A half-dozen quick stats that caught our attention recently ...
♦ The Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw Wednesday night struck out 15 batters in his no-hitter ... the most Ks ever in a no-hitter not thrown by Nolan Ryan (two 17s and a 16).
♦ Kershaw also did not walk a batter (the only runner reached on an error), the seventh such no hit/no walk non-perfect game since 1973. Included in those seven was the no-hitter by the Phillies' Terry Mulholland in 1990.
♦ ... And before you ask ... the miscue in the Mulholland no-hitter was a throwing error by third baseman Charlie Hayes, which allowed the Giants' Richie Parker to reach. Three pitches later, Parker was erased on a double-play (Dickie Thon to Tom Herr to John Kruk).
♦ With its 2-0 loss to Chile Wednesday, Spain was eliminated from advancing to the next round, becoming the 12th consecutive World Cup champion to fail to defend its title.
♦ In less than 24 hours, Phillies Cesar Hernandez (.200 to .240) and Wil Nieves (.229 to 259) raised their averages a combined 70 points. Pretty hard to do in mid-June.
♦ When Nieves came up lame on his second double of the game Wednesday, fellow catcher Carlos Ruiz made the 11th pinch-running appearance of his Phillies career. That is the exact same number of pinch-running appearances made by Jeff Stone as a Phil.