No-nos lead discussion with Bailey in Chatting Cage

Homer Bailey delivered one of the greatest moments of the season's first half last week, when he threw the first and only no-hitter so far in 2013. It was a dazzling performance in which Bailey didn't allow a baserunner until a leadoff walk in the seventh inning against the Giants.

For Bailey, it was not a new experience. He threw the past two no-nos in the Majors, as he also no-hit the Pirates on Sept. 28 of last season.

A little more than a week after becoming the first pitcher responsible for MLB's last two no-hitters since Nolan Ryan in 1974-75, Bailey took to the MLB.com Chatting Cage on Thursday afternoon to field questions from fans via a live webcam and Twitter. As one can imagine, Bailey's no-hitters were a topic of discussion.

One fan asked Bailey if he now takes the mound expecting to no-hit the opposition, which drew a big laugh from the 27-year-old right-hander.

"I don't know about that," he said. "Even after the first one, I didn't know if I'd ever really throw another one. It's not something that you go into a game trying to do, just because of the difficulty and how much luck it requires and how much of that is so much out of your control."

Bailey also discussed what goes on in the dugout while a no-hitter is in progress, and he said it's about the same as any other game. That's exactly how Bailey wants it to be, too, because "if nothing changed in the first four or five innings, why change things up?"

Although Bailey took questions regarding everything from his thoughts on social media to his striking resemblance to actor Christian Bale, many of the fans kept their questions to his pitching and historic accomplishments.

In one of the last questions before Bailey prepared for Thursday night's game against the Braves, he was asked what pitch he would take from any of his teammates. The answer was obvious for Bailey, who said it would be Aroldis Chapman's triple-digit fastball, but he also added Mike Leake's changeup and Mat Latos' slider.

"Those are all big pitches for them, and I'd kind of like to have them," Bailey said. "Put them all together and you've got a pretty good thing going."

With that arsenal, no-hitter No. 3 likely wouldn't be too far off.