Richmond carries no-no into seventh

Back in 2009, Scott Richmond was an integral part of the Toronto Blue Jays' rotation. Shoulder tendinitis hampered the second half of his year and a recurring injury in the build up to the 2010 season saw him miss five months of the new campaign.

The road back to the Majors hasn't been easy for Richmond. But Thursday's latest Triple-A start might be just what he needed to convince the big league club he still has what it takes.

Richmond (6-5) took a no-hitter into the seventh inning before Matt Clark broke up the bid with a leadoff double as the Las Vegas 51s beat the host Tucson Padres, 4-2.

The hit was the only one allowed by the Oklahoma State product, who walked four batters and struck out five over 6 1/3 innings.

Signed by Toronto as a non-drafted free agent in 2007, Richmond walked one batter in each of the first four innings, but none of the base on balls came back to hurt the 32-year-old.

Richmond worked around Daniel Robertson's two-out walk in the first inning, and he elicited a ground ball double play off the bat of Anthony Contreras to erase the free pass issued to Yasmani Grandal to begin the second.

Blake Tekotte worked his way aboard with a two-out walk in the third against Richmond, but the Major Leaguer fanned Andy Parrino to keep the Padres off the board. In the fourth frame, Matt Clark drew an eight-pitch walk, but he was stranded in scoring position following a pair of ground ball outs to end the threat.

After a perfect fifth inning, Richmond hit Parrino with an 0-1 pitch to give Tucson their fifth base runner of the night. But the right-hander helped his own cause by snaring Daniel Robertson's comebacker to the mound and starting a 1-6-3 double play.

Richmond was up to 91 pitches when he came back out for the seventh inning, but Clark ripped a 2-0 offering to center field to put an end to his no-hit bid. Richmond struck Grandal out with his 99th and final pitch before turning things over to the bullpen.

Evan Crawford retired all five batters he faced, but Jerry Gil surrendered two runs on three hits in the ninth to lose the one-hitter and the shutout.

Richmond entered Thursday's game with a 5-5 record and a 5.90 ERA. He had allowed three runs or more in seven of his last nine games, including a total of 17 over his previous four appearances.

Opponents were batting .288 against Richmond, with right-handed hitters posting a .313 average.

Richmond, who turned down opportunities to represent Canada at the 2008 Olympic Games and '09 World Baseball Classic, has made 33 Major League appearances -- including 29 starts -- with the Blue Jays. He sports a career 9-14 record and 5.26 ERA over 166 innings with Toronto.