Bailey flirts with no-no, bullpen falters in loss

Bailey flirts with no-no, bullpen falters in loss

April 11th, 2018

PHILADELPHIA -- The game started to slip away from the Reds late on Tuesday night.
Homer Bailey lost his no-hitter with one out in the sixth inning. He lost his shutout by the end of the frame. The Reds lost their chance at picking up their third win of the season two innings later.
Despite Bailey's best start of 2018, the Reds' offense went quiet against in a 6-1 loss to the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. It was the eighth loss in 10 games this season for the Reds. They can try to salvage a win against Philadelphia in the finale of a three-game series on Wednesday night.
Bailey, who has two career no-hitters to his name, was on cruise control early. He needed only 63 pitches to get through the first five innings and allowed just two baserunners in that span (on a hit batter and an error).
"We really pitched efficient early, got a lot of quick outs," Bailey said.
got the Phillies' first hit of the night, lining a 3-1 fastball to right field with one out in the sixth inning. Two batters later, tied the game with an RBI double.

Bailey got out of the inning without any further damage. But with Bailey's pitch count at 93 after six innings, Reds manager Bryan Price decided to go to his bullpen.
But did Bailey think he could have gone back out for the seventh?
"Absolutely I do," Bailey said. "But it's not my job to question the decisions. I always feel like I can go back out there for another one. Whether I should or not is not my call, and I'm probably not the one to make that call."
Bailey has thrown the last two no-hitters in Reds history, and he did it in the span of a calendar year. Bailey no-hit the Pirates on Sept. 28, 2012, and accomplished the same feat against the Giants on July 2, 2013. The 12-year Major League veteran said a third no-no wasn't on his mind Tuesday.
"You don't feel like it's one of those until you're over with one of those," said Bailey, who finished Tuesday's start with seven strikeouts and no walks. "I heard some fans screaming in the third and fourth and the fifth. With a 1-0 game, it's the last thing on your mind. You're just trying to keep runners from scoring, keep runners off base in general."
After Bailey left the game, reliever Jared Hughes gave up a go-ahead single to in the seventh inning. then broke the game open with a grand slam in the eighth against Tanner Rainey, who was making his Major League debut.
Offensively, the Reds had just three hits against Nola, who went eight innings and struck out six.
"[Nola] was great. Homer was probably even better for the first five innings," Price said. " ... It was two really good right-handed pitchers that matched up really well."
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Growing pains: Rainey and infielder made their Major League debuts. Both players experienced some big league growing pains. Rainey gave up a grand slam in the eighth inning to fellow rookie Kingery. The hard-throwing Rainey also gave up a double and walked two batters (one intentional) before Kingery's blast, but he did record his first two big league strikeouts.

Blandino was 0-for-3 at the plate with two strikeouts, and also made a throwing error at third base in the fifth inning.
Stealing a run: walked twice and went on to steal second base both times. It paid off in the fifth inning when Hamilton scored on 's two-out single to give the Reds their only run of the game. Hamilton has four steals this season, and he also has multi-walk games in two of his last five appearances. Hamilton had just six games with multiple walks in the 2017 season.

QUOTABLE
"It doesn't -- for a minute -- change our opinion of him. It's an outing, a tough one for sure. But he's certainly better than he performed today." -- Price on Rainey, who is ranked by MLB Pipeline as the Reds' No. 29 prospect
WHAT'S NEXT
The Reds wrap up a three-game series in Philadelphia on Wednesday night at 7:05 ET with on the mound. Castillo will try to shake off a tough start to the season. The second-year righty has given up 10 earned runs on 12 hits in 10 innings during his first pair of outings in 2018.
Watch every out-of-market regular-season game live on MLB.TV.