Reds just miss no-hitter and 4-homer game as Nick Martinez and Spencer Steer shine

New York Times

5 hours ago

CINCINNATI — Spencer Steer got a standing ovation from the crowd of 26,746 at Great American Ball Park after a strikeout in the eighth inning Friday night, and a half-inning later Nick Martinez got his standing ovation on his way off the mound after giving up a walk and double to start the ninth.
The cheers weren't for striking out or giving up a double, but everything that came before in the Reds' 8-1 victory over the San Diego Padres. Steer hit three home runs before his eighth-inning strikeout, and Martinez didn't allow a hit until the second batter he faced in the ninth inning.
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For all that could have been, what was is still pretty special.
Martinez, who made two relief appearances since giving up seven runs to the Minnesota Twins in just 2 2/3 innings on June 19, kept the Padres' $92,388,072 lineup hitless through eight innings. Martinez walked the third batter he faced and the penultimate batter he faced before Padres catcher Elias Díaz, who entered on defense the inning before, hit a double off the wall in left-center field for the first hit of the game.
'I mean, that was as nervous as I've been in a long, long time,' Reds manager Terry Francona said.
Martinez's catcher, Tyler Stephenson, said the changeup he called that Díaz hit would keep him from sleeping on Friday night. The pitch call, though, is unlikely to keep Martinez up. Sitting at a table in the press conference room outside the Reds' clubhouse, Martinez smiled throughout a six-minute news conference he shared with Steer.
A well-deserved ovation pic.twitter.com/rRLsFW9VFt
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) June 28, 2025
The first question was lobbed at both: Who had the better game?
'I mean, three home runs is pretty awesome,' Martinez said. 'A lot of luck in mine, (right fielder Will Benson) made some great plays. A cushion early … it really puts guys in a bind on their side. It's tough.'
Martinez entered the ninth inning with 105 pitches, walked Padres designated hitter Trenton Brooks on five pitches before Díaz doubled on a 0-1 changeup.
'One pitch, and it's his pitch, his changeup,' Stephenson lamented after the game. 'You've got to give Díaz credit, he put a good swing on it and was hoping to get it below the zone and get a double play on that ball.'
As soon as Díaz hit the ball, Stephenson said the only thing that went through his mind was 'Damn.' He thought it was a home run, and it nearly was, going 393 feet, which would've been good enough to get out of nine ballparks in baseball, but not Great American Ball Park.
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Regardless, the no-hit bid ended. Francona said Martinez was going to pitch until he gave up a hit and even had Taylor Rogers warm up out of sight from the field before coming into the game to relieve Martinez.
Rogers said he was throwing in the tunnel by the home bullpen in center field and was cognizant of an ambulance parked there if he overthrew a warmup pitch.
Rogers was hoping not to go in the game, but he did and allowed a run, which was charged to Martinez. Martinez's final line was eight innings, one hit, one run, two walks and six strikeouts. He threw 112 pitches, 75 for strikes.
After the ball came in from left, with runners on second and third, Martinez looked at the dugout. Stephenson came out first, then Francona came in from the dugout. The rest of the infield joined in on the pitching change, and each member of the infield said something to Martinez.
'I can speak for everyone, you want the ball in that kind of situation,' said Steer, who had eight putouts with Martinez on the mound and also an assist to a covering Martinez for another. 'You want to make a play for him. He's been busting his butt all night, making our lives easy. A lot of weak contact from them tonight. In that situation, you're just locked in and you want to make a play.'
Ryan Vilade, who was claimed off waivers from the St. Louis Cardinals earlier this month and called up to the Reds on Wednesday, initially thought he had a chance at Díaz's drive.
'I thought I might have had a chance to catch it, and I got to a point where I knew I wasn't going to get to the wall before it hit it,' Vilade said. 'It sucks. I wish I could've made a play on it.'
A defensive replacement for Gavin Lux in left field in the eighth, Vilade had the ball hit to him right away, as Gavin Sheets flied out to start the inning.
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As soon as Sheets hit it to left, Stephenson said home plate umpire James Hoye uttered the baseball truism, 'the ball will always find you.'
The next out went to Santiago Espinal at third base. Espinal entered at third base for Christian Encarnacion-Strand in the sixth inning.
With his no-hitter intact in the bottom of the eighth, Martinez was pacing up and down the dugout whistling. It's not because he was nervous about his no-hitter or even because he was excited for Steer, it was because that's what he always does in games.
'The little whistle he does, it's annoying,' Steer joked before adding: 'I love it. He's a bulldog out there.'
FOR THREEEEEEEEEEEEE pic.twitter.com/HXIB6UjrQS
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) June 28, 2025
Martinez was just as impressed with Steer's three homers, especially considering the pregame talk in the clubhouse was about how Steer kept shanking every ball he hit on the golf course on Thursday's off day.
'That was the talk around the clubhouse,' Martinez said. 'He said he cleaned it up on the back nine.'
Steer was expected to start the season on the injured list with a shoulder injury that kept him from throwing for much of spring training. When Austin Hays suffered a calf injury at the end of spring training, Steer was added to the roster but limited to just designated hitter duties.
The 27-year-old Steer hit 23 homers as a rookie in 2023 and 20 last year. As a DH, Steer started slow, batting under .200 as recently as May 14, when he went 2 for 4 to raise his average to .199. Since May 15, Steer is hitting .290/.324/.397 in 39 games. Since he started playing the field on April 20, he's hitting .284/.331/.450, and he now has nine homers on the season, with only one before he started playing the field.
The first two of Steer's home runs were solo shots off of starter Dylan Cease. In the second, Steer hit a fastball for an opposite-field home run to give the Reds a 3-0 lead. He made it 4-0 in the fourth inning on a slider he pulled 403 feet to left field.
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'I'm telling you, when you hit the ball the other way with authority, you're doing something right,' Francona said.
With two runs already in and a man on against Padres lefty Yuki Matsui in the fifth inning, Steer hit a 1-1 splitter into the first row in left field.
When Steer got to the dugout, the crowd was cheering, begging for Steer to come out of the dugout for a curtain call and tip his cap. In the dugout was Stephenson, trying to get his teammate to soak in the moment. 'He's soft,' Stephenson joked postgame.
'It's not about me,' Steer said when asked why he didn't make the curtain call. 'I mean, it's the fifth inning and there's still a lot of ballgame left. I don't know. If I'd hit a fourth, maybe.'
On deck for Steer's home runs was Benson, who had recorded four outs for Martinez in the game. Benson didn't notice Martinez had a no-hitter until the seventh inning when he was wondering why Martinez was still in the game with a 8-0 lead.
'I'm on deck for Spencer's at-bats, so I'm fully aware of what's going on and in awe,' Benson said. 'I wouldn't compare the two. I mean, they're their own things. But I definitely was kind of shocked at how I was unaware of the no-hitter for so long.'
Nobody but Martinez would say whether a four-homer game or a no-hitter is more difficult. There have been fewer four-homer games, but there are more chances to lose a no-hitter. There have only been 19 four-homer games in baseball, while no-hitters are nowhere near as rare, but still special.
Francona, who played in 707 big-league games and managed 1,993, said he's never seen a four-homer game in person, although his dad, Tito Francona, was a part of Rocky Colavito's four-homer game in 1959, batting ahead of the Cleveland slugger in the lineup and scoring on two of Colavito's four homers.
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Steer came to the plate for the fourth and final time, leading off the eighth inning against Padres reliever David Morgan, knowing exactly what he had to do to make history.
'I can say for the first time in my life, I didn't want to walk,' Steer said.
Steer fouled off a pair of pitches before striking out on a 2-2 curveball.
As he walked back to the dugout, the crowd gave him a standing ovation.
'That was pretty cool,' Steer said. 'I actually soaked that one in a little bit.'
Not long afterward, Martinez got his standing ovation.
After the game, everyone in the clubhouse was smiling and laughing, still in disbelief of what they almost saw, but also what they did see.
'I'm DHing the whole time, so I'm just watching it,' said Hays, who was activated from the IL earlier in the day. 'I'm like a fan. I'm not playing defense. So I was just hoping it was going to happen.'
Hays wasn't alone, but he and everyone else were still impressed.
(Photo of Nick Martinez: Jason Mowry / Getty Images)