The Cincinnati Reds have been notoriously awful for much of the MLB season, but they managed to reach a new low Sunday against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Reds pulled off a remarkable feat by throwing a combined eight-inning no-hitter in Pittsburgh on Sunday. In spite of that, they managed to lose the game 1-0, with the Pirates’ lone run crossing the plate in the bottom of the eighth.
How did that happen? Reds rookie Hunter Greene was dynamite and carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning, but struggled with his control at times. After issuing back-to-back walks with one out in the eighth and with his pitch count at 118, Greene was relieved by Cincinnati reliever Art Warren. Warren issued another walk, loading the bases, then couldn’t quite turn a double play on a Ke’Bryan Hayes ground ball.
The Reds scraped together four hits, but were shut out, so it goes into the book as a loss despite the no-hitter. For what it’s worth, the game would not qualify as an official no-hitter, solely because the Reds’ staff did not get the chance to throw nine full innings of no-hit baseball.
This has actually happened before, as this is the sixth game in MLB history in which a team lost despite allowing no hits. The Los Angeles Angels were the last victims, losing a 1-0 game to the Dodgers in 2008 despite a combined no-hitter between Jered Weaver and Jose Arredondo.
The Reds were on a historically bad pace to start the season. They’ve picked things up a tiny bit since then, but not much, and a game like this is probably bound to linger a bit.
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