A No-Hitter on Leiter Side

MIAMI — Al Leiter found himself part of another jubilant mob scene Saturday night, and this time he was in the middle.

The left-hander pitched the first no-hitter in Florida’s brief history and baseball’s first this season, shutting down the Colorado Rockies, 11-0.

“I’m numb. It’s like when Joe Carter hit the home run to win the World Series in 1993,” said Leiter, who pitched for the world champion Toronto Blue Jays that year. “At the time, a lot of us felt like, ‘What did we just do?’

“On a personal level, this is up there. It’s going to take a while to digest it.”

Leiter (6-2), who led the American League in walks and wild pitches last season while with Toronto, made his eighth National League start and first against the Rockies a memorable one.

“We didn’t come close to a hit, did we?” Colorado’s Dante Bichette said. “He threw hard, harder and hardest.”

As Leiter took the mound for the ninth, the crowd of 31,549 at Joe Robbie Stadium stood to cheer their local hero. The 30-year-old Leiter signed with the Marlins to be close to his home in Plantation.

Leiter, primarily a power pitcher, mixed his fastball with sliders and an occasional curve to keep the Rockies off balance. He struck out six, walked two and, true to his wild history, hit a batter. Leiter threw 103 pitches, 60 for strikes.

“I can’t describe the way I feel right now. Later, I’ll understand what I’ve accomplished,” Leiter said after taking a curtain call. “It’s jubilation and relief and exhaustion.”

The no-hitter was the first in the majors since the Dodgers’ Ramon Martinez held the Marlins without a hit last July 14. Leiter is the first left-hander to pitch a no-hitter since Kenny Rogers of Texas pitched a perfect game against the Angels on July 28, 1994.

The Marlins, who joined the National League in 1993 along with the Rockies, had never had a no-hitter before and the Rockies had never been no-hit before. Pat Rapp pitched two one-hitters for the Marlins--both against Colorado. Florida’s no-hitter leaves the San Diego Padres, the Rockies and the New York Mets as the only teams never to have a no-hitter.

Leiter said his closest previous brush with a no-hitter came in 1988, when he pitched 5 2/3 hitless innings at Anaheim.

Against Colorado, his fastball was clocked at 92 mph in the first inning and 95 mph in the ninth.

“As the game went on I got a little sharper and slowly gained more confidence,” he said.

The left-hander stayed strictly with his fastball in the ninth and got Jayhawk Owens on a grounder to first for the first out. Quinton McCracken grounded to second baseman Craig Grebeck near the bag.

With the crowd standing and hanging on every pitch, Leiter went to a full count on Eric Young before striking him out swinging.

Catcher Charles Johnson was the first to reach Leiter and hugged him as the other Marlins joined the celebration in front of the mound.

“I was pretty excited,” Johnson said. “I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know if I should jump on him, or if he was going to jump on top of me.”

Leiter disappeared into the dugout, then returned to the field as the crowd roared and the public-address system played “This Magic Moment.”

“That was spectacular,” Marlin General Manager Dave Dombrowski said. “When you get goose bumps like that, it’s fun.”

In the seventh, Leiter, whose previous low-hit game was a two-hitter against Boston in 1993, blew fastballs by Bichette and Andres Galarraga for strikeouts to end the inning.

“That’s when I realized something special might happen,” Leiter said.

“We might have been looking for a pitch outside, but we never got one,” Galarraga said. “I’ve never seen a pitcher throw inside all night.”

The best chance the Rockies had for a hit came in the fifth. Ellis Burks hit a slow grounder toward shortstop Alex Arias, whose view of the ball was momentarily blocked by third baseman Terry Pendleton. However, Arias recovered in time to nip Burks at first.

Trinidad Hubbard’s liner right at Pendleton to end the fifth was the hardest ball hit all night against Leiter.

Johnson homered and Pendleton had five RBIs for the Marlins, who won their sixth in a row.