KSReds: Cincinnati Reds Allow No Hits, Still Lose to Pirates

Baseball has been around long enough that you don’t often get events that you’ve never seen before. However, on Sunday afternoon in Pittsburgh, one of the most unique situations in Major League Baseball history occurred. For just the sixth time in the game’s history, the Cincinnati Reds lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates despite throwing a combined no-hitter. Yes, you read that correctly. The Reds lost a game in which they did not allow a hit.

Pittsburgh manufactured a run in the bottom of the eighth thanks to a trio of walks and a ground out. Hunter Greene got the first batter of the inning out but then walked the next two to place runners on first and second base. Then, following a pitching change, Art Warren also walked a batter to load the bases. Ke’Bryan Hayes got the Pirates on the board with a RBI ground out and that would prove to be all they needed.

Greene, the Cincinnati Reds rookie phenom, tossed seven and one-third no-hit innings while striking out nine batters and walking five. It was his second straight strong outing on the mound. Even as the team continues to struggle as a whole, having Greene perform well will at least bring some excitement every fifth game when he takes the mound.

Next up for Cincinnati is a trip to Cleveland for a quick pair of games on Tuesday and Wednesday following an off day on Monday. Connor Overton is scheduled to start at 6:10 p.m. EST for the Reds on Tuesday. After another off-day on Thursday, Cincy heats north of the border for a three-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Reds Began Series With a Pair of Wins

Connor Overton turned in a great pitching performance on Thursday evening to get the series started with a win in Pittsburgh. Overton threw six and one-third shutout innings while allowing just three hits. Luis Cessa and Art Warren finished off the shutout for the Reds pitching staff allowing just one hit over the final two and two-third innings.

At the plate, Tyler Stephenson came up big driving in runs in the second and fourth innings to get the scoring started. His 401-foot long ball in the fourth lifted his batting average over .350 at the time. The young catcher is having an All-Star caliber beginning to his second MLB season. Cincinnati went on to take game one 4-0.

On Friday night the Reds kept the bats rolling, defeating Pittsburgh 8-2. Brandon Drury drove in four runs, including a 417-foot blast in the seventh inning to secure the victory. Mike Moustakas also went deep in the inning. As for the pitching performance, Tyler Mahle got the win throwing six innings and allowing two runs on five hits. He also struck out eight batters. The victory marked the first three-game winning streak of the season for the Reds.

Series Ends in Split After Weekend Losses

Despite allowing just four runs combined on Saturday and Sunday the Cincinnati Reds couldn’t come out on top either day. We’ve already covered the hitless loss on Sunday, but Saturday didn’t go the Reds way either. Pittsburgh got two early runs off of Luis Castillo and dominated Cincinnati at the plate by Zach Thompson. Albert Almora Jr. drove in a run in the seventh, but that is all the offense could muster falling 3-1.

The weekend losses were the eighth and ninth defeats of the season in which the Reds scored either zero or one run.