“Don’t say it. Don’t even think it.”

This is the interior monologue of a superstitious sports fan, as he watches Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher Matt Garza record out after out on his way to retiring 27 batters in a row, throwing the first no-hitter in team history Monday night in the 5-0 win against the Detroit Tigers. Acknowledging the moment can spoil the moment; I don’t think any real sports fan is crazy enough to say the words “potential no-hitter” during the course of a game if he or she actually wants to see it happen and I’m superstitious to the point of being silly. I don’t shave on game days, just like when I played hockey in high school. I only drink out of certain glasses, always adorned with the logo of whichever of my teams is playing that day.

This game was a pitcher’s battle well into the meaty part of the performance. The only base runners through five innings were three walks; the walk Garza issued to Brennan Boesch in the second inning of this pitching spectacle was the only thing that prevented him from throwing a perfect game. It was clear that the first pitcher to crack was going to lose this one and that pitcher was Detroit’s Max Scherzer. The first hit of this game – Matt Joyce's grand slam home run – rung up four on the score sheet. Kelly Shoppach struck out to lead off the bottom of the sixth inning. Ben Zobrist walked, Carl Crawford reached on catcher interference and Evan Longoria walked to load the bases before Carlos Pena struck out. Joyce’s clutch long ball came with two outs; he got some good distance on a broken bat foul and didn’t miss on the next pitch – identical to the previous one – curving his second grand slam of the year into the right field foul pole. Crawford padded the lead by going deep to the longest part of the park in the eighth inning.

This article appears in Jul 22-28, 2010.