Mahle flirts with no-no as rotation perks up

May 29th, 2022

CINCINNATI -- The Reds' rotation has found its groove during much of the past two-plus weeks, but it has not been immune to misfortune. Twice, starters have flirted with no-hitters only to come up empty in a losing cause.

On Sunday against the Giants,  didn't give up a hit until there were two outs in the top of the seventh inning. Cincinnati was two frames away from a series sweep, but San Francisco ransacked its bullpen for a six-run rally in the eighth inning, culminating in a 6-4 loss that snapped the Reds' season-high four-game win streak.

"It is disappointing," Reds manager David Bell said. "You feel like you’re close and it gets away from you, but every team goes through it. We’ve been through it many times. The key is to bounce back, so I’m very confident we can do that."

Mahle tossed 6 2/3 scoreless innings with one hit, three walks, one hit batter and eight strikeouts on 104 pitches. The right-hander, who threw a no-hitter and a perfect game in the Minors, said he was aware from the first inning that he had the Giants hitless.

“Once it got to like the fifth or sixth, I didn’t think I was able to do it just because of the pitch count," Mahle said. “It was pretty obvious. You know right away when you haven’t given up a hit.”

According to Statcast, Mahle's slider and fastball were the toughest pitches to hit. He threw 12 sliders with six whiffs, while his fastball drew six misses on 13 swings. It was a good response from his previous start, when he gave up a career-high eight earned runs over four-plus innings to the Cubs on Tuesday.

“The last 3-4 days, or whatever it was, were not good," Mahle said. "I threw a terrible bullpen and probably threw like 50 pitches and they were not good. I was working on my slider and I maybe threw one good one in the bullpen. Everything else was fine but it was pretty frustrating. Then to come out here, that was probably my best pitch today so that was kind of funny.”

Mahle allowed only five balls to leave the infield during his start. However, he walked back-to-back batters with one out in the sixth inning to get reliever Hunter Strickland warming up in the bullpen. But Mahle got Wilmer Flores to pop out to second base and in a full count, struck out Joc Pederson with a 95 mph fastball to escape. The Reds took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the sixth on Joey Votto's RBI double.

The no-hit bid ended when Thairo Estrada drove a double to the wall in right-center field with two outs in the seventh. That's when Bell turned the game over to Strickland as the crowd of 20,439 fans gave Mahle a standing ovation.

"I think it was a long shot, just from a pitch-count standpoint," Bell said. "That was a tough, tough call. I felt great about going to Strick, but I also felt great about Tyler, too, the way he had been pitching. But once the hit came, I felt it was the right call."

Strickland struck out Luis Gonzalez to end the inning. The game got away from  and  in the eighth inning, especially after a two-out grounder from Pederson got through the right side of a shifted infield.

On May 15 at Pittsburgh, Hunter Greene and Warren combined to allow no hits in eight innings but the Reds came away with a 1-0 loss when the Pirates scored a run in the bottom of the eighth.

Sunday's loss should not negate the recent body of work from the rotation.

After going the first 31 games without a six-inning start, the Reds have gotten nine quality starts in their last 15 games. The rotation has a 3.36 ERA in that span but is still working out of the early hole with a Major League-worst 5.51 ERA overall.

The starting five is almost whole again after early injuries and struggles. Mike Minor is due to make his Reds debut on Friday versus the Nationals after being out with a shoulder injury. Luis Castillo is improving through four starts since his return, while the rookie Greene has shown flashes of brilliance. Connor Overton was strong in his four starts before a serious back injury, but rookie Graham Ashcraft has a 1.69 ERA through two starts as Overton's replacement.

"Everyone is doing really well. It’s really good to see," Mahle said. "We started off not too hot. We’ve got a bit of a groove going. We’ll keep it going.”