Miley pitches MLB's 2nd no-no THIS WEEK!
Mark Sheldon
@m_sheldonReds starting pitcher Wade Miley was sporting an Incredible Hulk temporary tattoo on his right forearm. His 4-year-old son, Jeb, gave it to him during Thursday's off-day.
Miley went out and pitched like a superhero for Cincinnati on Friday. Working at his trademark quick pace, the left-hander made easy work of the Cleveland lineup when he threw a no-hitter for a 3-0 Reds win at Progressive Field.
"I got no muscles at all, I'm shriveled up. But maybe this gave me some strength. I don't know, it was fun," Miley said. "I'm going to try to get my wife to order as many Hulk tattoos as she can. Maybe I'll just slap one on there before every start. [My son] actually put this on. He had to put it right here on my forearm. I [wanted to] put it on my shoulder so I could hide it. He had to have it on my forearm, and that's what we went with. He loves The Avengers and stuff like that. I'm rocking it."
Miley took a perfect game into the sixth inning and after that bid ended, he kept going to notch the fourth no-hitter in the Major Leagues this season, joining Joe Musgrove, Carlos Rodón and John Means. It's the second no-no this week (Means) and the second time this season the Indians have been no-hit (Rodón).
The game was scoreless until the Reds scored three runs in the top of the ninth. There were 114 pitches thrown by Miley, including 72 strikes, as he walked one batter and struck out eight.
Miley got René Rivera to fly out to begin the bottom of the ninth and got Cesar Hernandez for a called third strike before Jordan Luplow grounded out to shortstop Kyle Farmer. After the throw to first base, the lefty Miley had in hand the 17th no-hitter in franchise history and the first since Homer Bailey no-hit the Giants on July 2, 2013.
"I don’t know that I’ve ever been a part of anything in pretty many years in the game where it was this joyful and just truly authentically happy for one player," Reds manager David Bell said. "What an incredible performance. I don’t even know where to start. I think the thing that stands out is Wade was, right from the very beginning, he had command of all his pitches. He was working fast like always. He didn’t change a thing the whole game."
Following a 93-minute rain delay that held up the start of the game, it took Miley only two hours and 34 minutes to dispatch Cleveland. Leaning hard on his cutter and changeup, he retired his first 16 batters in a row. Only one ball left the infield in that stretch -- an Eddie Rosario flyout to Nick Castellanos in right field.
With one out in the bottom of the sixth inning, Amed Rosario hit a ground ball to the middle of the infield. Second baseman Nick Senzel went to his knees to field the ball, but committed two errors on the play -- one when the ball went in and out of his glove, and the second when his throw went into the camera well to give the runner second base. There were two outs when Hernandez walked, but Luplow's flyout to left field got Miley out of the jam.
"I know that’s after the fact that we didn’t have a perfect game anymore, but I wasn’t really thinking about that," catcher Tucker Barnhart said. "I was just thinking about them not getting any hits. I’ve never been in that position, so it was hard."
Around the sixth inning, the usually chatty Miley got the silent treatment from the Reds dugout.
"Sixth inning, all my buddies left me," Miley said. "I was like, 'I don't like that.’ I don't like thinking about pitching. I want to talk about something else. I want to talk about fishing, talk about hitting. There's nobody to talk to. I felt [pitching coach Derek Johnson] scoot over two or three feet -- I [was] like, 'C'mon, Deej.' It was fun. It was cool to be a part of. I'm just happy to do it with this group of guys."
For the second game in a row, the Reds were locked in a game that was scoreless into the ninth inning. On Wednesday, they beat the White Sox, 1-0, in 10 innings. On Friday, Cleveland starter Zach Plesac gave up three hits, but no runs, over eight innings. After giving up a leadoff double to Castellanos in the fourth inning, Plesac retired his final 15 batters in a row.
"Plesac pitched unbelievable as well," designated hitter Jesse Winker said. "We wanted to get [Miley] a run. We just wanted to get him a run, and we came through in the ninth -- we put up three."
Cincinnati broke through via miscues by Cleveland reliever Emmanuel Clase. Senzel led off with an infield single off Clase's foot, and Winker followed with a single. Castellanos hit a comebacker to Clase, who made a wild throw with no one covering second base that allowed Senzel to score.
Next, Clase was called for a balk that advanced the runners, including Winker with a second run. A ground-ball single by Mike Moustakas scored the inning's third run. The long inning had left Miley on the bench alone with his thoughts.
"That's probably when I felt it the most," he said. "Man, you're sitting there, I knew what was going on in the eighth. But it's 0-0 -- obviously, hats off to Plesac. He threw a great game. Nobody knows what's happening. We scratch three across in the ninth and it was kind of slowing, playing pretty slow. I didn't want to go throw in the hallway because I was pretty tired. I didn't want to waste any bullets, but at the same time, I wanted to stay loose. That's definitely where the pressure set in, and I was able to go out and get three quick ones and make it happen."
Bell had Tejay Antone and Ryan Hendrix warming up in the Reds' bullpen during the eighth inning. Once the runs were scored, he no longer had to worry about whether to let Miley pitch in extra innings.
"You try to think ahead, but ... the game was going to dictate what happened," Bell said. "You wanted to be prepared. We were in an area that he hadn’t been in this year as far as pitches and innings. But not once did he look fatigued. Not once did he look like he was laboring in any way. So Wade made it easy."
Once the 27th out was secured, Barnhart raced to the mound to hug Miley, and their teammates surrounded them near the mound. After twice previously having taken no-hitters into the seventh inning during his career, the 34-year-old had finished the job.
"He’s been around for a long time," Barnhart said. "His personality is so infectious. He’s just a genuine, great dude. I can’t really say it any way other than that. Everybody in the locker room loves him. I’ve never really seen an entire team so happy for just one person in my career. I’m very, very, very lucky, fortunate and grateful to be a part of that tonight.”