Armando Batista, esta Perfecto!!
by Ray D. Enzé, NLN baseball blogger
July 3, 2020: Aurora, Colorado – It was a beautiful mid-summer night on The Front Range, with the fans packed into Northern Lights Park on the eve of the July 4th holiday, with the Aurora Borealis providing post game fire works, as the club heads to Japan after the game to take on the SL-leading Ghosts – but no one would have guessed the magnitude of fireworks the game would provide on this day.
Aurora’s Armando Batista was on the mound, the 32-year old Cuban left-hander taking on the Kalamazoo Badgers and 24-year old lefty Tetsui Suzuki. Aurora came into the game having righted a ship that a few weeks earlier looked like the Titanic, having won five of their last six series (if you count this Kzoo series) – with a four-game split with Duluth in the mix; and also counting this series with Kzoo, which Aurora won the first two games, 4-0 and 5-1. The Badgers have been surprisingly struggling, so it was vital for them to try and steal a win.
Armando had different ideas.
After striking out a pair to end the first, Ruben Ortega tried to get a 2-out rally in the bottom half, with a triple (his 4th on the year), but to no avail. After putting the Badgers down in order in the second, Aurora did get on the board – this time it was catcher Lan-quing Qing with the two-out hit (a double, his 8th) and Masamichi Daikawa coming through with the 2-out, 2-strike RBI single – just enough in the gap to score the plodding Qing. The game would stay at 1-0 into the 7th as Batista tamed the Badgers – mostly with groundballs that the infield gobbled up, or the strikeout – but Suzuki kept Kalamazoo in the game, allowing just a single (to Daikawa in the 5th) and a HBP (Munoz in the 4th). But as the game moved into the 7th, the crowd began to get tense – and loud, hanging on every pitch, as the happening on the field began to sank in.
There had not been a ‘July 4th’ no-hitter in PEBA history, nor a ‘July 3rd’ no-no. In the old MLB, there were three on the 4th of July – most famously Dave Righetti, pitching for the Yankees, but also George Mullin (born on July 4) in 1912 for the Detroit Tigers and Hooks Wiltse for the New York Giants in 1908. It’s worth noting that in 1934, Satchel Paige pitching for the Pittsburgh Crawford had one in the old Negro Leagues. Clyde Wright, for the California Angels in 1970 had the only July 3rd no-no.
Jesus Romero, Alonso Aguilar and Jason Box went down in order in the 7th – and after the crowd sang ‘This Land is Your Land’ and the traditional ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game’ – to raucus voice and applause, the Borealis got some insurance – critical with Ornelza leading off the 8th.
Raul Munoz, the defending SL Batting Champ, greeted Susziki’s first pitch in the bottom of the 7th with a ringing double in the gap – the last pitch the Badgers’ young ace would throw. Adam Geake would come in to face Qing, holding a disturbing 36% of inherited runners scoring – you can now make that 40%. Qing would do his job – hitting the ball to the right-side, allowing Munoz to take 3rd with 1-out – and then came Daikawa, who also did his job, hitting the ball out of the infield and deep enough for Munoz to score Aurora’s second run of the game – the bit of insurance they needed with the powerful Juan Carlos Ornelza coming up.
But this was to be Batista’s day, and with the pitch count rising, he got the Badger slugger to gound out on 3-pitches, Benigno Canseco on one, and then Christof Pilsner on five pitches – the last two on easy fly balls. Aurora would threaten in the bottom of the 8th – ‘Litterbug’ doubling, and Ortega getting hit by a pitch – but Geake was able to get Macias and ‘Matchbox’ to end the inning and keep it a 2-run game heading to the 9th.
But the Badgers had way bigger fish to fry on this night – like getting a hit – or even a baserunner.
There had been 70-no hitters in the history of the PEBA – ironically Kalamazoo’s Geoff James pitching the first on May 29 of the PEBA inaugural season, the last of which came just last month – 22-days ago, to be precise, as Aurora free-agent target and San Juan signee Rory Soutar no-hit Havana, who coincidentally also have a no-hitter this year – Meiji Ishikawa no-hitting Amsterdam on the 8th of April. Aurora has been involved in six of those no-hitters – being no-hit twice (6/24/2020, Jose Campos of Palm Springs – one of three for the Codgers; Julian ‘Rainmaker’ Thomas of Duluth 6/13/2025, the only one for the Warriors).
Aurora has had four no-hitters in their history: Bill ‘Slappy’ Bradley, who no-hit the Sandgnats on July 28, 2013 – a 20th birthday present for the Boy Wonder GM; Daryl ‘Quagmire’ Lewis, who no-hit Tempe on August 19, 2017; and Edgardo ‘Terror’ Diaz, who no-hit Duluth on 27th of October, 2026. Two things of note with that – you will realize looking at the date – it was a playoff game, in a series Aurora lost, and it was the first PEBA no-hitter after Thomas’s no-no of Aurora – making the two clubs the only clubs to no-hit each other successively on the historical list. Techically Aurora had a fifth no-hitter as Brian Clark and the bullpen no-hit Bakersfield on June the 1st, 2037.
As Claudio Hernandez walked back to the dugout, only one player headed out – Armando Batista, his teammates waiting for him to cross the baseline before joining him – letting him sink in the rousing applause from the fans, urging him towards the finish line – getting a pat on the rear from infielder Juan Rodriguez as he ran to 3B as a defensive replacement, and as the Baseball Gods so often tease us – Jimmy Bradford, the lead-off hitter, grounded the first ball to Rodriguez, who cleanly made the first out. Then Alfredo Vasquez had his turn to put the ball onto the ground – this time to Ortega, who also easily made the play. That left it up to Hunter Waltrip.
Of the 70-no hitters finished by the starter (and the numerous that may be like ‘Slug’s – a group effort), only ten had been perfect games: Fred Benjamin, for Bakersfield had the first in 2016 against the Yumans, followed by Conner Hurst for Charleston against New Orleans, Gunner MacGruder for Yuma against Reno, Hisashi Kokan for New Orleans against London, Henry Carter v. Yuma and Jeffrey Mendoza against Toyama – making it three perfect games for the Bakersfield franchise – they have 7-overall; Juan López for Havana v. Hartford, Kenny Ashley for Kzoo v. Fargo, and the most recent, Louis Whitaker for Okinawa, against the Codgers.
There was one other perfect game in PEBA history, and that came August 9, 2023 as ‘Sawmill’ no-hit Duluth – the first of three no-hitter’s Duluth has been involved with – all against Aurora. And now the Aurora pitching legend is joined by another in the making.
Waltrip took a big swing – and missed, at Batista’s first offering, and then took another massive hack – looking to end the perfect game, no-hitter, and shut-out all in one effort – and he fizzed one – right at Munoz, guarding the line at first – Batista raised his arms in triumph, as shock was written on his face. Aurora’s 5th (6th) no-hitter was his – and the even rarer feat of a perfect game was his as well – the first by a Cuban in PEBA history! Kalamazoo threatened a hit just once – in the 3rd as Vasquez looped one in left-center that required a shoe-string catch by Angel Silva. Other than that – the Badgers were more like mice on this day.
Armando would improve his record to 3-2 and watch his ERA drop to 3.19 – currently the best amongst the starters (who are healthy), and he struck out 7. While the fans enjoyed the post-game fireworks, in the club house it was a post-game dousing of beer for the former-33rd overall pick in the 2028 draft. He had come close on a few occasions – just had Clark and Cluett, but win #87 for the pitcher they ‘just call Armando’ around The Front Range, will be one he – and all the fans in Aurora, will never forget. When asked what the best part of pitching a no-hitter was, Batista grinned broadly and replied, “The manager doesn’t have one!”
