Another Opening Day, Feller remains in a club by himself

The Detroit Tigers’ Jordan Zimmermann took an Opening Day perfect game bid into the seventh inning on Thursday, but Bob Feller’s reign as being the only MLB pitcher to toss a no-hitter to start the season remains safe another year.

Zimmermann tossed 6⅔ innings of perfect ball before the Toronto Blue Jays’ Teoscar Hernandez hit an infield single up the middle. The game was actually a double no-hitter through 5⅔, as the Blue Jays’ Marcus Stroman didn’t yield his first hit until there were two outs in the sixth, when Nicholas Castellanos singled to left. Detroit topped Toronto 2-0 in 10 innings.

The only other Opening Day starter to go deep without yielding a hit was the Cleveland Indians’ Corey Kluber, who no-hit the Minnesota Twins through 5⅓ before Byron Buxton doubled. The Twins won that game 2-0.

Feller threw MLB’s only Opening Day on April 16, 1940, using his “heater from Van Meter” fastball to mow down eight White Sox batters as the Cleveland Indians topped Chicago 1-0. Feller’s parents and sister, Marguerite, were among the 14,000 fans at Chicago’s Comiskey Park that afternoon.

Although there has been only one MLB Opening Day no-hitter, there was one thrown in the Negro National League in 1946. Leon Day, pitching for the Newark Eagles on Sunday, May 5, 1946, no-hit the Philadelphia Stars at Newark’s Ruppert Stadium for a 2-0 win. Day allowed just three runners to reach first via a pair of walks and an error, and he struck out six batters.