Guardians Baseball Insider

July 11, 2015

Just before the All-Star break, the Akron RubberDucks came home from a six game road trip to host the Reading Fightin Phils for a four game set in three games.

Josh Tomlin started in the Friday July 10 contest during a rehab stint, only going 2.2 innings. The RubberDucks won but ended up using three other arms in the victory with 14 inning scheduled for the next day in a double header (minor league double-headers are seven innings apiece, for anyone who may not know).

Ryan Merritt got the call for game one of the split. At this point, Merritt was midway through a solid year in his first taste of Double-A. He was coming off of winning the Bob Feller Award in 2014, annually given by Cleveland to its best pitcher in the minors.

After using three pitchers the night before and seven innings scheduled for later, Merritt stepped up to delivery a seven innings no-hitter, allowing just one walk while striking out three. He needed just 78 pitches to get the job done.

Of course, the soft spoken Texan went on to make his MLB debut a year later in 2016 and made his famous appearance in the ALCS in the clinching game for the Tribe.

The story of Cleveland fans finding the soon to be Merritt’s wedding registry and buying everything off their list for him as he pitched the Tribe to the World Series remains one of the best stories of the team’s history in this current era, in one man’s opinion.

Merritt was always a soft spoken, hard working arm who seemed to feel more comfortable on the mound than he did talking to anyone in the media.

Unfortunately shoulder woes hurt his 2018 campaign when he was out of options and he went from throwing 87-88 to throwing 84-85, which just wasn’t enough to get by. He signed with the Rays for 2019, but is currently a free agent.

Ironically, Merritt’s MLB record stands at a sterling 3-0 in nine games and a 1.71 ERA and one scoreless postseason outing.

BOX

You can watch the whole game on YouTube

Or you can watch the highlights too, if you are pressed for time.