DENVER -- Nick Lodolo was flirting with a blue-moon feat for the Reds on Sunday afternoon at Coors Field, a no-hitter, something that's happened only once in the 30-year history over the ballpark.
It took a super-close play to end the bid vs. the Rockies during an 8-1 victory.
Lodolo hadn't allowed a hit with two outs in the sixth inning when Jordan Beck sent a sharp grounder to shortstop. Elly De La Cruz spun and fell backward while stopping the ball. After scrambling to set his feet, De La Cruz rushed a hard throw to first base that pulled first baseman Spencer Steer off the bag slightly.
The umpire's call was safe, but the Reds' lead replay person -- advanced scouting assistant Jake Heilman -- took a closer look.
Manager Terry Francona decided to request a challenge.
¡°Jake was waffling, and we got down to about three seconds," Francona explained. "I knew he was having trouble. I was like, ¡®That¡¯s OK, we¡¯re going to do it.¡¯ I knew if he was thinking that long, it was close."
Replay officials decided that the call stood for Colorado's first hit, ensuring that Hideo Nomo's 1996 no-hitter for the Dodgers remained the only one in the ballpark's history.
¡°Around the fifth, I was just looking at the score to see how many runs we had and I was like, ¡®Oh, I didn¡¯t give up a hit,¡¯¡± Lodolo said. ¡°To be honest, I wasn¡¯t worried about it at all. I just wanted to keep filling it up and getting outs.¡±
The official scorer also confirmed that Beck was credited a hit.
"That was questionable, right?" Rockies manager Bud Black said. "Scoring, in general -- we've seen it across the board -- a little more liberal. Beck was getting down the line, he really was. It was a bang-bang play. For me, the throw drew him off. So if you want to call that an error, I would have been OK with that."
Francona still thought Beck had a hit.
¡°When [De La Cruz] came off his feet, yeah," Francona said.
Wiping away any controversy, a second Rockies hit vs. Lodolo came with one out in the seventh inning. Kyle Farmer's squib rolled on the dirt inside the third-base foul line before touching the bag. Third baseman Noelvi Marte had no play.
"I blame that on me because I was actually telling him to let it go," catcher Jose Trevino said. "I thought it was going to roll left, but the spin stayed straight.¡±
Besides two infield hits, Lodolo struck out nine while giving up one walk and hitting a batter over seven scoreless innings. He retired 10 of the first 11 batters he faced and 12 of 14.
¡°I¡¯ve played a decent amount of games here. I told him that¡¯s probably the best start I¡¯ve seen here," second baseman Gavin Lux said. "There¡¯s a lot of green out there and the ball flies, so to just give up two infield hits, that¡¯s really impressive.¡±
With 91 pitches, Lodolo had nearly an even distribution of his sinker, changeup, breaking ball and four-seam fastball.
¡°That was really impressive," Trevino said. "The slider was really important. He was using the changeup a lot, and when he threw his heaters, he was getting to where he wanted to go.¡±
¡°When I missed today, it was in the right spot," Lodolo said.
Through six starts, Lodolo is 3-2 with a 2.25 ERA and a 0.86 WHIP. He has four walks and 27 strikeouts over 36 innings, while opponents are batting .197.
Cincinnati completed a three-game sweep of Colorado (4-23) and finished its nine-game road trip with a 6-3 record.
¡°We played pretty good baseball the whole trip, especially this isn¡¯t an easy 10-day-er to go to Baltimore to Miami to Colorado," Lux said. "It¡¯s a grindy road trip, I think, and to finish out with a sweep, you try to take that momentum into our homestand.¡±
Now 15-13 and second in the National League Central, things are moving in an optimistic direction.
The Reds¡¯ offense has moved into a tie for third with the D-backs in runs (150) scored in MLB. Much of that credit can go to Marte (who is batting .364 after going 3-for-5 with three RBIs) and Austin Hays (who had two hits, two RBIs and two runs scored). Since returning on April 15 from a left calf injury, Hays is batting .388 with an 1.199 OPS.
Cincinnati¡¯s rotation is ranked fifth in MLB with a 3.39 ERA.
¡°The guys are really throwing the ball well and they¡¯re keeping us in games, even if we don¡¯t have the lead in them," Trevino said. "We¡¯re starting to pick it up a little bit.¡±