of 36 and Dwight Gooden capping his comeback with a no-hitter in 1996.

Gooden was far closer to the end of his rope, and Kluber’s most recent few starts have indicated he has something left to give for a championship-level team. Cone? He and Kluber were at similar points in their careers, but of course, the pomp and circumstance of a perfect game at home on a hot summer’s day with Yogi Berra and Don Larsen in the stands tops what we watched Wednesday in the Rangers’ brand new airplane hangar ballpark.

Let’s be a bit fairer to Kluber. Was this no-no the most surprising Yankees start of the past decade? Half-decade? If not, where does it rank on the scale?

Truth be told, though pitching hasn’t dominated the narrative for the Bombers recently, there were quite a few sterling performances to choose from, especially from pitchers who were never quite that good again in pinstripes or road grays.

Honorable mention to 2015 Nate Eovaldi, 2008 Joba Chamberlain at Fenway, and Deivi Garcia’s losing-streak stopping game on the road in Buffalo last year, which was axed because nothing in 2020 felt purposeful or enjoyable.

These three other non-Kluber starts stood out most to us.

Where does Corey Kluber rank among the top 4 Yankees starts of the decade?

4. James Paxton Mows Down the Red Sox

Admit it: this one shocked you, especially in the context of the time.

When the Boston Red Sox came to the Bronx in April 2019, they were the recently-minted World Series champions. Sure, they’d started a hilarious 2-8, but by the time James Paxton vs Chris Sale rolled around, the BoSox were back to 6-11, ready to make their mark on the AL East in, say, a blowout victory over an injured Yankees team. Or maybe a 2-0 offense-less win?

Nah. The Yanks blew out the Sox 8-0, powered by someone named Mike Tauchman (???) who knocked in four runs and went porch to blow the game open. Paxton? In his first True Yankee Moment (first of … well, probably only two), he delivered eight special two-hit innings, striking out 12 and proving he could be a force when everything lined up properly for him.

Unfortunately for Big Maple, this was as big as things would get before Game 5 of the ALCS rolled around, and he could only extend the team’s season for so long in that moment. Things haven’t been the same for the hefty lefty since mid-2019, either; he arrived with lowered velocity in 2020 following spring back surgery, found himself on the shelf, signed with Seattle, and only now underwent Tommy John surgery.

At the time, Paxton’s pedigree was well-known, but so were his injury problems. Safe to say, we didn’t quite expect him to be this good against a team we thought was a 108-win juggernaut having a bad week.

3. Michael Pineda’s Mother’s Day Masterpiece

Another signature start for an oft-forgotten Yankee (who’s usually forgotten for all the right reasons).

Michael Pineda brought a 4-0 record and 2.97 ERA into his May 10 start in 2015 at Yankee Stadium against the Baltimore Orioles. Considering the context, it seemed like the Yankees might have acquired a genuine game-changer in the Jesus Montero trade; Pineda’s shortened season the year prior featured a lot of good batted-ball luck, but also a 1.89 ERA, which you can’t discount.

Safe to say, though, that no one expected this against a powerful O’s lineup, and no one expected it to be the peak of his powers in the Bronx, either. Pineda twirled a powerhouse performance, throwing seven one-run innings on 111 pitches along with a bulky 16 strikeouts, leaving a record-breaking 21 in nine innings very much up for grabs. Unfortunately, up 6-1, the Yankees went to struggling reliever Esmil Rogers to finish the game. He was bailed out by Dellin Betances, but only two more Ks were recorded, leaving the Yanks tantalizingly close.

An early JJ Hardy home run had the Bombers trailing in this one until the fourth, when Carlos Beltran, Stephen Drew and Jacoby Ellsbury teamed up to put runs on the board (why did we do this to ourselves six years ago?). Once the Yanks took the lead, it was clear that an electric Pineda had no intention of relinquishing it.

There’s something about watching huge, powerful pitchers shine, isn’t there? This was like Roger Clemens’ 2000 ALCS start without the added context. Pineda simply couldn’t be touched, and leveled up to Hall of Famer status for one afternoon only. You’re welcome, mom.

2. Corey Kluber’s No-Hitter

Why isn’t it No. 1? Based on pitcher pedigree and the rivalry involved, we found one bigger stunner for the top spot.

After all, as spectacular as Kluber’s outing was, hasn’t his whole season been building to this moment? Hadn’t his stuff been rounding into form each and every week, secretly setting him up perfectly to devastate the Rangers on the mound where his season ended last year? I thought he had no-hit stuff last Friday against the Orioles before everything fell apart in one strange inning mid-game (Tyler Wade’s non-tag didn’t help, but no Wade slander until next week).

Plus, this is the second time the Rangers have been blanked in 2021. Kluber had a chance to no-hit any team in baseball with the stuff he brought to the table Wednesday, but he did blank the Rangers. There’s nothing wrong with being No. 2.

Kluber’s start was special for so many reasons, not the least of being the efficiency of the whole thing. Watching the game unfold, it would’ve been fair to be nervous about a post-surgery Kluber extending himself too far, leaving an uncomfortable decision in Aaron Boone’s memory banks.

Nope. Instead, he flat dominated, watching the Rangers make quicker, harder outs as the later innings unfolded, allowing him to save his bullets.

Job extremely well done, and his outing was only topped by a very weird one: a forgotten classic lost to history.