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Detroit Tigers' Jackson Jobe leads Double-A Erie in combined no-hitter with four pitchers
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- Detroit Tigers' Jackson Jobe leads Double-A Erie in combined no-hitter with four pitchers
Detroit Tigers right-hander Jackson Jobe , the top pitching prospect in baseball, led the way for Double-A Erie by throwing six scoreless innings with five strikeouts.
Jobe didn't allow a hit in his six innings.
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The SeaWolves completed a combined no-hitter with four pitchers, headlined by Jobe, in Saturday's 3-0 win against the Binghamton Rumble Ponies, an affiliate of the New York Mets , at Mirabito Stadium in Binghamton, New York.
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The four pitchers: Jobe in the first six innings, Jake Higginbotham in the seventh inning, Matt Seelinger in the eighth inning and Garrett Hill in the ninth inning.
Catcher Eliezer Alfonzo , who hit a home run in the ninth, worked behind the plate for all nine innings.
"Jackson makes everything easier," Alfonzo said, according to MiLB.com's Jesús Cano . "Everyone knows about that talent that he has — the ability to dominate the batters and the competitive attitude that makes him a great pitcher."
From left to right: Double-A Erie pitcher Matt Seelinger, pitcher Garrett Hill, pitching coach Juan Pimentel, catcher Eliezer Alfonzo, pitcher Jackson Jobe and pitcher Jake Higginbotham on July 20, 2024, after completing a combined no-hitter in Binghamton, New York.
Facing the Rumble Ponies, Jobe walked two batters — one in the second inning, one in the fifth inning — in his 70-pitch performance to kickstart the combined no-hitter. Hill also walked a batter in the ninth inning, but he induced a groundout to end the game.
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"I wouldn't want anyone in the world out there with me than that guy right there," Jobe said of Alfonzo, according to MiLB.com . "He knows me better than anyone else. It's always fun going out there with him. It gives me a lot of confidence. He works really hard back there."
Jobe, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2021 draft, owns a 1.38 ERA with 16 walks and 45 strikeouts across 32⅔ innings in eight starts for Double-A Erie. He also has a 2.00 ERA with two walks and eight strikeouts across nine innings in three starts for High-A West Michigan.
The 21-year-old started those three games for West Michigan during his rehab assignment in return from a left hamstring strain , which kept him on the injured list from May 2 through July 4 .
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Jobe has dealt with injuries in back-to-back seasons , but he hasn't had an arm injury.
"I want to pitch in the big leagues," Jobe said, according to MiLB.com . "Whether that'll happen or not this season, I don't know, but that's been something I've wanted to do since I was 4 years old. Getting to Double-A, you kind of start to see that light at the end of the tunnel."
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The Jobe-led no-hitter marked the fifth no-hitter in Erie SeaWolves history and the first since Aug. 29, 2019, when former No. 1 overall draft pick Casey Mize threw a no-hitter in his SeaWolves debut with catcher Jake Rogers behind the plate. A few days before that, Alex Faedo and Drew Carlton combined to throw a no-hitter for the SeaWolves with catcher Chace Numata.
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Elvin Hernandez threw the first of five no-hitters in 1995.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold .
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers' Jackson Jobe leads Erie SeaWolves in combined no-hitter
