Reds pitcher with sole possession of 124-year-old milestone nearly gets company

A feat held by only one man - a Cincinnati Reds hurler - for more than a century was five outs away from being accomplished twice.

Whether Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Ross Stripling could have done it will never be known.

You see Stripling, a rookie pitcher making his MLB debut Friday night, had held the San Francisco Giants hitless through 7 1/3 innings. He was pulled from the game in the eighth inning after throwing 100 pitches.

A no-hitter is prestigious enough in its own right but what Stripling was chasing is even more rare.

Only Charles Leander "Bumpus" Jones, making his big-league debut on Oct. 15, 1892 with the Reds, has ever thrown a no-no in a first career start.

Think of all the great pitchers who have graced a major-league bump since Bumpus' achievement.

Oh so close for the young Stripling. That can be said too for the Dodgers, who were winning 2-0 at the time of the rookie's departure and then actually ended up losing 3-2 to the Giants.