LA Dodgers Josh Beckett's no-no earns him NL Co-Player of the Week honors

With a pitching staff that includes ace Clayton Kershaw, number 2 Zack Greinke and his 7-1 record, and improving youngster Hyun-Jin Ryu, nobody expected that the Dodgers' 21st no-hitter in team history would come from veteran Josh Beckett only months after he had major surgery to remove one of his ribs.  As a result of that impressive performance, Beckett was named National League Co-Player of the Week for the period ending May 25, along with Adam Wainwright of the St. Louis Cardinals.

It is the second consecutive week that a Dodger has earned the honor, following Yasiel Puig’s selection last week.

On Sunday, Beckett threw the first no-hitter of the 2014 season in a 6-0 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. The no-hitter was the first of the veteran’s career and marked the 21st in Dodger franchise history, the most of any Major League franchise.

Beckett became the first Dodger hurler to accomplish the feat since Hideo Nomo (September 17, 1996 at Colorado). The 34-year-old right-hander joined Randy Johnson, Dave Stewart, Bob Gibson, Sandy Koufax, Lew Burdette, and Don Larsen as the only pitchers in Major League history to win a World Series MVP (which Beckett won as a member of the Marlins in 2003) and throw a no-hitter.

Beckett became the oldest pitcher to throw a no-hitter since Randy Johnson tossed a perfect game at the age of 40 on May 18, 2004. Beckett, who spent most of the 2013 campaign on the disabled list after season-ending surgery in July, needed a career-high 128 pitches in 9 innings of work to complete the no-hitter. He walked three and fanned six in the outing as the Dodgers took the rubber-match of their three-game set in Philadelphia. Beckett finished the week with a 2-0 record, a 2.57 ERA (4 ER/14.0 IP) and 12 strikeouts.

Wainwright paced the Majors with 21 strikeouts last week while posting a perfect 2-0 record with a 0.00 ERA.

Other noteworthy performances last week included Milwaukee’s Carlos Gomez (.500, 5 R, 13 H, 4 2B, HR, 5 RBI, 2 SB, .769 SLG, .519 OBP) and Jonathan Lucroy (.500, 14 H, 8 2B, 5 RBI, .857 SLG, .548 OBP); Miami’s Marcell Ozuna (.318, 6 R, 7 H, 3 HR, 9 RBI, .727 SLG, .400 OBP); Beckett’s teammate Yasiel Puig (.522, 5 R, 12 H, HR, .870 SLG, .607 OBP) of the Dodgers; Atlanta’s Justin Upton (.391, 4 R, 3 HR, 10 RBI, .870 SLG, .464 OBP) and Julio Teheran (2-0, 0.00 ERA, 15 SO, 15.0 IP); David Wright (.480, 12 H, HR, .680 SLG, .519 OBP) of the New York Mets; and Washington’s Doug Fister (2-0, 2.19 ERA, 9 SO, 12.1 IP).

By Staff of TheDailySportsHerald.com and news services