*Originally published on May 15, this was one of my favorite ‘Baseball is Fun’ moments from the 2022 baseball season.*
It happened! It’s incredible! It’s a slice of history! It’s something wild and fun to enjoy!
No, not the fact that the Cincinnati Reds just threw a combined no-hitter against the Pittsburgh Pirates. It’s the fact that the Cincinnati Reds just threw a combined no-hitter against the Pittsburgh Pirates … and lost the game:
The only run of the game scored on this nondescript fielder’s choice grounder:
It was obviously still a really nice outing for the Reds pitching staff. Most of those eight innings came from youngster Hunter Greene, who went 7.1 innings, allowing the one earned run on five walks and nine strikeouts.
For the Pirates, Jose Quintana threw 7.0 scoreless innings despite allowing three hits (nobody remembers a three-hitter!), with Chris Stratton and David Bednar combining on the shutout.
Add the ignominious moment to the Reds’ already-long, already-terrible season. The dreaded lost-a-game-in-which-they-threw-a-no-hitter. Oof.