Cubs relievers had been oblivious to the actual fact they had been preserving a no-hitter

Craig Kimbrel did not know why his teammates charged out of the dugout proper after he closed out a 4-0 win for the Cubs at Dodger Stadium on Thursday night time.

The Chicago nearer went to the mound for the underside of the ninth inning simply considering that he was on to protect the lead. He by no means bothered to have a look at any of the scoreboards that confirmed a zero within the house group’s hit column.

And that is why Kimbrel was tremendous chill after he struck out Will Smith for the ultimate out of a mixed no-hitter. Then he obtained the information from his buddies.

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“I am not going to lie, I had no concept till the final out and all people got here working out,” a smiling Kimbrel advised Marquee Sports activities Community in an on-field interview. “I used to be simply locked into the sport and was going out to do my job.”

He mentioned he began to make the connection when catcher Willson Contreras let loose a fist pump.

“That was the giveaway. I used to be like, ‘Man, one thing simply occurred,” he mentioned. “(Ryan) Tepera got here out. He says, ‘You do not even know what simply occurred, do you?’ And I used to be like, ‘I don’t know.'”

Tepera pitched a hitless seventh inning in reduction of starter Zach Davies, who went the primary six. Andrew Chafin pitched the eighth.

It appears unattainable that the Cubs’ bullpen wouldn’t have clued Kimbrel in earlier than he left for the mound, however Chafin advised reporters that nobody on the market had a clue as a result of they could not see the hits column from their location past the right-field wall.

And then there’s the baseball custom of the dugout not talking with a pitcher who’s throwing a no-no, lest the discuss jinxes it. Within the instances of Chafin and Kimbrel, they did not hear a peep from anybody on the sphere.

Chafin began gabbing about it with trainers within the clubhouse after he completed his outing and noticed on the TV broadcast what was happening. After which he obtained fearful as he was met with silence.

“Oh s—, I might need simply ruined it for us,” he recalled considering, per the Chicago Solar-Instances’ Russell Dorsey. “However it labored out.”