May 3, 2002 4 min read

DENVER (AP) – After five straight solid outings by his starters that included back-to-back shutouts, Colorado Rockies manager Clint Hurdle thought it couldn’t get any better. Then John Thomson didn’t allow a hit for 6 1-3 innings Thursday, the longest no-hit bid in the 10-season history of the Rockies.

Thomson, who didn’t allow a hit until Armando Rios singled with one out in the seventh, led the Rockies over the Pittsburgh Pirates 7-2 for their sixth straight win under Hurdle.

“Wow!” Hurdle said. “I’ve seen a lot of games here and I’ve been in a lot of places, but I’ve never seen anything like these six games at Coors Field.

Colorado, on its longest winning streak since May 27-June 2, 2000, set a team pitching record with 24 consecutive scoreless innings before Jason Kendall’s RBI single in the seventh.

Thomson’s hitless streak was the longest ever by a Colorado pitcher at the start of a game, one out more than Pedro Astacio got on three occasions. Thomson (4-2) allowed two runs and two hits in seven innings and struck out five. Colorado’s last six starters have gone a combined 6-0 with a 1.08 ERA.

“I haven’t seen six games of pitching like this since I was with the Mets organization as a player (1983-87), and we had some pretty good pitchers back there,” Hurdle said, thinking back to the Dwight Gooden era.

Kent Mercker and Dennys Reyes each pitched an inning of hitless relief, with Reyes striking out the side in the ninth.

Juan Uribe and Larry Walker drove in two runs apiece for Colorado.

Pittsburgh, which had only two runs and seven hits in the three-game series, has lost a season-high four straight and seven of nine.

Ron Villone (2-4) gave up all seven runs – five earned – and eight hits in 6 2-3 innings.

The Pirates got their first two runs of the three-game series in the seventh. Thomson struck out Brian Giles to open the inning. Craig Wilson was hit by a pitch, and Rios singled near the line in short left field. Jason Kendall followed with an RBI single, and Adrian Brown’s groundout scored another run.

“I was aware of the no-hitter,” Thomson said.

“(Ben) Petrick and I talked after every inning,” he said of his catcher. “And every inning it’s a habit of mine to look up on the scoreboard and see who is batting. When I see the score, the hits are there.”

Thomson thought he had better stuff in an outing last Friday against Philadelphia “because I was locating my fastball better. I had a good cutter today. That helped me because of the lefties they had in the lineup.”

He said the pitch to Rios “got in on him, but he fought it off. He made a good swing and got it into left field.”

Rios said Thomson kept throwing inside and lofted a single into short left field, near the foul line.

“I hit the ball hard on my first at-bat,” he said. “This one wasn’t a hit that you want to get every time, but it’s a hit. It doesn’t matter when you’re breaking up a no-hitter.”

Thomson walked the leadoff batter in the second but retired the next three batters, including Rios on a drive that sent Juan Pierre to the wall in center field.

He also walked the leadoff batter in the fourth but again got the next three batters, including Giles, who flied out to deep center.

Todd Helton made a diving stop on Brown’s grounder between first and second and tossed to Thomson for the second out in the fifth.

“We’re a little frustrated with our lack of offense,” Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon said. “But we swung the bats a lot better in this game, and I hope it’s a sign of things to come.”

Colorado went ahead in the second went Todd Helton singled and scored on Benny Agbayani’s double-play grounder. Colorado made it 4-0 in the third on third baseman Rob Mackowiak’s run-scoring throwing error, Uribe’s RBI double down the left-field line and Helton’s run-scoring single.

Walker’s two-run single keyed a three-run seventh.

NOTES: Uribe extended his hitting streak to 14 games. … Thomson moved past Kevin Ritz into third place on the Rockies’ career strikeout list with 342. He trails only Astacio (749) and Curtis Leskanic (415). … Villone pitched in 22 games for the Rockies last season.