Jack Leiter. If you're a baseball fan, you're probably familiar with the last name. But if you don't know Jack, remember that first name, because you're going to be hearing it a lot.
Six days after throwing a no-hitter against South Carolina, the Vanderbilt right-hander overpowered Missouri on Friday night in an 11-3 rout, throwing seven more hitless frames to extend his scoreless streak to 21 innings this season. The phenom has teamed with fellow right-hander Kumar Rocker (MLB Pipeline's No. 1 overall Draft prospect) to form the most devastating one-two starting rotation punch in college baseball.
Leiter, son of former MLB pitcher and current MLB Network analyst Al Leiter, struck out 10 and walked two on 101 pitches Friday night, giving him 26 strikeouts over his last 16 innings pitched. His only blemish in the no-hitter against South Carolina was a walk to the first batter of the game.
According to MLB.com's Sarah Langs, only two big league pitchers since at least 1901 had back-to-back outings of at least seven innings pitched and no hits allowed: Johnny Vander Meer, who had consecutive no-hitters in '38, and Cy Young, who threw seven innings out of the bullpen and then a no-hitter in his next appearance in '04.
The 20-year-old Leiter, of course, isn't in the Majors ... yet. But he is MLB Pipeline's No. 6 overall Draft prospect in 2021, and as the hitless innings and strikeouts keep piling up, his stock continues to rise. He has been so dominant, his ERA stands at 0.25 on the season.
Leiter's father, Al, threw a Major League no-hitter for the Marlins against the Rockies in 1996, four years before Jack was born. There have been many father-son tandems in baseball history -- we all remember the Griffeys hitting back-to-back homers in a game, and the Bonds clan having two 30-homer/30-steal players in the family. But we've never seen a father-son duo reach the heights on the mound that the Bonds' and the Griffeys reached at the plate.
Could Al and Jack Leiter become the first father and son to each throw a no-hitter in the big leagues? Time will tell. But after what Jack has done this week -- and indeed all season -- it's not at all a far-fetched notion.
Manny Randhawa is a reporter for MLB.com based in Denver.