Pat Darcy's Minor League No-Hitter
Columbus Astros 2 Charlotte Hornets 0

August 29, 1971

Pat Darcy as a Columbus Astro

From The Sporting News:

"A young, big, strong righthander, Darcy found that throwing hard was not enough to make him a consistent winner. But now that he has added a slider, things may be different for the 6-4, 190-pounder from Tuscon, Arizona. . .
Darcy struck out 10, walked three and hit one batter witha pitch. "All I threw were fast balls and sliders," Darcy said after thr game. "The fast ball usually is my best pitch, but I started throwing a slider about a month ago and that's made my fast ball even better."
The youngster got up a real head of stem as the game progressed and manager Cliff Davis said, "From the seventh inning on, his fast ball was well above an average major league fast ball."
There was one real threat to Darcy's no-hitter--a bunt by Jerry Terrel of Charlotte in the third inning.
Third baseman Dave Grangaard charged the bunt, grabbed the ball with his bare hand and threw out Terrell by a step. Grangaard also made a fine play on a hard-hit grounder by Glenn Borgmann. He backhanded the ball down the line and made a perfect peg to first base.
The victory was only Darcy's fifth against nine defeats. He broke into pro ball with Covington (Appalachian) in 1969 and pitched for Williamsport (NY-P) and Raleigh-Durham (Carolina) in 1970. "

Charlotte Hornets ABRHRBI
Jerry Terrell, 2b 3 0 0 0
Dave Schmidt, ph/2b 1 0 0 0
Minnie Mendoza, 3b 4 0 0 0
Tom Kelly, 1b 4 0 0 0
Glenn Borgmann, c 4 0 0 0
Bucky Guth, ss 2 0 0 0
Joe Pactwa, lf 3 0 0 0
Rick Dempsey, rf 2 0 0 0
Ezell Carter, cf 1 0 0 0
Dick Rusteck, p 2 0 0 0
Vic Albury, ph 1 0 0 0
Ray Strable, p 0 0 0 0
Charlotte totals27 0 0 0
Columbus Astros ABRHRBI
Alonzo Harris, rf 4 1 2 0
Ed Armbrister, lf 4 0 2 1
Greg Gross, cf 2 0 0 1
Dave Grangaard, 3b 2 0 0 0
Jimmy Johnson, ss 2 0 0 0
Larry Mansfield, 1b 3 0 0 0
Shane Hummell, c 3 0 0 0
Fernando Tatis, 2b 3 1 1 0
Pat Darcy, p 3 0 0 0
 
 
 
Columbus totals26 2 5 2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Charlotte Hornets 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Columbus Astros 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0

E  - Hummell
DP - Charlotte 1
LOB- Charlotte 4 Columbus 3
S  - Gross

Charlotte IPHRERBBK
Dick Rusteck (L, 17 - 7) 7 4 2 2 2 9
Ray Strable 1 1 0 0 0 3

Columbus IPHRERBBK
Pat Darcy (W, 5 - 9) 9 0 0 0 3 10

HBP By Darcy (Guth)
Balk - Darcy 2
PB - Hummell
Time - 1:48
Attendance - ?

Darcy lost 1971's last decision to finish 5 - 10 with a fine 2.56 ERA, then returned to the Southern League for 1972, when he finished 8 - 8 with 1 3.42, and was promoted to triple A Denver for 1973, where he also performed well. But BaseballLibrary.com cites "intermittent arm trouble" as the reason why Darcy was dealt to the Reds for an over the hill Denis Menke on February 18, 1974. After a 5 - 7 year at Indianapolis and a one-win cup of coffee in 1974, Darcy was the quintessential one-year wonder for the Big Red Machine in 1975. His 11-5, 3.57 season for the Reds was the only time he spent a full year in the majors, and one of only two times anywhere winning 10 + games. Darcy had an 0 - 1 record in two games of the '75 series against Boston, of course giving up Carlton Fisk's homer in Game Six.
But that stuff was fleeting for Darcy: 1976 was already on the way out; he was 2 - 3 for the Reds with a 6.23 and 5 - 7 with a 4.28 for AAA Indianapolis, and by 1979, Darcy was out of baseball.

Using Bill James' Game Scores to evaluate this very well-pitched game, Darcy's effort grades out at 94 points, the tenth highest total of all the great games collected here at Astroland.

Sources: The Columbus Ledger, August 30, 1971
The Sporting News, September 18, 1971

 

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