Trevor Bauer made short work of the Detroit Tigers, capping Major League Baseball's first seven-inning doubleheader with a shutout.
Bauer threw a two-hitter in Cincinnati's 4-0 victory in the second game Sunday in Detroit. The Reds beat the Tigers 4-3 in the opener.
MLB recently decided to use doubleheaders of seven-inning games — a practice commonplace in the minor leagues and colleges — to help teams alleviate an expected crush of twinbills caused by weather and coronavirus-related postponements.
"It was great to win two games when we've been struggling so badly, but it was even better to sweep the first one of these in major league history," Reds manager David Bell said. "Someone said the Hall of Fame has called for some memorabilia from today, so that's cool."
Shogo Akiyama hit an RBI single in the seventh inning to lift the Reds in the first game.
Bauer was supposed to pitch Saturday, and he was furious when a rain delay was called minutes before first pitch. But the postponement meant he only had to throw seven innings for his shutout Sunday. He finished with 111 pitches.
"It was a constant struggle because of whatever you want to call what happened yesterday — there was a lot of doubt in my mind if I was going to be able to pitch today," he said.
Nick Castellanos homered twice and drove in three runs for Cincinnati in the opener against his former team. But his three-base error in right field with the bases loaded in the sixth inning enabled the Tigers to tie the score.