When the Minnesota Twins’ Francisco Liriano threw a no-hitter against the Chicago White Sox on May 3, he entered the game with a 9.13 earned run average. But that didn’t make him the most unlikely candidate ever to toss a no-hitter.

That honor arguably goes to the St. Louis Browns’ Alva Holloman, who pulled it off in his first major league start on May 6, 1953, against the Philadelphia Athletics. Holloman never pitched another complete game, much less another no-hitter, and he was out of baseball by the next season.

Johnny Vander Meer of the Cincinnati Reds wasn’t going to let that happen to him. He pitched no-hitters in two consecutive starts in June 1938, and he’s still the only person ever to pitch back-to-back no-hitters.

Besides Vander Meer, the only major leaguers to throw two no-hitters in a single season are Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies in 2010; Allie Reynolds, New York Yankees, 1951; Virgil Trucks, Detroit Tigers, 1952; and Nolan Ryan, California Angels, 1973.

Halladay’s two record-book outings included a regular season game and a post-season game. His no-hitter against the Reds was only the second in MLB playoff history. The other was the perfect game (no hits or walks) by the New York Yankees’ Don Larsen against the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956.

Other no-hitter nuggets:

• Bob Feller is the only pitcher ever to throw a no-hitter on Opening Day. It happened on April 16, 1940, for the Cleveland Indians.

• Ryan pitched the most no-hitters — seven. Sandy Koufax is second, with four. But old-timers will point out that Ryan got those no-hitters over an astonishing 27 years in the majors with four different teams, retiring at age 46, while arthritis in his pitching arm forced Koufax to retire at age 30.

• Thirteen pitchers have tossed nine innings of no-hit ball, only to lose their no-hitters in extra innings. Ouch.

• Ken Johnson of the Houston Astros (then known as the Colt .45s) got his nine-inning no-hitter in the record book, but he lost the game against the Cincinnati Reds in April 1964. In the ninth inning, a young Pete Rose got on base for the Reds on an error, took second on a fielder’s choice, then scored on another error. The Reds won, 1-0. For his part, Rose went into the record book as MLB’s all-time hits leader, but has been kept out of the Hall of Fame because he bet on games while managing the Reds.