Nuts' Balog spins 7 2/3 hitless innings

After the seventh inning on Saturday, Alex Balog anxiously looked to his pitching coach, wondering if Brandon Emanuel was going to tell him his night was over.

"After about a minute, he didn't stand up, so I figured I was still in and kind of kept my focus right back on to what I had been doing all day," the right-hander said.

What Balog had been doing approached perfection as the Rockies' No. 26 prospect spun 7 2/3 hitless innings in Class A Advanced Modesto's 1-0 win over Bakersfield at John Thurman Field.

"My stuff was there and I just kind of attacked the hitters the whole night and overall, my body felt good, arm felt good and my mind felt good, so I was happy," he said. "I was a little more aggressive. In the past, it had been really try to focus on my command and hitting my spot, but one of my coaches told me to just go out there and let it loose, and I did. And it felt good and I just have to build off that."

After a talk with Rockies Class A Advanced supervisor Jerry Weinstein, Balog (2-5) was ready for his 12th start of the season. The 23-year-old got things started with three perfect frames but ran into some trouble in the fourth. He and his catcher, Troy Stein, were a little erratic, combining for a walk, a hit batter, two passed balls and a wild pitch. But Kyle Petty grounded into an inning-ending double play to keep the game scoreless and the no-hitter intact.

"It started to hit me in the fifth when everything was flowing and going good. I came back in, sat on the bench and looked at the scoreboard and saw a bunch of zeros," Balog said. "I thought that was great. I started thinking about it, so I just tried keep myself in the present moment and just tell myself, 'I'm right here, just take it pitch by pitch.'"

With an in-the-moment philosophy and a fastball he used to attack the Blaze, Balog cruised through three more innings, issuing a walk to Nelson Ward along the way. After seven, the University of San Francisco product noticed his pitch count was around 92 and remembered his limit was set at 95. But with Emanuel staying put, Balog looked toward the eighth.

"At that point, it went through my head that there were no hits and I started to think about it a little bit in my first two warmup pitches," he said. "When [Justin Seager] came up, I just said, 'I gotta go with what I've been doing,' which was attack with the fastball and play my [off-speed] pitches after that."

Balog fanned Seager, tying a season high with his seventh strikeout. The California native walked Daniel Torres, but his focus didn't waver as he forced Aaron Barbosa to pop out.

There were four outs left, but they weren't Balog's to get as manager Fred Ocasio made his way to the mound.

"I was a little disappointed. I thought I would get at least one more batter, but they had already given me extra pitches and an extra inning on top of that," the right-hander said. "So I just had to confirm with [Ocasio] that I was over my pitch count and he said, 'Yes.' So I said, 'All right.'"

Knowing development and health are more important in the Minor Leagues than individual accomplishments like a no-hitter, Balog jogged to the dugout to watch the rest of the game.

Matt Pierpont struck out Ward to end the inning and put the Nuts three outs from their first no-hitter since Dan Winkler, Nelson Gonzalez and Scott Oberg combined on one on June 24, 2013.

Tim Lopes quickly put an end to the bid, however, with a leadoff single in the ninth off reliever Matt Carasiti. The closer worked around another knock and a hit batter to secure Modesto's sixth shutout of the season and his 18th save.

"When they got a hit, as a team you know you want to pitch a no-hitter, but it doesn't happen all the time and it's very hard to do, obviously," Balog said. "So after that, I knew [Carasiti would] do whatever he could to get out of the jam. And he did, he pitched great."