In 1952, Trucks
had one of the oddest statistical seasons in baseball history. Not only
was the Tigers’ record dreadful — the team was 50-104 — but Trucks’s
was as well. The woeful offense scored two runs or fewer in 15 of his
starts, and he went 5-19. But remarkably, two of the five wins were
no-hitters. The first, on May 15, was against the Washington Senators; the second, on Aug. 25,
was against the mighty Yankees at Yankee Stadium. No one since then has
pitched a complete-game no-hitter against the Yankees in New York.
Trucks became just the third pitcher to throw two no-hitters in a
season, following Johnny Vander Meer of the Cincinnati Reds in 1938 (who
did it in consecutive starts) and Allie Reynolds of the Yankees in
1951. Only two others have accomplished the feat since then: Nolan Ryan
of the California Angels in 1973 and Roy Halladay of the Phillies in
2010, his second coming in a playoff game.
Trucks’s feat, however, perhaps holds the record for anomalies. The
score of both his no-hitters was 1-0, and the first was won with a home
run by Vic Wertz with two out in the bottom of the ninth. The second
no-hitter was secured after the official scorer, John Drebinger of The
New York Times, first ruled that a ball hit by the Yankees’ Phil Rizzuto
in the third inning was an error by Tigers shortstop Johnny Pesky.
Drebinger’s colleagues in the press box argued with him, and he changed
his mind, calling it an infield single. But still uncertain later in the
game, Drebinger called Pesky in the Tigers’ dugout, and he acknowledged
that he had been unable to grip the ball cleanly. Before the seventh
inning, the call was changed back to an error, and the no-hitter was
restored.
Between the two games, on July 22, Trucks faced the Senators again, yielded a single to Eddie Yost
on the first pitch of the game, then gave up only three walks the rest
of the way, finishing with a one-hit victory. Once again, the score was
1-0.
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