Rules Deprive Matt Young of a No-Hitter : Baseball: Red Sox pitcher doesn’t go the required nine innings in 2-1 loss to Indians. In second game, Cleveland gets two hits and loses.

Boston left-hander Matt Young pitched a complete game Sunday, giving up no hits in eight innings, but he lost the game--and official credit for a no-hitter--as Cleveland beat the Red Sox, 2-1, in the first game of a doubleheader.

Young didn’t get credit for a no-hitter because he didn’t go the required nine innings. Because Cleveland won, it did not have to bat in the bottom of the ninth. A committee headed by the commissioner changed the rules last year.

The Indians had only two hits in the second game, a 3-0 loss, as Roger Clemens (1-1) got his 30th shutout.

The combined total of two hits in a doubleheader is a major league record. The previous low of three occurred four times, most recently when the Indians held the Angels to three hits on June 8, 1969.

In Saturday’s 19-inning, 7-5 loss to the Red Sox, the Indians had 20 hits.

As for Sunday’s non no-hitter, Young called it “Purgatory.”

“It’s irrelevant, because we lost the game,” Young said. “A no-hitter’s supposed to be where you strike out the last guy, and the catcher comes out and jumps in your arms. A loss is a loss.”

The complete game was the first for Young since a 2-1 loss to the White Sox while pitching for Seattle on Sept. 23, 1990.

Seven walks by Young and a throwing error by shortstop Luis Rivera allowed Cleveland to score runs in the first and third innings.

Cleveland’s Charles Nagy (1-1) limited Boston to one tainted run while striking out a career-high 10 in seven innings.

Young, who pitched for the Dodgers in 1987, spent last June 11 to Aug. 1 on the disabled list because of an rotator cuff tear. But he pitched well in spring training, going 3-0 with a 2.14 ERA in five starts. His previous low-hit game was a two-hitter while pitching for Seattle against Toronto on July 18, 1990.

Young, who still lives in La Canada during the off-season, pitched for La Canada St. Francis High, Pasadena City College and UCLA before being drafted by the Seattle Mariners during the second round of the 1980 draft. He was signed as a free agent by the Red Sox in December of 1990.

Hitless Losses

Games in which a team pitched a complete, regulation game without giving up a hit and lost:

* April 23, 1964--Ken Johnson, Houston (9 innings), vs. Cincinnati, 1-0.

* April 30, 1067--Steve Barber (8 2/3 innings) and Stu Miller (one-third inning), vs. Detroit, first game, 2-1.

* July 1, 1990--Andy Hawkins, New York Yankees (8 innings), at Chicago White Sox, 4-0.

* April 12, 1992--Matt Young, Boston (8 innings), at Cleveland, first game, 2-1.