I’ve seen some pretty incredible things at Nationals Park, but few could ever top experiencing watching Jordan Zimmermann throw a no-hitter.

He’s long been my favorite pitcher to see in person, both because of the way he goes after hitters and how quickly he operates.  Today, his methodical mowing down of the Miami Marlins was so efficient that it wasn’t until the end of the 5th inning when I looked at the scoreboard to see how many pitches he had thrown that I even noticed he had yet to allow a hit.

The rest of the game was all about hoping the Nats scored more than one run and feeling my nerves building a Zimmermann notched each successive out.

That’s one of his pitches in the 8th inning, which he obviously made it through cleanly.  Fast-forward to him taking the mound in the 9th:

During the final inning I was thinking about how we hadn’t yet seen that one amazing play that seems to keep every no-hitter alive.  With two outs, Steven Souza Jr., a September call-up who spent most of the year tearing up AAA, gave us exactly that:

Clearly I helped by imploring him to “get iiiiiiit” in that video captured by my brother Pat.  Souza was pretty pumped:

Is there any other way to react when you save a no-hitter? http://t.co/8DMB2Zm9Y1
— MLB GIFS (@MLBGIFs) September 28, 2014

Zimmermann went through the full range of emotions during that play, appearing to feel like his no-hit bid was over to celebrating a euphoric end to the regular season with his teammates:

Let’s hope the magic keeps going when the playoffs start on Friday!