In the year of the no-hitter, Scott Garrelts lost his try with two outs in the ninth inning Sunday.
Still, Garrelts wasn't complaining. That's because the San Francisco Giants are back in the race.Garrelts, bidding for baseball's record eighth no-hitter of 1990, got it broken up when Paul O'Neill singled. But Garrelts retired the next batter as the Giants beat Cincinnati 4-0, sending the Reds to their seventh straight loss.
"I'm not as disappointed as you think," Garrelts said. "I just wanted to throw strikes and win the game. The no-hitter was secondary to getting the sweep."
Garrelts (9-7) completed a four-game sweep that pulled the Giants within 5 1/2 games of Cincinnati in the National League West. It's the closest San Francisco has been since April 24 and the Reds' smallest lead since June 12.
A sellout crowd of 55,792, the largest of the season at Candlestick Park, saw Garrelts strike out five and walk four. He did not come close to allowing a hit until O'Neill lined the first pitch to center field for a clean single. Garrelts then got Eric Davis on a fly ball for his first career one-hitter.
"O'Neill hit a fastball right down the middle," Garrelts said. "If my arm felt better, I'd be probably have shot for the corners more, but my arm started stiffening quite a bit, and I had a tough time keeping the ball down."
Like Garrelts, O'Neill also didn't focus on the no-hit bid.
"The toughest thing is the sweep," O'Neill said. "We've just got to regroup. We were down 4-0 so the hit was no big deal. I'm just trying to make contact and get a hit."
The Giants beat Jack Armstrong (11-7) and won their fifth straight game. They are 7-0 against Cincinnati at Candlestick Park and 8-2 versus the Reds, the only team to hold an edge over them. Cincinnati's losing streak is its longest since it dropped 10 straight last season.
Armstrong, who started the All-Star game, has lost four consecutive decisions.
Brett Butler led off the Giants' first with a double and scored on Will Clark's single. Clark, Matt Williams and Rick Leach singled for a 2-0 lead in the sixth and Terry Kennedy hit a two-run homer in the eighth.
Of the seven no-hitters in the major leagues this season, six have come in the last two months. The modern record for no-hitters in a year is seven, previously done in 1908 and 1917.
Fernando Valenzuela pitched the only National League no-hitter this season. Nolan Ryan, Dave Stewart, Randy Johnson, Andy Hawkins, Melido Perez and a combined effort by Mark Langston and Mike Witt accounted for the American League gems.