Five straight pitches out of Sean Manaea’s left arm exploded across the plate.
Then three consecutive balls released by the 12-year-old lefty during a bullpen session sailed, the last one high and wide enough to break the “EXIT” sign above the door of The Batter’s Box in Valparaiso, Ind. Nuke LaLoosh in “Bull Durham” never pitched any wilder.
“It was about nine feet high,” recalled Eric Snyder, Manaea’s youth pitching instructor years before the A’s starter threw the season’s first no-hitter Saturday night. “So I went up to him and asked him what happens when he throws wild like that.