Former Loranger, SLU lefty Wade Miley pitches no-hitter for Reds

The fourth no-hitter of the young baseball season has a Louisiana flair.

Former Loranger and Southeastern Louisiana left-hander Wade Miley became the latest member of the no-hitter club Friday night as Miley’s Cincinnati Reds defeated the Cleveland Indians 3-0 in Cleveland.

There have been 4 no-hitters thrown this year in Major League Baseball.

The season started 36 days ago.

• Joe Musgrove
• Carlos Rodón
• John Means
• Wade Miley

(via @MLB) pic.twitter.com/cl8W6B1Z9E

— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) May 8, 2021

The 34-year-old Miley, a journeyman who has pitched for seven teams since reaching the majors in 2011, walked one and struck out eight.

“I don’t have words right now,” Miley said in a postgame interview on the Reds television broadcast. “I’m just blessed to have this opportunity. Who’d have ever thought I’d throw a no-hitter in the big leagues?”

The game was scoreless until Cincinnati struck for three runs in the top of the ninth.

“I thought that’s when the pressure kind of mounted a little bit,” Miley said of sitting in the dugout, awaiting the bottom of the ninth.

An unofficial look through Major League Baseball’s list of no-hit performances indicates that Miley is only the sixth pitcher from Louisiana to pitch a no-hitter.

Ted Lyons of Lake Charles was the first, on Aug. 21, 1926, for the Chicago White Sox against the Boston Red Sox.

Thirty years later, New Orleans native Mel Parnell twirled a no-hitter for the Red Sox against the White Sox on April 14, 1956.

Parnell would not be the only Boston hurler from Louisiana to pitch a no-hitter. On June 26, 1962, Earl “Moose” Wilson of Ponchatoula no-hit the Los Angeles Angels 2-0.

Former Houston Astros pitcher Don Wilson, who was born in Monroe but attended high school in California, had two career-no hitters – on June 18, 1967 against the Braves and a famous performance on May 1, 1969 in Cincinnati, when he no-hit the Reds one day after Cincinnati’s Jim Maloney had no-hit the Astros.

Mansfield native and former Oakland Athletics left-hander Vida Blue was the last Louisiana native before Friday to throw a complete game no-hitter, doing so on Sept. 21, 1970 against the Twins.

Blue, Lyons, Parnell and Earl Wilson are all members of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.

How rare was Miley’s performance? It was his third career complete game and his second complete-game shutout in his 255th career start.

(Updated Saturday 4:40 p.m.)