TIL: Dock Ellis was a MLB pitcher. He claims to have never pitched a single game while sober. He crowning achievement is pitching a no hitter while high on LSD.

A no-hitter is when you never allow the other team to get a 'hit'. A 'hit' occurs when the batter makes contact with the ball and reaches a base safely. You can hit the ball without getting a 'hit' if the fielder gets you out before you reach a base. A 'hit' is considered a statistic or a thing, not simply the act of just making contact or 'hitting' the ball. So a no-hitter doesn't entail the opposing team to never make contact with the ball. That would literally be impossible lol. It just requires no one to reach base safely by way of a 'hit'.

On the other hand, a perfect game is when the pitcher allows no 'hits' and no 'walks'. 'Walks' entail every other way of reaching base other than getting a 'hit', minus one specific way (I'll come to that later). 'Walks' include traditional walks (BB or base-on-balls, since the batter literally gets to go to a base because of four balls), intentional walks (IBB or intentional base-on-balls), and hit-by-pitches (HBP, which is when a pitcher hits a batter with the ball). The other way a hitter can reach base, minus 'hits' and 'walks', is by way of a fielding error. So if the third baseman drops the ball and allows the hitter to reach first base, that hitter is not awarded a 'hit', the pitcher is not punished giving up a 'hit', only the fielder that made the error is punished with being charged with an 'error'. To get a perfect game, you have to avoid all of these things. The pitcher has to not give up any hits, any walks, or any errors (this means your team's defence has to be perfect; getting a perfect game is a team effort, even though the pitcher is pretty much only remembered for it since they had to do the hard part lol).

That means in a no-hitter, the pitcher can give up walks and errors, just no 'hits'. Hence, why it's called a 'no-hitter'. If I misunderstood your question (since I've never heard anyone call it a 'fielding-chance' lol) and you actually do understand what a no-hitter is, then my apologies. I'll leave it up for anyone who's confused though.

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