Thomas Pannone channeled his inner Jesse Litsch today. The young lefty carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning today against the Trash Birds and ended up surrendering just one single over seven innings of work. That’s a hell of a first start.

I reference Litsch, of course, because back in 2007 he put up a ridiculously good first career start against these same Trash Birds. Litsch went eight-and-two-thirds allowing just one run on four hits and three walks. I mean, whenever you have a chance to reference Litsch’s first/best career start, you gotta take it.

Anyways, Pannone was fucking excellent today. He allowed just one hit and two walks over seven innings while collecting three strikeouts. He kept the ball on the ground and allowed a lot of soft contact. Obviously it’s the Orioles and they suck all kinds of ass, but still, Pannone was in control all afternoon.

The most impressive part of the start was the seventh inning. Pannone allowed a leadoff single to Trey Mancini and then Teoscar Hernandez decided he was going to do his best to sabotage Pannone’s start with this horrendous fielding grace…

Despite having a runner on second and third with nobody out and dealing with the disappointment of losing the no hitter and the frustration of Hernandez fielding like a drunk softball player, Pannone got out of the inning unscathed. Dude was nails.

Since making his first career outing as a reliever in which he allowed two runs over an inning-and-two-thirds against the Rays, Pannone has now gone nine-a-two-thirds without allowing a run.