SATURDAY’S GAME
Cubs at Reds, 7:10 p.m., FS Ohio, 700, 1410
Drew Hayes found himself on the wrong side of history Thursday night but part of a memorable evening nonetheless.
Called up from Triple-A Louisville on Wednesday, Hayes made his big-league debut for the Cincinnati Reds in the seventh inning against the Chicago Cubs just as fans around baseball were turning their eyes to Jake Arrieta’s quest to throw his second no-hitter. Hayes’ long road to the majors included six-plus seasons in the minor leagues and 274 appearances, 51 with the Dayton Dragons in 2011.
Hayes, a 28-year-old Tennessee native, got the first batter he faced, David Ross, to ground out and saved the ball as a souvenir. He’d like to forget the rest of the inning. After allowing a walk, a single and another walk, he gave up a grand slam to Kris Bryant.
The Cubs added three more runs in the ninth against Blake Wood, and Arrieta finished a 16-0 no-hitter in the bottom of the inning.
“It being that type of game, it does add to how special it is,” Hayes said. “It adds to the memory of it. It adds to being a pretty good story I can tell my grandkids one day.”
The debut by Hayes is one footnote to Arrieta’s gem. Here are 16 more fun facts about the game:
1. This was the most lopsided no-hitter since Aug. 4, 1884, when the Buffalo Bison’s Pud Galvin threw an 18-0 no-hitter against the Detroit Wolverines.
2. The Cubs improved to 4-0 against the Reds this season with a 38-6 scoring advantage.
3. The Cubs became the first team to hit five home runs in a no-hitter.
4. The Reds’ streak of 7,109 regular-season games with a hit ended. The longest active streak in baseball now belongs to the Oakland A’s (3,913).
5. The Reds recorded one hit in a regular-season game 33 times between the Philadelphia Phillies’ Rick Wise’s no-hitter at Riverfront Stadium on June 23, 1971, and Thursday.
6. Three players who started Thursday were also in the lineup in 2010 when the Phillies’ Roy Halladay no-hit the Reds in the National League Division Series: Brandon Phillips, Jay Bruce and Joey Votto.
7. Arrieta is the third Cub to throw two no-hitters, joining Larry Corcoran and Ken Holtzman.
8. Arrieta became the eighth pitcher to throw no-hitters in consecutive seasons.
9. Arrieta’s first no-hitter came 10 starts before this one on Aug. 30, 2015, against the Dodgers in Los Angeles. That’s the third-shortest gap between no-hitters. Johnny Vander Meer threw back-to-back no-hitters for the Reds in 1938, and Warren Spahn had five starts between no-hitters in 1960 and 1961 for the Milwaukee Braves.
10. Arrieta joined Sandy Koufax (1964), Bob Gibson (1971) and Clayton Kershaw (2014) as pitchers who have thrown a no-hitter the year after winning the Cy Young Award.
11. Arrieta became the second pitcher in baseball history to throw a no-hitter on the road in consecutive seasons. Steve Busby, of the Kansas City Royals, threw no-hitters in 1973 at Detroit and 1974 at Milwaukee.
12. The Cubs have won the last 17 games Arrieta has started.
13. Arrieta has won his last 14 road decisions. Only two others have done that since 1994 (Greg Maddux and Johan Santana).
14. Arrieta became the first pitcher since Bob Gibson in 1967-68 to record 24 straight quality starts (at least six innings, three runs or less).
15. This was the first no-hitter thrown by a visiting pitcher at Great American Ball Park. Homer Bailey threw the first no-hitter on July 2, 2013, against the San Francisco Giants.
16. Ross, a former Red, caught his first no-hitter in his 822nd game. He debuted with the Dodgers in 2002.
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