Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
It’s been 7,976 days since David Cone threw a perfect game for the Yankees. That was the last no-hitter thrown by the game’s most famous franchise, until Corey Kluber took the ball on Wednesday night in Arlington. In the stadium where his 2020 season began and ended after a single inning, Klubot dominated the Rangers, walking just one batter on 101 pitches. He struck out nine. He was never in any danger, never looked stressed, and indeed, never even looked all that excited until the last out.
It took Kluber just 20 pitches to work through the first two innings, the first signs that he had something special cooking. Amusingly, it happened on a night when many in attendance surprisingly ended up with his bobblehead due to the Rangers’ giveaway. Kluber’s slider and curveball worked perfectly off each other, his fastball sat on the corners, and was able to mix the perfect combination of soft contact early in an at-bat for outs with dominant strikeo