Wade Miley Waits Out Delay and Throws Season’s Fourth No-Hitter

Wade Miley pitched baseball’s second no-hitter in three days — and fourth already this season — leading the Cincinnati Reds to a 3-0 win Friday night over Cleveland, which was no-hit for the second time in a month.

Miley (4-2) relied on breaking pitches and his experience of 11-plus major league seasons to baffle Cleveland and throw Cincinnati’s first no-hitter since Homer Bailey in 2013.

“It feels surreal,” Miley said.

The left-hander shook off an 83-minute rain delay to start the game and followed Baltimore’s John Means, who no-hit Seattle on Wednesday, to continue an early run of pitching gems in 2021 — quickly becoming the Year of the No-No.

San Diego’s Joe Musgrove started the 2021 no-hitter club by throwing the first in Padres’ history on April 9. Five days later, Chicago White Sox left-hander Carlos Rodon blanked Cleveland, just missing a perfect game when he hit a batter in the ninth inning.

Arizona’s Madison Bumgarner pitched a seven-inning no-hitter against Atlanta on April 25, but that one isn’t recognized as official because it didn’t go nine innings.

This is the earliest in a calendar year there have been four no-hitters since 1917, when the fourth was thrown on May 5 and the fifth on May 6. It’s no wonder, with hitters entering Friday batting a record-low .233 this season.

For their part, Cleveland hitters joined a dubious list by becoming the 16th team to be no-hit twice in the same season. It most recently happened to Seattle in 2019.

Miley walked one and struck out eight on 114 pitches.

“He put on a clinic,” Indians Manager Terry Francona said.

While Miley was blanking Cleveland, Zach Plesac did the same to the Reds for eight innings before Cincinnati pushed three runs across in the ninth, helped by closer Emmanuel Clase’s throwing error and a balk.

The Reds got a pair of singles before Clase (2-1) fielded an infield tapper and threw wide of second base, allowing Nick Senzel to score from second. Then, with runners at the corners, Clase began his windup before stopping and tried to throw to second.

Mike Moustakas, starting at first for the injured Joey Votto, followed with an R.B.I. single to make it 3-0 and give Miley more cushion — but also more tome to think about it in the dugout.

In the ninth, Miley retired pinch-hitter Rene Rivera on a lazy fly to right, struck out Cesar Hernandez and then retired Jordan Luplow on a grounder to third before he was mobbed by the Reds, who encircled him and danced across the grass.

It was the Reds’ 17th no-hitter since 1892.

“For something like this to happen, I don’t have the words,” Miley said.

Washington burst ahead in a six-run eighth inning that included three errors and a three-run homer by Josh Harrison, and the Nationals beat the Yankees, 11-4, Friday night to stop a three-game skid.

With the score tied 3-3 on a chilly night, Yadiel Hernandez lined a single against Jonathan Loaisiga (3-2) that right fielder Aaron Judge allowed to bounced off his glove for his first error since Sept. 30, 2018.

Victor Robles followed with a sacrifice bunt up the third-base line and reached when D.J. LeMahieu, moved across the diamond a day after Gio Urshela injured his left knee, threw wide of first.

Trea Turner hit a go-ahead single and Harrison, batting .325 on the season, drove a 1-0 fastball into the left-field stands for a 7-3 lead.

Kyle Schwarber hit a run-scoring single off Luis Cessa and shortstop Gleyber Torres allowed Yan Gomes’s grounder to bounced past his glove for a run-scoring error.

Juan Soto, making his first start after missing 10 games with a strained shoulder, added a two-run homer against Cessa in the ninth.

The Yankees’ bullpen had a major league-best 2.24 E.R.A. through Wednesday but Chad Green wasted a 3-2, eighth-inning lead in a 7-4 loss to Houston on Thursday, and Loaisiga and Cessa combined to allow eight runs — six earned — in two innings.

The Yankees lost their second straight following a five-game winning streak and dropped back to .500 at 16-16.

Kyle Finnegan (2-0) pitched a scoreless seventh for the win. Washington’s bullpen entered with 28 consecutive outs before Finnegan walked Gary Sanchez, his second batter in the seventh. A streak of 36 outs for Nats relievers ended when Clint Frazier hit an R.B.I. single off Will Harris in the ninth.

LeMahieu hit solo opposite-field homers to right in the first and fifth innings off Patrick Corbin, who allowed three runs and four hits in six innings, dropping his E.R.A. from 8.10 to 7.36. LeMahieu has six homers off Corbin, his most against any pitcher the most Corbin has allowed to any batter.

Josh Bell hit a solo homer in the second off Jameson Taillon and Gomes hit a two-run drive for a 3-1 lead.

Sanchez homered in the bottom half, his first home run since April 3. Sanchez had been in a 2 for 30 slide.

Taillon, meanwhile, retired 15 in a row following Gomes’s homer.

Mets Rally to Beat Diamondbacks

Francisco Lindor hit a tying, two-run homer in the seventh inning after an apparently heated exchange with teammate Jeff McNeil in the dugout tunnel, and the Mets rallied to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 5-4, Friday night.

The Mets walked off with a victory when designated runner Pete Alonso scored on pinch-hitter Patrick Mazeika’s fielder’s choice.

A day after snapping a 0-for-26 slide with a ninth-inning single Thursday in St. Louis, Lindor produced his biggest moment since signing a $341 million, 10-year deal with the Mets. He tied the game by hitting a 2-2 changeup from left-hander Caleb Smith.

The blast came a half-inning after shortstop Lindor and second baseman McNeil combined to misplay a popup. After the top of the seventh, teammates rushed into the tunnel adjacent to the dugout. Lindor acknowledged after the game that he and McNeil were having a disagreement — he claimed the pair saw a rat in the tunnel, and he was objecting to McNeil’s suggestion that it was a raccoon.

After rounding the bases on his homer, Lindor exchanged fist bumps with Tomas Nido, who drew a walk to start the inning and Michael Conforto, who was waiting in the on-deck circle. Conforto was among the first who flew toward the tunnel during the exchange.

Shortly after Lindor’s second homer as a Met, the team’s owner, Steven Cohen, tweeted: “That was BIG.”

Mazeika softly hit a 2-2 pitch from Stefan Crichton to the first base-side of the mound to score Alonso.

Before his homer, Lindor heard boos when he flied out in the fifth with a runner on first. Lindor went 2 for 5 and produced his second multi-hit game as a Met. His other was April 14 against Philadelphia.

Aaron Loup (1-0) tossed a scoreless 10th for the win.