Rich Hill's first 98 pitches left the Pittsburgh Pirates confounded, occasionally fuming and absolutely hitless Wednesday night. His 99th turned a potentially historic night by the Los Angeles Dodgers lefty into something else entirely.
A loss.
After Hill's bid for a perfect game was spoiled by a leadoff error in the ninth inning, Josh Harrison started the 10th by hitting a home run into the first row of seats in left field. It wrecked Hill's improbable -- and improbably lengthy -- try at a no-hitter and lifted the Pirates to a 1-0 victory.
"It falls on me, this one -- one bad pitch," Hill said.
Dodgers left fielder Curtis Granderson made a fearless attempt to preserve the no-hitter, banging into the wall for a catch. When the ball sailed inches past his outstretched glove, Harrison sprinted around the bases after his 16th home run while Hill slowly walked off the field after being handed his first loss in nearly two months.
"I hit it and I knew I didn't get it all," Harrison said. "I knew I got enough."
Hill, 37, flirted with the 24th perfect game ever in the major leagues. His shot at joining baseball's most exclusive clubs ended when third baseman Logan Forsythe (Arkansas Razorbacks) couldn't handle Jordy Mercer's grounder opening the ninth. Hill retired the next three batters and Manager Dave Roberts sent him out for the 10th. It turned out to be one batter too many.
"I just felt for him," Hill said of Forsythe to Dave Sheinin of The Washington Post.
"Fifty-eight years ago, a Pirates pitcher named Harvey Haddix pitched 12 perfect innings against the Milwaukee Braves, only to lose the perfect game, the no-hitter and the game in the 13th," Sheinin wrote. "Already on these shores, Pirates fans are calling Wednesday night's epic 'the revenge of Harvey Haddix.'
"For Rich Hill, who said he had never heard of Haddix, perhaps the name will come to mean more to him over time. More than a historic precedent, it could be the perfect bit of baseball terminology to fill a hole in the lexicon that Hill widened on Wednesday night.
"Congratulations, Rich Hill, on one of the rarest and most poignant feats in baseball: a Haddix."
A dying fan's wish
Jeffrey Clayton Riegel of Port Republic, N.J., was a wonderful husband, uncle, brother and son. He was also a Philadelphia Eagles fan with a pretty good sense of humor.
At least according to his obituary.
Riegel was 56 when he died Friday, but it appears he had enough time to have some fun on his way out.
His obituary reads like most others on the Wimberg Funeral Home website, naming all the family he left behind, as well as mentioning some of his favorite greetings for different people and some of his nicknames -- some people called him "Toad."
Then he took one last dig at his favorite NFL team.
"God gave Jeffrey the miracle of time to prepare, which allowed him to verbalize his last wishes," the obituary read. "He requested to have 8 Philadelphia Eagles as pall bearers so the Eagles can let him down one more time."
Riegel owned Eagles season tickets for 30 years and had promised friends a funny message in his obituary.
"The last time we spoke, he told me to check out the obituary," Riegel's friend Lou Jiacopello told the New York Post. "He wouldn't tell me what it said, but he knew I'd get a kick out of it."
He didn't get any actual Eagles to carry his coffin, but eight friends wearing Eagles jerseys laid Riegel to rest Thursday.
"Say hello to Reggie [White], Jerome [Brown] and Buddy [Ryan] for us," Enrico Campitelli wrote for CSNPhilly.com. "Maybe they haven't heard a boo in a while, who knows."
Sports on 08/25/2017