Comparing Homer Bailey's two no-hitters

As I wrote about extensively this morning, Homer Bailey threw his second career no-hitter last night, this one against the Giants winning 3-0. Last September 28, Bailey no-hit the Pirates 1-0 in Pittsburgh, a mere 17 starts ago.

Let's compare and contrast the two no-hitters

Homer Bailey's No-Hitter, July 2, 2013

Versus the San Francisco Giants at Great American Ballpark

• Bailey threw 109 pitches, 74 strikes.
• He walked one and struck out nine.
• He went to three balls on nine batters, walking one and striking out three
• The average velocity of his fastball was 92.8 mph.
• Batters swung at 57 pitches, missed 17, and fouled off 22.
• Bailey threw 84 fastballs, 2 changeups, 1 curve, and 22 sliders.
• He threw 86 pitches over 90 mph and 47 over 95 mph.
• In the 9th inning, he threw 13 pitches, 12 fastballs and one slider.
• His 9th inning pitches averaged 96.3, reaching a maximum velocity of 97.4.
• His final three outs were on a 96 mph four-seamer, 97 mph two-seamer, and a 97 mph four-seamer.

Homer Bailey's No-Hitter, September 28, 2012

Versus the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park 

• Bailey threw 115 pitches, 74 strikes.
• He walked one and struck out 10.
• He went to three balls on seven batters, walking one and striking out two
• The average velocity of his fastball was 91.0 mph.
• Batters swung at 54 pitches, missed 17, and fouled off 20.
• Bailey threw 79 fastballs, 6 changeups, 10 curves, and 19 sliders.
• He threw 72 pitches over 90 mph and none over 95 mph.
• In the 9th inning, he threw 16 pitches, 14 fastballs, one change-up and one slider.
• His 9th inning pitches averaged 90.8, reaching a maximum velocity of 92.9.
• His final three outs were on a 89 mph four-seamer, 91 mph four-seamer, and a 92 mph four-seamer. 

It seemed as if Bailey was two different pitchers 

• Bailey threw 79 hard pitches in Sept, against the Bucs, and 84 yesterday, but his hard stuff was much harder yesterday.
• He averaged 88.6 on all his pitches in Sept and 92.8 yesterday.
• 44.3% of his pitchers were in the strike zone against the Pirates and 54.1 against the Giants.
• 83 of his pitches were on the outer half in Sept, 63 yesterday. 

However, the vertical location of his pitches were similar:

• In each no-hitter, 34 pitches were in the middle of the plate and 39 were down in the zone in September, and 40 were yesterday.

I can't wait to see the numbers for the next Homer Bailey no-hitter.

Comments

Cool images -- thanks for doing this analysis!