This Day in Marlins History: Anibal Sanchez throws fourth Marlins no-hitter

On this date in Marlins history, September 6, 2006, Anibal Sanchez pitches a no-hitter as the Marlins climb to three games back in the Wild Card. It was quite the night at Sun Life Stadium as the under-capacity crowd raced to get pictures and video of something special. Joe Borchard and Miguel Cabrera were the offensive heroes of the night each hitting solo shots to help the Marlins to a 2-0 victory over the Diamondbacks.

The ninth inning was a very calm finish to an amazing night. Sanchez finished it off in quick fashion in the ninth. He struck out Conor Jackson swinging on a 1-2 pitch, got Luis Gonzalez to pop out to third and then retired Eric Byrnes on a sharp grounder to shortstop Hanley Ramirez, who fielded the ball and threw to first for the fourth no-hitter in Marlins History.

Sanchez threw the first no-hitter in two and a half years, the longest such drought in Major League history, to help Florida beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 2-0. Alex Kienholz of Beyond the Box Score provides with a great profile on Sanchez over the 2007-2012 seasons.

Sanchez mixed in five pitches on the night with a fastball, sinker, curveball, changeup and slider. Pretty intimidating stuff to face if you are a major league hitter. This 22-year-old Venezuelan is the real deal and would show it over the next five seasons. Sanchez recently signed a five-year, $85 million dollar contract with the Tigers and he is worth every penny of it. He pitched five seasons with the Marlins in the major leagues and gave the fans something to cheer about after their second sell-off after the World Series.

Florida acquired him during the 2005 off-season when they completed their second fire sale in team history by sending Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell to the Boston Red Sox for the chance to get young talent. In Sanchez's first 13 starts he is 7-2 with a 2.89 ERA, and a no-hitter pretty great way to start off your Major League career. The team surged into playoff contention and became the first club in Major League history to climb above .500 after being 20 games under.

Sanchez's no-hitter was the Marlins' 14th win in 17 games, and they remained three games behind NL wild-card leader San Diego.

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