Palm Beach's Helsley nearly unhittable

Ryan Helsley's team wasn't able to capitalize on Monday's stellar outing, but it was the journey that mattered most to him. 
St. Louis' No. 30 prospect took a no-hitter into the seventh inning in Class A Advanced Palm Beach's eventual 1-0 loss to Fort Myers at CenturyLink Sports Complex. He surrendered one hit and three walks while striking out seven in scoreless 6 1/3 frames. 
"It's a lot of fun when it's going well for you like that. That's why you play the game," the 22-year-old right-hander said. "When you're out there and you can locate your pitches like that and try to help your team get a win, nights like tonight make baseball a lot of fun."

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The 2015 fifth-round pick retired the first 12 batters and struck out the side in the fourth inning on 15 pitches. 
"I had all of my pitches working," Helsley said. "I located my fastball pretty well for the most part and my cutter was there tonight after it hadn't been there for a while. My curveball was there for a strikeout pitch as well and I had my changeup to complement that, just to show the guys that I had it."
Walking back to the dugout after the fourth, the Talequah, Oklahoma native realized he had a chance at history.
"I was excited," Helsley said. "I think that's when I first realized that I had a no-hitter. I talked with my catcher [Jeremy Martinez] and we just wanted to keep attacking guys the same way and just make them beat us on our plan for the night."
But then the Northeastern State University product walked Zander Wiel to lead off the fifth.
"That inning really got to me, I kind of wobbled a bit," said the 6-foot-1, 195-pound hurler, who induced a ground-ball double play to erase Wiel, but walked Shane Kennedy. "I tried to get too fine with things and tried to make my pitches too good, I guess you could say, than they needed to be. I should've just kept going and doing what I was doing, but I thought I had to do something different."
Helsley got Kevin Garcia to pop out to end the inning and spun a 1-2-3 sixth, but lost the no-hitter when Brandon Lopez led off the seventh with a single to center. 
"It was on me. I fell behind on the guy," Helsley said. "The favor swings into the hitter's way when stuff like that happens. I just told myself I was going to throw my best pitch and he got a hit. So you tip your hat to him and move on."

After Mitchell Kranson lined out and Wiel walked again, Helsley was lifted for Jacob Evans (3-3) after throwing 95 pitches, 59 for strikes. The left-hander only allowed an RBI triple by Tanner English with two outs in the eighth, striking out four in 1 2/3 innings.
"Evans did a heck of a job in that situation," he said. "Their pitcher, [Sean Poppen], was pitching great too, so I was pulling for him hard. He got two big strikeouts, and I just came out of the dugout and slapped hands with him."
Poppen (1-0) scattered five hits and a walk with four strikeouts over eight innings, and Alex Muren retired the side in order in the ninth to notch his third save for Fort Myers.