Inside the wild eighth inning where the Reds kept the no-hitter but lost the game

PITTSBURGH –– As Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Hunter Greene sat in the dugout during the top of the eighth inning on Sunday, Greene felt like one of the Reds’ coaches was about to come over and talk to him.

Greene had pitched seven no-hit innings, and the unwritten rule in baseball is that you don’t talk to the pitcher throwing a no-hitter. But Greene was also at 103 pitches, which was already the most he had thrown in 2022.

Greene thought that Reds manager David Bell or pitching coach Derek Johnson might have asked him how he was feeling. But no one talked to Greene.

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“(There’s) the mental part of like, ‘I’m fine. I’m not tired,’” Greene said. “It’s just continuing to lock myself in between those innings and keeping my mindset there. It was definitely a thought that came in, but you have to flush that out and continue to stay locked in to go out there again.”

Greene pitched 7 ⅓ innings in the Reds’ 1-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park. Greene and Reds reliever Art Warren didn’t allow a hit, but the Reds lost the game due to three walks and a fielder’s choice in the decisive eighth inning.

Hunter Greene starts the Reds eighth inning

When Greene went out to the mound at the start of the eighth inning, he was trying not to focus on how many pitches he had thrown. He wanted to keep his attention on each at-bat without weighing the potential of throwing a no-hitter in his seventh career start.

Greene started the bottom of the eighth inning by getting Pirates right fielder Jack Suwinski to ground out on the second pitch of the at-bat. At that point, Greene was up to 105 pitches.

No one was warming up in the Reds bullpen, and Bell said he wasn’t yet considering taking Greene out of the game.

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“He actually made it pretty easy,” Bell said. “I'm obviously aware of the fact he hadn't given up a hit. I mean, there's obviously no question about that. For me, it was easy to send him back out for the eighth because of how he got there. Because of how he was pitching.”

Then, Greene faced Pirates shortstop Rodolfo Castro and started the at-bat by getting Castro to swing-and-miss at a slider below his knees. After that, Greene threw a fastball that was too far to the right side of the plate. Then he threw two sliders that were too low.

Greene walked Castro on six pitches, and Greene had multiple factors that he was weighing on the mound. He had the potential for a no-hitter in front of him, but it was also a tie game at 0-0 in the bottom of the eighth inning.

“I also didn’t want my mind to go there, because I wanted to stay locked in and not think about myself coming out of the game,” Greene said. “I wanted to keep going out there. The mental part and dealing with the game like this, I think, is really hard. It’s a challenge.”

The Reds still had no one warming up in the bullpen. Greene was at 111 pitches, but Bell saw a way for Greene to get out of the eighth inning.

“He was in control,” Bell said. “Looking at it now, I think it would have had to have gone really easy for him to go back out for the ninth. There was a chance he could've done it.”