By Neil Hohlfeld / Houston Chronicle

Box score

But on a larger scale, Saturday was different from any other game in the 113 years that major league baseball has been played.

Ryan struggled through the first three innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The mechanics of his delivery from the stretch position had deserted him. The result was that his fastball, the vaunted Ryan Express, was off track.

The fastball was here, there and everywhere. His curve ball, vital to Ryan's success, was breakly too sharply. Through three innings, Ryan had walked three batters and thrown 65 pitches. Forgotten was the fact he hadn't allowed any hits. He was too worried about trying to keep the Houston Astros close.

"He said after the third that his delivery was messed up, his back was killing him and that he just didn't feel right," said Dave Smith, an Astro relief pitcher. " Well, mess up my delivery, kill my back and tell me not to feel right."

Indeed. Every pitcher in the world would yearn for the sort of discomforts Ryan complained of Saturday afternoon. But no pitcher in the world can lay claim to what Ryan has now accomplished.

The Astro right-hander pitched the fifth no-hitter of his career. He beat the Dodgers, 5-0, before 33,115 fans in the Astrodome and a nationwide television audience. After six years of near-misses and frustrations, Ryan finally got the record-setting fifth, more no-hitters than any pitcher in the history of baseball.

Before Saturday, Ryan had been tied with former Dodger great Sandy Koufax with four no-hitters. Now Ryan stands alone. The Alvin native accepted his place in history with his usual aplomb.

"Something like this doesn't get me real emotional," Ryan said in a room crampted with TV lights, writers and security guards delivering the first of hundreds of congratulatory telegrams. "I know I'll enjoy it more in the morning.

"I'm excited I was able to accomplish it because it's the one thing I wanted to do since I got the fourth one [June 1, 1975 against Baltimore while Ryan was with California]. I know when I stop and let what happened settle in, I'll realize what it means."

That Ryan was able to overcome all that bothered him in the early innings was due to one simple fact. He was having trouble pitching from the stretch. After he walked Ken Landreaux with two out in the third inning, he allowed no more base runners.

"I had no idea where the ball was going out of the stretch," said Ryan. "I quit walking people and I didn't have to pitch out of the stretch. That was the big difference."

That, and an increasingly efficient breaking ball during the middle innings. Tony Scott had the best view in the house. The center fielder was able to savor it, allowing that he didn't have to touch one ball the entire game.

"That curve, wow, just boom, snapping every time," said Scott. "I could have sat on a stool the whole game for all I did. Yeah, I had a good view."

"But they [the Dodgers] had a better view and couldn't do anything about it," said pitcher J.R. Richard, who watched in appreciation from the dugout.

"Hell, Superman couldn't have hit him once he started getting the breaking ball over," said Scott.

"A team of Supermen couldn't have hit him," Richard said.

The Dodgers, mortals though they be, would have to rank as one of the most difficult teams to no-hit in the National League. They had not had a no-hitter thrown at them since Aug. 9, 1976, when Pittsburgh's John Candelaria did it. Coincidentally, that game also was on national television.

Ryan's fifth no-hitter began in much the same way many of his starts have this season. He worked a perfect first inning but walked Steve Garvey to lead off the second. Garvey stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch, but Ryan struck out two Dodgers and that inning was over.

Ryan walked Derrell Thomas to lead off the third and walked Landreaux with two out, but wiggled out of trouble. Still, something wasn't right. As he rested between innings, he had a talk with pitching coach Mel Wright.

"He said he might have been overstriding." said Wright. "I went out to the mound [after Ryan struck out Garvey to start the fourth] and we talked about it. Whatever we decided, it worked out fantastic."

Associated Press Ryan pitches during his fifth no-hitter.

With two out in the seventh, Mike Scioscia smoked a line drive to right center that started drifting away from Terry Puhl.

"It hung up just long enough for me to run under it," said Puhl. "The last three steps I knew I had it."

And when Puhl snared it, Ryan started to get the feeling he was about to carve out a piece of history.

"I never think about a no-hitter until after seven innings," he said. "I've been there and lost them too often to think about it before then. But going into the eighth, I felt confident."

The confidence was well-placed. Ryan pitched a routine eighth inning, getting the bottom of the Dodger order with no problem. But the Astros scored three times in their half. Even though those runs added to the two third-inning runs that gave Ryan the lead, it forced him to sit on the bench for 20 minutes.

Ryan responded by throwing three straight strikes past pinch-hitter Reggie Smith to open the ninth. Landreaux, a contact-tyoe, left-handed hitter, chopped a ball that first baseman Denny Walling fielded without trouble. The first two pitches to the final man, Dusty Baker, were balls, causing catcher Alan Ashby to make a decision.

"In that case, the hitter's got to be thinking fastball," said Ashby. "I called for a breaking pitch to get him off stride. After I watched the TV replay, I noticed that he might have been guessing curve. That's scary."

But Baker put Ashby's fears to rest by bouncing on two hops to third baseman Art Howe. His throw to Walling was perfect, and the celebration - and inevitable comparisons - began.

"The fact that this one came in a pennant race, on national TV and in front of my mom makes it that much more significant," said Ryan. "My other no-hitters [all with California] came with teams that were in last place or next-to-last place.

"But I won't compare myself to Sandy Koufax. We're basically the same style pitcher, but he was, in his prime, the most overpowering left-handed pitcher probably in the history of baseball."

Ryan was wise enough to include the word "left-handed" in his appraisal of Koufax. After Saturday, Ryan wears the crown alone.

"Ive been up here two years," said Smith, sipping champagne and letting the importance of the moment seep in. "Look at all I've seen. All that happened last year, the playoffs and all. Now this. Man, I've seen some history. And this is going to pump us up for the rest of the season. This is a [Vitamin] B-12 shot."

By the way, the Astros retained their 1 1/2-game lead over Cincinnati with nine games left. Somehow, the significance of that paled in comparison.