Bailie brilliant in no-hitter
Bailie (1-1), making his second Minor League appearance since 2002, retired the first 14 batters before issuing a walk to Jack Hannahan. Bailie, who spent the past two-and-a-half seasons pitching in independent leagues, struck out three and allowed one other batter to reach base by hitting Byron Gettis with two outs in the eighth inning. Neither runner advanced beyond first base.
Bailie didn't consider the no-no until the last third of the game.
"Once I got through six, I came in and sat down and looked up the board and saw it," he said. "The last two innings, I noticed no one was sitting near me."
In his first game with Bowie against the Altoona Curve on Aug. 9, Bailie allowed six runs on eight hits -- including two homers -- in 3 1/3 innings. This performance came right after the Baltimore Orioles organization signed him, flew him out of Chicago at 6 a.m. and put him through two physicals.
"Obviously, I didn't feel like myself going out there," he said.
The 29-year-old right-hander's 104-pitch gem -- his first no-hitter since Little League -- lowered his ERA from 16.20 to 4.38.
"I had really good fastball command," said Bailie, who used curveballs and changeups to keep the opposition off-balance. "I was able to locate it on both sides of the plate and get ahead of the hitters."
Originally drafted by the Kansas City Royals in the 61st round of the 1994 First-Year Player Draft, Bailie instead chose Oregon State University and re-entered the draft four years later. His professional career began when the Philadelphia Phillies selected him in the 22nd round.
Sunday's game was scoreless until the top of the sixth when two walks followed by a wild pitch and a Nick Markakis sacrifice fly made it 1-0. In the eighth, Markakis gave Bailie some breathing room with a three-run triple and scored two batters later on a fielding error by SeaWolves shortstop Scott Tousa.
"That was definitely a big monkey off the back," Bailie said. "I knew that if I even made one mistake, we could have a tie game."
The closest Bailie came to losing the no-hitter was when David Espinosa hit a slow chopper toward third baseman Tripper Johnson III with one out in the ninth.
"I knew it was going to be a close play because the runner was fast," said Bailey.
Johnson knew it too, charging the ball and making a hard throw to first baseman Mike Huggins to nail Espinosa by one step.
Adam Peterson (3-3) took the loss in relief of Rob Henkel who allowed three hits and three walks in five scoreless innings.
Bowie improved to 63-59, while Erie dropped to 60-62.
The Baysox go to Harrisburg to play the Senators at 6:35 p.m. ET on Tuesday, while the SeaWolves head to New Britain to take on the Rock Cats at 7:05 p.m.