The St. Louis Cardinals are a Major League Baseball franchise based in St. Louis Missouri. They play in the National League Central division. Also known in their early years as the "St. Louis Brown Stockings" (1882), "St. Louis Browns" (1883–1898), and "St. Louis Perfectos" (1899), pitchers for the Cardinals have thrown 10 no-hitters in franchise history. A no-hitter is officially recognized by Major League Baseball only "when a pitcher (or pitchers) allows no hits during the entire course of a game, which consists of at least nine innings", though one or more batters "may reach base via a walk, an error, a hit by pitch, a passed ball or wild pitch on strike three, or catcher's interference". No-hitters of less than nine complete innings were previously recognized by the league as official; however, several rule alterations in 1991 changed the rule to its current form. A perfect game, a special subcategory of no-hitter, has yet to be thrown in Cardinals history. As defined by Major League Baseball, "in a perfect game, no batter reaches any base during the course of the game." Ted Breitenstein threw the first no-hitter in Cardinals franchise history on his first major league start on October 4, 1891 when the team was known as the "St. Louis Browns"; the most recent no-hitter was thrown by Bud Smith on September 3, 2001. Two left-handed pitchers have thrown no-hitters in franchise history, while seven were by right-handers. Four no-hitters were thrown at home and six on the road, whilst all ten have been pitched against different opponents. The Cardinals have thrown one no-hitter in April, one in June, one in July, two in August, four in September, and one in October. The longest interval between no-hitters was between the games pitched by Breitenstein and Jesse Haines, encompassing 32 years, 9 months, and 13 days from October 4, 1891 till August 17, 1924. Conversely, the shortest interval between no-hitters was between the games pitched by Jiménez and Smith, encompassing merely 2 years, 2 months, and 9 days from June 25, 1999 till September 3, 2001. In none of their ten no-hitters did the Cardinals allow any runs via errors, walks, hit batters or uncaught third strikes. The most baserunners allowed in a no-hitter was by Ray Washburn (in 1968), who allowed five. Of the ten no-hitters, two have been won by a score of 2–0, 3–0, and 5–0, more