Every team’s best single-game performance of 2024
Blue Jays: Bowden Francis flirts with a no-hitter, Aug. 24
It feels like no-hitters hold an even greater level of mystique in Toronto. Only Dave Stieb has done it, and it took Stieb a painful string of near-misses before he finally reached the mountaintop. Francis wasn’t the pitcher anyone would have expected to take a run at history entering the season, but his two close calls with history helped establish him as one of the best stories of the season down the stretch. This one, in which Francis struck out 12 Angels batters before allowing a home run to Taylor Ward to open the ninth inning, was the most dominant pitching performance of the year for the Blue Jays. Stieb still stands alone, but eventually, he’ll have some company. — Keegan Matheson
Orioles: Kyle Bradish’s near-no-hitter in Chicago, May 26
Bradish’s 2024 season got off to a delayed start, as he spent the first month on the injured list due to a right UCL sprain. He then made only eight starts before undergoing Tommy John surgery in mid-June. But one of those outings ended up being the best of the 28-year-old right-hander’s 61-start MLB career. Bradish struck out a career-high-tying 11 White Sox batters while tossing seven hitless innings at Guaranteed Rate Field. The gem ended after 103 pitches, and the Sox broke up the combined no-hit bid in the eighth on Danny Mendick’s homer off Danny Coulombe. Still, it was an extraordinary effort by Bradish, who could eventually throw a no-no in the future once healthy. — Jake Rill
Rays: Jose Siri robs a homer then walks it off, May 29
Sure, the Rays enjoyed two-homer games by Josh Lowe, Randy Arozarena and even Siri himself. The Rays had some brilliant pitching performances, too: Tyler Alexander’s perfect-game bid in Toronto, Shane Baz’s 7 2/3 innings in Oakland, seven-inning/one-hit gems by Taj Bradley and Zack Littell, and two double-digit strikeout starts by Ryan Pepiot. But what Siri did against the Athletics at Tropicana Field was arguably the Rays’ most memorable feat of the year. In the top of the ninth, Siri leaped over Arozarena and reached up to rob Zack Gelof of a tiebreaking, two-run homer. In the bottom of the ninth, Siri lined a walk-off single to left. It was, as Pepiot said, “like a storybook ending.” — Adam Berry
