By Ron Rapoport / Los Angeles Times

Box score

Ryan's performance, which left both friend and foe groping for superlatives, came in a 6-0 Angels' victory over Detroit before a Cap Day crowd of 41,411 at Tiger Stadium.

Ryan struck out 17 batters - most ever in a no-hitter - and walked four in no-hitting the Tigers precisely two months after blanking the Royals in Kansas City. The strikeout total matched his career best and was one shy of the American League record set by Bob Feller in 1938.

For a time, it appeared that Ryan might get the record - and surpass the National League mark of 19 held jointly by Steve Carlton and Tom Seaver - as well as the no-hitter. He entered the eighth inning with 16 strikeouts, having struck out the side three times and with at least two strikeouts in every inning but the sixth, when he had one.

But when the Angels staged a time-consuming five-run rally in the eighth, breaking open a tight 1-0 game, Ryan could tell he was in trouble. Not just strikeout trouble, but no-hit trouble as well.

"My arm stiffened up," Ryan said amid the whooping and hollering of the Angel dressing room after the game. "I was kind of anxious to get going. I'm not like some people who can use the extra rest. It's just like an hour from now my arm will be too stiff to throw much."

Ryan had no trouble disposing of the Tigers in the eighth, but could tell the difference. "I knew personally I didn't have the same stuff. They weren't hitting my pitches."

Nevertheless, Ryan struck out Ed Brinkman, the only Tiger batter to elude him to that point, setting the stage for the ninth.

What had been most remarkable about Ryan's performance until the final inning was the fact that there were no hard chances for the Angel fielders and only one reasonably hard-hit ball - Jim Northrup's sharp line drive at Ken Berry in centerfield in the sixth.

But, after Ryan got Mickey Stanley on a grounder to shortstop to open the ninth, came the play of the game.

Gates Brown, who had struck out once and walked twice, drove a hard line drive to the left side of the infield. If it was not right at somebody, it was a base hit at least, perhaps a double to the wall. But it was hit right at Rudy Meoli.

"It was about a foot over my head," said the Angel shortstop, who reached up and caught the ball.

"Yesterday, Rudy missed one just like it by not opening his glove," said coach Salty Parker.

"When he hit the ball," said Ryan, "I thought it was right through the infield. I knew if it wasn't right at him, it was a hit."

Brown, a left-handed hitter, said that if Meoli had been shaded slightly to the right the way most shortstops play him, the ball never could have been caught.

The play left only Norm Cash between Ryan and a no-hitter and even the veteran first baseman seemed to know he had little chance. Twice before, he had not only been struck out, but had been made to look foolish with his late swings.

So Cash came up to the plate the last time with an oddly shaped stick in his hand; a piano leg, it turned out, that somebody had sent him as a joke. Home plate umpire Ron Luciano, who had examined Cash's bat earlier for illegal cork filler, took no notice this time.

"Well," said Cash to Luciano, "aren't you going to check my bat?"

Luciano did and threw it out. With a more conventional bat, Cash at last was ready to hit. On a 1-2 pitch, he drove a little pop out to short left. Meoli scrambled back under it, while the tension drained from the crowd, which by now was pulling for Ryan, like air from a pin-pricked balloon. The ball fell into Meoli's glove and Ryan's teammates fell upon him in congratulation.

"I thought I had a pretty good jump," said Meoli. "I knew I could get under it."

All the Angels, Ryan included, said he pitched much better in this game than in his May 15 no-hitter in Kansas City. The Tigers seemed to think he pitched much better than anyone ever had anywhere.

"I've never seen anybody throw that good before," said Dick McAuliffe, who shared with Duke Sims the distinction of striking out three times.

"When his fastball starts to come in over the plate and go up, there's no way anyone is going to touch it. He was just unhittable.

"On top of that, he put his curve where he wanted to. He's the best I've ever seen, bar none."

"That's the hardest I've ever seen anybody throw," agreed Sims. "And he had that horrendous hook. He's changed his delivery some. He's more compact than he used to be. I think it's helped his control. He just had me overmatched. It was no contest."

"He had everything," said Tiger manager Billy Martin. "He's always good against us [Ryan now has 26 straight scoreless innings against Detroit], but this is the best I've ever seen him."

And Gates Brown, the man who hit the hardest ball off Ryan? Well, he just kept repeating, "Superstuff, superstuff."

Angel manager Bobby Winkles said he thought this no-hitter was more of an accomplishment that the one in Kansas City because that one was at night and hitters can pick up the ball better in natural light and because he was ahead of the hitters more often Sunday. Ryan had 12 strikeouts and three walks in his first no-hitter.

There was one member of the Angels' staff who was not surprised that Ryan should come up with a fine performance at this time. That was pitching coach Tom Morgan.

"I thought he pitched real well his last start in Baltimore," said Morgan. "He had good velocity and good rhythm. You could see he had confidence in himself, and I told some people this would be a big game for him.

"He had much better stuff than he did in Kansas City. I think he only hung three or four curves. Some of his fastballs looked like they were rising a foot, and he threw some of the best curveballs I've seen in many years . . . from anybody. The hitter can't look for either one when it's like that."

Catcher Art Kusnyer, who had the best look at Ryan's stuff, said, "The curve was really outstanding. It was really going down. You could tell the way hitters were chopping down on the ball. And this is probably the hardest he's thrown consistently for strikeouts. He was always around the plate.

"At one point, the umpire said they ought to make one of his pitches, either the curve or the fastball, illegal. And some of the hitters would just look at me like they couldn't believe it or, when he threw a curve, say, 'Jeezuz!' His last time up, Dick Sharon [the Tiger right-fielder who struck out twice] said to me, 'This is getting to be fun now.' "

A clutch of youngsters hanging around the Tiger dressing room hollered as catcher Sims walked outside, "How about a cracked bat?" they called. "We didn't hit any balls hard enough to crack any bats."