Browns no-hit Braves but lose spring game, 71 years ago today

A tandem of three St. Louis Browns pitchers tossed a Spring Training no-hitter against the Boston Braves but lost, 71 years ago today.

Jim Bilbrey got the start for St. Louis at Fort Lauderdale’s Westside Park on Tuesday, March 4, 1947, and threw three innings of no-hit ball. Sam Zoldak took the ball for the fourth and yielded two runs on a pair of walks, an error, a bases-loaded fielder’s choice and a sacrifice fly despite not giving up a hit.

Zoldak held the Braves runless and hitless through the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, as the Browns pulled within one on a sixth-inning RBI double by Bob Dillinger. Zoldak handed the ball to Mulbrey Sanford for the eighth and Sanford did his job, but the Browns couldn’t plate a runner in the top of the ninth inning and lost 2-1.

It’s the the only no-hit loss in Grapefruit League history (See our full list of Spring Training no-hitters).

Because the Braves didn’t have to bat in the ninth, this would not be considered a no-hitter under the 1991 definition clarification. These “No-hitters lost by the away team in which the game ended after 8 1/2 innings” feats are super rare, as there have only been four regular-season examples over the majors’ 130-plus-year history.