He had two Tommy John surgeries before he ever threw a pitch in professional baseball. Tonight he held the New York Yankees hitless into the eighth inning of a playoff game. In 447 postseason games, nobody had ever done that to them. His name is Drew Rasmussen. He grew up in Washington state, went to Mt. Spokane High School, and pitched at Oregon State, where on March 21, 2015 he threw the only perfect game in the history of that program. Then his elbow went. Twice. The second surgery came in September of 2017 and cost him the entire 2018 season. Here is the part that matters tonight. Three months before that second surgery, the Tampa Bay Rays drafted him in the first round, 31st overall. They never got a deal done. He did not sign. The Milwaukee Brewers took him the following year in the sixth round, 185th overall. He debuted in 2020. Tampa Bay traded for him in 2021, and so he ended up pitching for the team that drafted him and could not sign him, four years late and 154 picks cheaper. In August of 2022 he threw eight perfect innings and lost the perfect game in the ninth. In May of 2023 he shut out the Yankees for seven innings on two hits. He was on the injured list within 24 hours. Third elbow surgery. Season over. He did not pitch again until August of 2024. Tonight he started Game 1 of the American League Division Series against Gerrit Cole. Eight innings. One hit. Ten strikeouts. Two walks. 101 pitches. Jonathan Aranda hit a home run in the third, and that was the only run anybody scored. The no-hitter ended with two outs in the eighth, when Austin Wells doubled. Wells then tried to stretch it into a triple and was thrown out at third by a mile, which is its own kind of ending. Kevin Cash took him out after eight. Bryan Baker pitched the ninth. So look at the shape of this man's career. Eight perfect innings in 2022, and he never got the ninth. Eight innings of one hit baseball in a playoff game in 2026, and he never got the ninth. Be honest about the odds he was chasing. There have been three no-hitters in the history of the postseason. Don Larsen in 1956, Roy Halladay in 2010, and a combined one by Houston in 2022. It was never likely. And the Rays are up one game in a series they still have to win. But 447 playoff games is more than a century of Yankees October baseball, and no pitcher had ever taken a no-hitter into the seventh against them until a guy whose elbow has been rebuilt three times did it tonight. His daughter Miller was born in April. He was asked this week about the season he was having. "Being a Major League Baseball player," he said, is nowhere near as important or as impactful to him as being a father and being a husband. Three surgeries, one unsigned first round contract, and two eighth innings that should have been nine. He will take it. For more stories like this, follow us on any platform @thesportsontap