Chicago Cubs righty Alec Mills threw the league’s second no-hitter of the season on Sunday, shutting down the Milwaukee Brewers in a 12-0 victory.
Mills, 28, struck out five while walking three.
Asked in the postgame interview on the Marquee Sports Network how he felt, Mills responded: “I have no idea. It hasn’t really hit me yet. I didn’t really know how to celebrate. Just something that came together today.”
The Brewers never got close to a hit in the final innings as Mills threw a career-high 114 pitches in just his 15th career big league start. He induced a pop up by Jacob Nottingham and then struck out Tyrone Taylor for the first two outs of the ninth inning before getting Jace Peterson to ground out to short.
Mills said that his curveball was his best pitch on the day. He often set up hitters with a first-pitch curve for a strike.
Mills had to wait in the top of the ninth as the Brewers used shortstop Orlando Arcia as a pitcher and the Cubs tacked on two more runs against pitches topping out in the 50s.
Mills said he was “just trying to calm down and relax and make it seem like the same inning every day.”
Mills was a walk-on at Tennessee-Martin and had been cut by the Royals. He never had a complete game in the big leagues.
He was asked how he would respond if someone told him in college that he would end up throwing a no-hitter in the big leagues.
“I definitely would have told them they were crazy. … They gave me a chance there, and other teams have given me a chance,” he said. “And I’m just going to try to keep proving them right.”
Mills’ no-no was the 16th in franchise history and the first for a Cubs pitcher since Jake Arrieta‘s in 2016.
Chicago has cornered the market on no-hitters. Lucas Giolito of the White Sox threw the first one of the season on Aug. 25.