PITTSBURGH — The Pirates faced a dominant starting pitcher on Sunday, achieved no hits and won the game, 1-0.
Yes, you read that correctly. Cincinnati Reds right-hander Hunter Greene, the No. 22 prospect in baseball, was utterly dominant through seven innings at PNC Park. He allowed three walks scattered throughout that time, but nobody reached base via hit. And Reds manager David Bell was willing to give Greene all the leash he needed, up until he couldn’t anymore.
In the eighth, Greene’s time came. He walked Pirates infielder Rodolfo Castro and catcher Michael Pérez and was pulled from the game. Reliever Art Warren entered and walked outfielder Ben Gamel to load the bases. Then third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes stepped up, rolled a weak grounder to second and beat the double play, scoring the lone Pirates run of the afternoon.
All the while, the Pirates pitching staff was dominant in its own right. Left-hander José Quintana tossed seven shutout innings, allowing just four baserunners on three hits and a walk. He made way for reliever Chris Stratton, who pitched a scoreless eighth, so by the time Hayes secured his RBI groundout, the Pirates had a lead. David Bednar shut down the ninth, completing the anomaly.
The Pirates became the 316th team in MLB history to be no-hit, but the first since the 2008 Los Angeles Dodgers to still win their game.
It’s a feat that unfairly overshadow the kind of afternoon Greene had. His stuff, first and foremost, was electric, with a fastball regularly reaching triple digits and biting breaking stuff that befuddled the Pirates.
Throughout the later innings, as his pitch count crept above 100, the Reds had nobody warming in the bullpen. It wasn’t until he walked Castro that Warren finally got up to get ready. When Greene showed he was out of gas, Bell’s hand was forced in an effort to give his team the chance to win what was a scoreless game.
The dichotomy between Greene and Quintana was staggering on its own. The latter celebrated 10 years of service time in MLB on Saturday. He is a grizzled veteran bouncing back from a few down seasons and looking like his younger self with every outing. After these seven innings, his ERA for the season is now down to 2.19, by far the best among Pirates starters.
With his performance, the Pirates can rightly say they deserved a win. On the other hand, the offense was lost against Greene. The Pirates will say they found a way to win, and in a literal sense that is true. On the other hand, their offense simply let the Reds beat themselves, and they eventually caved. Hayes only put a ball in play to the right spot to finish it off.
For those wondering if this is a real no-hitter, it is considered one. From the Pirates’ perspective, they were no-hit in a regulation-length game. On the Reds’ side, it will go down as a no-hitter of fewer than nine innings.
From the perspective of everyone at PNC Park, it will simply go down as one of the strangest Pirates’ wins anyone has seen in recent memory.
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