San Francisco Giants pitcher Alex Cobb came up one out short of history, as his no-hitter was broken up by Cincinnati Reds second baseman Spencer Steer with two out in the ninth inning.
Steer ripped an RBI double into the right-center field gap that got over the outstretched glove of Luis Matos.
Cobb recovered to strike out the next hitter, Elly De La Cruz, and secure the complete game in a 6-1 Giants win.
The 35-year-old threw a career-high 131 pitches en route to his second complete game of the season. He struck out eight batters and issued one walk, to Nick Senzel in the ninth. The Reds’ lone baserunner during the first eight innings reached on a throwing error by Giants third baseman Casey Schmitt that was initially been ruled a hit.
Cobb said postgame that he didn’t realize the third-inning hit had been changed to an error on Schmitt, and wasn’t even thinking about a no-hitter until later in the game.
“I was thinking of trying to throw a one-hitter and then challenging the play to get a no-hitter in like a week,” he said, according to Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area.
Center fielder Austin Slater briefly saved Cobb’s no-no with an incredible diving catch to end the top of the eighth.
Cobb is the fifth pitcher in Giants history to have his no-hitter broken up with one out to go, joining Jeff Tesreau (1912), Scott Garrelts (1990), Yusmeiro Petit (2013), and Matt Moore (2016). He’s also the third pitcher in the majors to lose one over the last five seasons to fall one out short.
The Giants have 17 no-hitters in their illustrious history, with the most recent one being thrown by Chris Heston in 2015. Cincinnati, meanwhile, hasn’t been on the losing end of a no-no since 2019.
The win moved San Francisco a half-game ahead of the Arizona Diamondbacks – who lost to the Dodgers – for the final National League wild-card spot. Cincinnati dropped to two games back of the Giants with the loss.
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