In the year of the no-hitter, add Corey Kluber to the list.
The Yankees signed the right-hander off two injury-plagued seasons with the hope he’d be able to rediscover the form he’d displayed when he was one of the best pitchers in the game and Kluber more than lived up to that expectation in a 2-0 win over the Rangers in front of 31,689 at Globe Life Field.
Kluber was dominant from the start, striking out the first two batters he faced and retiring the first seven before Charlie Culberson worked a walk with one out in the third.
That was the only base runner allowed by Kluber, who faced just one batter over the minimum and struck out nine in a 101-pitch outing for his first career no-hitter.
Afterward, Kluber (4-2, 2.86 ERA) said he didn’t really start thinking about the no-hitter until after the sixth inning.
“At that point, we’d gotten a couple runs,’’ Kluber said. “That cushion makes it easier to pound the strike zone.”
He did that all night long, with just the lone four-pitch walk to Culberson, an at-bat Kluber said he only regretted because it ended with a free pass — not because it cost him a shot at a perfect game.
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