Cincinnati Reds starter Homer Bailey improved his record to 5-6 last night against the San Francisco Giants (39-44), but it wasn't just any old win. Bailey threw Major League Baseball's first no-hitter of the season, blanking San Fran and walking just one batter.
Bailey struck out nine Giants Tuesday night, and made his second career no-no look simple. Bruce Bochy, manager of the badly slumping defending World Series champs said, "It was a pretty easy no-hitter. We didn't hit too many balls hard. There weren't any tough plays. We only hit a couple balls decent. He was really overmatching us all night."
Last season, there were seven no-hitters tossed in the big leagues; the last of them was Bailey, against the Pittsburgh Pirates on September 28th. He is the first pitcher to throw a no-hitter, then record a second one before any other pitcher since his idol Nolan Ryan did it in 1974 and 1975.
Bailey, who wears No. 34 because of his Texas brethren acknowledged the history he'd made by saying, "Obviously being from Texas and what a legend he is, to do it once is extra special. To do it twice -- I don't really have the words for it right now."
The Reds got Bailey a lead to work with early in the game. First baseman Joey Votto, one of the top hitters in all of baseball, hit a sacrifice fly in the first inning that provided the necessary margin of victory. To put Bailey at ease, though, second baseman Brandon Phillips clocked a two-run homer in the sixth inning to put the night out of reach.
While 2012 brought no-hitters and perfect games in droves, 2013 had only seen two pitchers, Yu Darvish of the Texas Rangers and Anibal Sanchez of the Detroit Tigers flirt with history. Darvish took a perfect game into ninth inning against the Houston Astros, while Sanchez surrendered a one-out hit in the ninth inning against the Minnesota Twins.
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