After hitting one just foul, Gregory Polanco ended Zack Greinke's no-hit bid with a homer just fair
It looked a lot like this:
As the tension mounted and Greinke put up hitless inning after hitless inning, emotions spread throughout the ballpark:
As happens so often, though, Greinke's first career no-hitter would have to wait. Thursday's effort came to an end in the eighth inning thanks to a dramatic at-bat from Gregory Polanco.
On a low and inside pitch, Polanco crushed a deep drive down the right-field line that landed juuuust foul. It was enough to elicit a reaction from Greinke and an effort from right fielder
But alas, it was all for naught when Polanco did the same thing a few pitches later -- only this one curled around the pole, breaking up the no-hit bid and giving Gregory his first homer of the season.
"I said, well, I have to keep fighting because the at-bat is not over," Polanco told MLB.com's Adam Berry after the game "I have to keep fighting. I found my pitch and I hit it well."
The D-backs wound up winning the game, 2-1, but things could have wound up much differently had baseball not decided to do that whole "unpredictability" thing it does so well. And Greinke got the send-off he deserved, after an outing like that: