A trio of D-backs’ farmhands combined to throw a no-hitter for Class A Kane County in a 1-0 win over Quad Cities.
Bryan Valdez, Andy Toelken and Blake Workman combined for eight strikeouts as they kept the River Bandits out of the hit column and pitched their way into the record books with the 10th no-hitter in Cougars’ franchise history.
Valdez, a 24-year-old from the Dominican Republic got the start and was perfect through four innings. The lefty threw 29 of his 35 pitches for strikes as he cruised through his first start of the year.
Toelken took over from there and after retiring the first seven batter he faced, the 23-year-old issued a walk to break up the perfect game. However, that baserunner was quickly erased via a groundball double play. The 19th-round pick from the 2018 Draft worked around another walk in the eighth and retired the first two batters of the ninth before issuing his third free pass of the evening.
From there, Workman, a 22nd-round pick from the 2018 Draft, was called upon to finish the job. The 21-year-old needed just five pitches to rack up a strikeout and seal the no-hitter.