I have never seen a no-hitter live. I'm a mush. Whenever I turn on a game with a pitcher in the process of throwing a no-hitter, within a half inning the no-no's gone.

Today, I was watching the Phillies game—well, mostly listening since I was painting my bathroom. Jamie Moyer had a no-hitter going into the seventh. I decided to take a break to watch the Moyer face the Marlins in the top of the seventh. After getting the first two batters out, one with , he allowed a clear-cut double by the always dangerous Miguel Cabrera sliced down the left field line.

Again, I ruined a no-hitter. Sorry, Jamie. The Phils eventually won convincingly, 6-1, but I couldn't help but feel responsible for Moyer losing the no-no. I'm a mush.

That said, Moyer's rarest accomplishment on the day may have had nothing to do with the near no-hitter. In the bottom of the seventh after losing the no-no, Moyers doubled to left to lead off the inning. Of course, the Phils did their darnedest to strand him—though Kevin Gregg helped out by wild pitching him to third—and of course, Moyer lost it (slightly) in the eighth walking Joe Borchard and allowing a hit to Aaron Boone before getting pulled.

That fruitless double by Moyer was his first since 1988 and just the third of his career in 208 at-bats. That's a 19-year gap between two-base hits. You do have to remember that prior to coming to the Phils after the trade deadline last year, Moyer had not pitched in the NL—read, non-DH league—since 1991. However, that's still the longest break between two-baggers in baseball history.

And if you think that the other batters with similarly long stretches between doubles benefited from playing in the DH-era American League, take a look at the players who had a ten-year or more lag between doubles. It seems that a good number were career relief pitchers:

So my watching the game may have put the kibosh on Moyer's no-hitter, but it didn't hinder his achieving this even rarer feat. I have a feeling that Moyer probably would have preferred the no-no.