Hunter Greene might be that one individual to give hopeless Cincinnati Reds fans some reason to pay attention to the team this summer.
Greene entered the season as the Reds’ No. 1 prospect and made his Major League debut against the Atlanta Braves back in April — displaying a 100 mile-per-hour fastball in the process.
However, the former No. 2 overall pick out of Notre Dame High School in Southern California has had a rough go at it all season.
Heading into Sunday’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Greene had struggled making the transition to the bigs.
- Hunter Greene stats (first 6 MLB starts): 1-5 record, 7.62 ERA, 1.81 WHIP, 35 strikeouts, 15 walks
In addition to these eye-opening numbers, Greene also entered Sunday’s outing having yielded a MLB-high 11 homers. Throwing triple-digits in the kill zone has led to these struggles.
You wouldn’t know that from how Greene looked against the Pirates Sunday afternoon in Pittsburgh. The hard-throwing righty tossed 7.1 innings of no-hit ball before being pulled after walking two consecutive batters in the eighth inning.
All said, the youngster’s stuff was absolutely electric throughout the afternoon. A total of 69 of his 118 pitches went for strikes. He struck out nine while walking five.
That’s absolutely filthy stuff right there. No hitter is going to make contact with a pitch in that location.
Unfortunately for Greene, one of his walks in the eighth came around to score after manager David Bell pulled him from the game. It’s easy to blame Bell for making that decision, especially with the Reds losing 1-0 while throwing a combined no-hitter. But we’re talking about the future face of the organization. There’s no reason to extend him beyond those 118 pitches.
Even then, the Reds found themselves on the wrong side of history Sunday afternoon.
Hunter Greene takes loss for Cincinnati Reds in rare no-hitter
When all was said and done, Cincinnati lost this one by the score of 1-0 to move to 9-26 on the season. How rare is it that a team loses a game in which it threw a no-hitter? We’re glad you asked.
Per MLB.com, this had only happened five times in the history of the game before Hunter Greene and the Reds “accomplished” that feat on Sunday.
- Ken Johnson, Houston Colt .45s (1964)
- Steve Barber and Stu Miller, Baltimore Orioles (1967)
- Andy Hawkins, New York Yankees (1990)
- Matt Young, Boston Red Sox (1992)
- Jered Weaver and Jose Arredondo, Los Angeles Angels (2008)
As you can see above, this has not happened since back in 2008. Weaver threw six no-hit innings while Arredondo came in to throw two no-hit innings in a 1-0 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
You still have to go back to 1967 for the last time a team threw a nine-inning no hitter while losing said game. At the very least, Hunter Greene showed out in a big way. Moving forward, that’s the biggest key here.