Victor Caratini alternates with the burning of the Boricuas catchers in Major Leagues

Coameño receiver Victor Caratini joined the exclusive list of eight court receivers who have participated in a game without hits in Major League Baseball on Friday night. but his most recent achievement places him in a much more closed club among Puerto Ricans, and as the first catcher in the history of the Majors to achieve a unique event.

Caratini, who received the full game from right-handed pitcher and author of last night’s non-hitter, Joe Musgrove, became just the second Puerto Rican catcher with two such matches, equaling Hall of Fame member Iván “Pudge” Rodríguez.

And while the biggest merit in a no-hits game is, of course, for the pitcher, as receiver Caratini scored other important milestones on Friday.

He is the first starting receiver in Major League Baseball (MLB) history to work out games without consecutive hits by different teams, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. There have been 10 more instances in which a starting receiver has received ‘non-hitters’ in a row, but in all of them they were for their own teams.

The last game without hits that had been registered in Major Leagues, before Friday, was the one of the 13 of September of 2020, when the same Caratini received it in uniform of the Cubs of Chicago to also right Alec Mills .

He doesn’t have a full season yet

Caratini, who debuted in the Majors in 2017, is only 27 years old. And in the four previous campaigns with the Cubs, he never had a full season, as he always acted as a reserve to replace the Venezuelan Wilson Contreras.

In the season he had the most games, in 2019, he participated in 95 matches but started behind the plate in just 59.

So the feat of receiving two consecutive ‘non-hitters’ becomes more relevant because he has always shared the reception, which means that on many fewer occasions he achieved what other catchers have achieved in many more games behind the’ home ‘.

Between the shortened season of 2020 (due to the pandemic) and so far, Caratini has started as a receiver in the lineup of a game on only 26 occasions. But to be more precise, between his first ‘no-hitter’ last September 13 and this Friday, he has only opened as a starter catcher in 11 matches (six with the Cubs-five with the Parents).

Mills, the author of last year’s no-hitter, struck out five in nine innings and gave up 3 bases per ball. And by the time he tied the Milwaukee offense with his hands, Chicago attacked for 10 hits, winning the game 12-0 over the Brewers. In this match Caratini also contributed to the great offense in the offensive, beating 4-2 with a double, two runs scored-three towed.

Meanwhile on Friday, Musgrove got his second win of the season by throwing the full game, striking out 10 and not giving away tickets. The only runner who was hit, Joey Gall, was because the right hit him with a ball in the fourth inning.

In his first opening of the campaign, also with Puerto Rican Caratini behind the plate, Musgrove threw six full innings without conceding scores and only allowing three hits. Add 15 tickets without allowing runs for perfect effectiveness of 0.00 with 18 strikeouts.

For his part, Caratini, in addition to receiving shots from Musgrove, beat 3-1 in a much less offensive game that ended in San Diego’s 3-0 win over the Texas Rangers.

The Parents are now playing for a 5-3 record. Caratini is averaging 313 in batting, with a home run and seven towed runs in just five games.

The eight Puerto Rican receivers

Eight boricuas receivers have received at least one game without hits on a total of 10 occasions according to information gathered by sports historian Jossie Alvarado. The member of the Hall of Fame, Iván Rodríguez (1994, 2007), and Caratini (2020, 2021) are the only ones to get it twice. The other six were Eliseo Rodríguez (1975), Javier López (1994), Jorge Posada (1998), Geovany Soto (2008), Ramón Castro (2009), and Martín Maldonado (2019).

Of these, Eliseo was the first to achieve this in 1975 as a drummer for today’s Hall of Fame member Nolan Ryan, who incidentally is the pitcher with the most hit-free games in the world. history (7).

The only time two Puerto Rican receivers received a hit-free game the same year was in the 1994 season. Lopez did it first with Kent Mercker on April 8, and Ivan followed him on July 28 with a jewel of Kenny Rogers, that in addition was the fourteenth perfect game of the history of Great Leagues. Iván, Jorge Posada and Ramón Castro are the only Boricuas receivers to have received a perfect.

On the other hand, the Puerto Rican pitchers or of Puerto Rican descent with a game without hits have been four so far. The first was John Candelaria, who got it in the uniform of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1976. The second to get it, and first developed on the island was Juanchi Neus, pitching for the Milwaukee Brewers in 1987. Jonathan Sanchez followed him in 2009 with the San Francisco Giants, while Jake Arrieta achieved the same with the Chicago Cubs in 2015.

For the Parents, Friday’s no-hit game was the first in franchise history.