Detroit beat Cleveland tonight 2-1 at Jacobs Field and the Tigers pitchers, Jair Jurrjens, Joel Zumaya, Fernando Rodney, and Todd Jones, combined to give up just one hit: a home run to Jhonny Peralta in the sixth.
A team getting just one hit in a game and having it be a home run is not all that unusual. It's happened 63 times in the last 50 years.
However in the last five times it has happened, including tonight's game, the team that gave up the home run lost twice.
Last year on June 22, 2006, Anthony Reyes of the Cardinals lost to the White Sox, 1-0, on a Jim Thome home run in the seventh.
And on August 23, 2005, Freddy Garcia of the White Sox to the Twins, 1-0, on a Jacque Jones home run.
Last September 22, 2006, Tall Chris Young of San Diego lost a no-hit bid in the ninth when he gave up a 2-run homer to Joe Randa, but he won the game.
Other tough luck losers include: Aaron Sele of Boston on 9/3/1997
Dick Drago of Kansas City on July 30, 1971. Drago pitched just 4 innings in a rain shortened game and faced the minimum number of batters for a complete game loss, 13.
The one-hit=homer game that I remember best was Pedro Martinez's 17-K game against the Yankees on 9/10/99 in which Chili Davis's solo homer in the second was the only Yankee hit of the night. The only other Yankee baserunner, in typical Pedro fashion, came on a hit-by-pitch, also typical, the hit batsman was Chuck Knoblauch.
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