Cincinnati Reds Nick Martinez Spencer Steer San Diego Padres
Cincinnati Reds pitcher Nick Martinez took a no-hit bid to the ninth, and teammate Spencer Steer fell one homer short of an MLB record four home runs.
The Cincinnati Reds nearly conjured up the anomaly of all baseball anomalies.
Against the San Diego Padres, two separate Reds players pursued individual moments of history and glory. Starting pitcher Nick Martinez chased a no-hit, no-run outing while Spencer Steer sought four home runs in a single game.
The no-hitter would have been the 327th in MLB history, and the 18th in the history of Reds baseball. The four-homer game would have been even more rare − only 19 of those exist in baseball history.
Both feats in the same game? Unheard of, and it remained so.
Martinez fell three outs short of his no-hitter, and was also charged with a run after he exited the game. Steer, too, fell short. After hitting three home runs in three plate appearances, his fourth at-bat of the night ended with a strikeout.
Near-history was good enough in the end, and the unlikely confluence of the two historical pursuits made the game one worthy of remembrance.
While neither individual marvel materialized at Great American Ball Park, Martinez’s and Steer’s performances made Cincinnati’s 8-1 victory over the Padres a spectacle. The contest still stood apart from most games for its tantalizing brush with two of baseball’s great rarities on the same night.
“That would have been nuts if both things would have happened,” Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson said. “That would have been pretty cool. That would have been a helluva night.”
Martinez took his no-hitter into the ninth inning, ultimately ceding his first hit of the night to Elias Díaz, who doubled off the wall in left-center field with no outs and a runner aboard.
Entering the ninth, Martinez had faced 25 batters − one beyond the minimum. The only blight on his night was a first-inning walk allowed to Jackson Merrill. Martinez exited the game having thrown 112 pitches. He struck out six.
Asked about the importance of breaking up Martinez’s shot at history, Díaz said: “It’s really important — more for the team than for me. Because when someone has a no-hitter, I don’t know to explain, but it’s not good.”
Martinez indicated he favored Steer as the game’s outstanding player, saying “three home runs is pretty awesome. A lot of luck in mine.”
“(Will Benson) made some great plays,” Martinez said. “Cushion early and often. Really puts guys in a bind on their side, right? I was having some quick innings, getting these guys on a roll.”
Steer went on the offensive in the second inning. His first home run arrived in the second inning, traveling to 382 feet to right field. The solo shot made the score 3-0.
Steer’s next home run in the fourth inning traveled 403 feet and made the score 4-0.
In the fifth inning, Steer had a bat in his hand again and lined a shot to left field that just cleared the top of the wall for his third homer of the game. The two-run liner made it 8-0.
In the bottom of the eighth, Steer was thinking only about a fourth homer as he stepped to the plate again.
“With the score being 8-0 and it being the eighth inning, I can say for the first time in my life I didn’t want to walk,” Steer said. “You never know how many opportunities you’ll get at that and that was a fun at-bat, especially with the score being what it was and having a nice cushion, I was kind of going for it there.”
Steer declined a curtain call after his third home run but it was impossible for him to ignore the ovation he received walking back to the dugout after his fourth at-bat.
That, Steer said, was a moment he savored.
“It was funny because he’s so humble. He wasn’t comfortable coming out,” Reds manager Terry Francona said. “They were trying to track him down. I don’t know, part of me thinks it’s cool that he’s so modest and humble that he doesn’t want to do it, but that was fun to watch, man.”
Benson had an interesting perspective on the events of the game. He tracked down some line drives to help keep Martinez’s no-hitter alive, although he said he didn’t realize the no-hitter was in-progress until the seventh inning.
Benson also followed Steer in the batting order, so he was more in-tune with Steer’s pursuit of four home runs.
“Obviously, I’m on-deck for Spencer, so I’m fully aware of what’s going (with him),” Benson said. “I wouldn’t compare the two. They’re their own (thing), but definitely I was kind of shocked that I was unaware of the no-hitter for so long.”
Others were keenly aware of the bids at history once Martinez and Steer started to gain momentum toward them.
Even without the no-hitter and the four-homer performance, Friday, June 27 still felt like a collector’s item of a game that will have Reds fans asking and responding to the question: “Were you at Great American Ball Park that night?”