It was only five overs, split over two short spells, but Mitchell Starc's first bowl in the middle in three months was enough to get the Australia camp very excited at the prospect of him finding the form that had made him the Player of the Tournament at the 2015 World Cup.

Starc, who had been sidelined since the end of the Sri Lanka Test series in early February with a pectoral muscle injury, claimed 2 for 14 from five rapid overs against the New Zealand XI in the second of the three practice matches at Allan Border Field. He burst through Hamish Rutherford in the opening over to send him back for a first-ball duck, then speared a toe-crushing yorker past a well-set George Worker at the start of his second spell.

Starc decamped to the sidelines shortly after, and the difference in the attack was palpable as the New Zealand batsmen made merry against Kane Richardson, Sean Abbott and Michael Neser. The Australians have brought their own speed guns with them to these matches and Starc was pushing the needle up to leave his team-mates in the shade.

"I was sitting near the speed gun and it was pretty quick - 148kph one of them - and the rest of us were about 135, so I was asking Dene Hills [one of the team performance analysts] to push it up for us," Richardson said, on the day he was added to the World Cup squad as a replacement for Jhye Richardson. "And they only lost three wickets, two of them to him. It was pretty exciting to see him back hitting the stumps.

"It was a trump card to have at that last World Cup, sitting back and watching that was pretty amazing, so if we can get Mitch back to that sort of form - and that looked like it, to be honest - if he's swinging the ball at pace, he'll take wickets and make everyone's job easier."

New Zealand batsman Will Young, who has scored 190 runs across the first two matches in Brisbane, spoke with wide eyes about facing Starc. "It did feel that quick, I left one off a length and it just kept rising and I was like, 'Woah, that's steep' and then it went for four byes over the keeper," he said.

Starc was under pressure for large stretches of the 2018-19 season as Test success became hard to come by, before he finished in style with a ten-wicket haul against Sri Lanka in Canberra. There is a limited sample size on which to judge his recent one-day returns because since the 2017 Champions Trophy, due to a mixture of injury and resting, he has only played seven ODIs, taking 11 wickets at 37.36 with an economy of over a run-a-ball.

With Jhye Richardson now having joined Josh Hazlewood on the list of bowlers missing the World Cup, the onus will be on Starc and Pat Cummins to propel Australia's pace attack. Kane Richardson will be part of the support cast that is hoping to follow in their slip stream.

"Having guys like that around and following them my role will be completely different because they are a different breed of bowler," Richardson said. "That's the beauty of our attack, having blokes who can play different roles. It would be nice if I play and I come on with them 4 for 20 after Mitch and Pat are done, but if we can get them firing it makes everyone's job, including mine, much easier."

England will attempt to exploit home advantage in the 2019 Ashes with confirmation they will use the same specification of Dukes balls used to good effect in the 2017 and 2018 home Test series.

While the ECB has introduced a slightly amended type of ball into Championship cricket this season - a move intended to reduce the advantage bowlers have enjoyed in recent seasons - the Test team will continue to use the same Dukes balls that saw them beat South Africa, West Indies and India at home over the last couple of years. England claim the decision is more about producing entertaining cricket than playing to their own advantage, though the two are not necessarily exclusive.

The Test ball, with a more pronounced seam, generally helps seam and swing bowlers. James Anderson has taken his Test wickets in England at a cost of 16.06 in that period; 10 runs below his overall career average. The other Dukes ball, with a less pronounced seam, will continue to be used in the 2019 County Championship season, which is already producing higher scores than in recent years. It was introduced at the instruction of the ECB Cricket Committee, which was conscious of the balance between bat and ball on early- and late-season domestic pitches when much of the Championship season is contested.

The move could backfire, though. The Australia attack, at full strength, is impressive. And while there may be a presumption that England's skill and experience in such conditions will counteract the Australia side's pace, there is no reason pace and skill should exist independently. Australia's seamers will enjoy using these balls every bit as much as England's. The ball will also be used in the Test against Ireland.

All of which means we should be in for some exciting cricket. The first-class game is generally more entertaining when the ball slightly dominates the bat and this decision should ensure bowlers - well, seamers at least - are kept interested throughout. Whether the balance has moved too far towards such bowlers remains to be seen; this news is unlikey to create a splurge of fifth-day ticket sales.

"This is not about having two-day games," Ashley Giles, the director of England's men's teams, said.  "This is honestly about having a fair contest.  My concern was this [current] ball would make it too batting friendly on good Test wickets in the middle of the summer. That was the primary reason.

"We've seen some really good Test cricket in this country over a number of years.  It's not as if we are talking about playing against an attack that is not very good.  The Aussies are quite handy themselves. 

"There are elements of risk to it because we are choosing to go with this ball and they have a formidable bowling attack.  Clearly, Jimmy Anderson is one of our best weapons - one of the best bowlers ever - so we want to bring him into the game."

The total order of balls is understood to be for somewhere around 600, with each one costing around £60. They will also be used in Lions games, Australia's tour matches and in the training sessions of both teams. Giles confirmed there had been talk about using a Kookaburra ball, but said Dukes had responded "brilliantly" to the ECB's requests for an adapted version. The 2017-18 specification Dukes ball was used during the second half of the 2018-19 Sheffield Shield season.

Giles also said he anticipated having little dialogue with the groundstaff at each Test venue and that England had requested only "good wickets".

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

Toss England chose to bowl v Pakistan

England have won the toss and put Pakistan into bat in the first ODI at The Oval. Under overcast conditions in a game reduced to 47 overs-a-side due to rain that delayed the start by 75 minutes, Eoin Morgan chose to stick with batting second. With further rain very much possible over the next few hours, DLS could come into play, a fact not lost on Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed, who admitted he would have bowled first too.

Jason Roy wasn't deemed fit enough to start yet, meaning James Vince will open the batting with Jonny Bairstow, while Moeen Ali's absence gives Joe Denly another chance in the middle order. Jofra Archer, whose potential inclusion in the final World Cup squad has generated much fiery debate in England, starts alongside Liam Plunkett and Chris Woakes as the three frontline fast bowlers, while Adil Rashid is the lead spinner.

Pakistan's team is fairly predictable, although Yasir Shah's absence might come as a mild surprise, given the legspinner needs game time should he be required to fill in for an illness-stricken Shadab Khan at the World Cup. Mohammad Amir, not chosen in the preliminary squad, starts in a bid to gain a spot in the final 15, while allrounder Imad Wasim is the lead spin option.

This five-match series is the last cricket either team plays ahead of the World Cup, where England kick off proceedings with the opening game against South Africa on May 30.

England: 1 James Vince, 2 Jonny Bairstow, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Jos Buttler (wk), 6 Ben Stokes, 7 Joe Denly, 8 Adil Rashid, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Chris Woakes, 11 Liam Plunkett.

Pakistan: 1 Imam-ul-Haq, 2 Fakhar Zaman, 3 Babar Azam, 4 Haris Sohail, 5 Sarfaraz Ahmed (capt/wk), 6 Asif Ali, 7 Imad Wasim, 8 Faheem Ashraf, 9 Hasan Ali, 10 Shaheen Shah Afridi, 11 Mohammad Amir

DENVER -- Backed up against elimination following a disappointing Game 5 where the Denver Nuggets led by as many as 31 points, Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard said he was still waiting for his team to play its best game.

"We don't feel like we've played our best basketball yet, and with our backs against the wall, we don't really have a choice," Lillard said. "So our mindset is just to get the next one, take care of home, and make it back here. So that's what it is."

Lillard had a similar viewpoint at the Blazers' shootaround Tuesday morning when talking about why he has confidence to win another game in Denver.

"Knowing that we've won here once and also knowing that we haven't played our best yet," Lillard said. "We haven't played a really good game in our opinion. It would be great to have that happen tonight."

Well, it didn't.

The Nuggets housed the Blazers 124-98 in an atypical game for the series. Entering Game 5, the cumulative score in the series was separated by two points. The Nuggets set an early tone, and with Paul Millsap and Nikola Jokic remaining matchup issues on the interior, and the Blazers' top scorers not keeping pace, the game got away from Portland.

"They played as good as they can play and we played as worse a game as we could play," Lillard said.

Most everything kind of went wrong for the Blazers, starting with hitting 36.7 percent from the field, to missing 14 free throws, to getting crushed on the glass 62-44, to noticeably struggling with defensive coverages throughout the game.

"This was our worst basketball the last six weeks," Enes Kanter said.

Lillard's calm, focused demeanor is a driving force for the Blazers and he wasn't reactionary following the deflating performance in Game 5.

"Whether you lose by one or you lose by 25, it's one game," Lillard said. "We're going back home to try and force a Game 7 and just make it back here."

Lillard showed a bit more of an aggressive scoring mindset early, taking a couple of deep 3-pointers off the dribble, something the Nuggets have worked to take away in the series. He finished with 22 points on 9-of-21 shooting and, along with CJ McCollum (12 points on 5-of-16 shooting), sat the entire fourth quarter.

After winning the quadruple-overtime marathon in Game 3, the Blazers dropped a tight Game 4 and appeared to carry some of the regret Tuesday of not taking advantage of an exhausted Nuggets team.

"I don't think anybody in here feels like we can't beat them," forward Maurice Harkless said. "I know what we're capable of. We've been in tough situations before and we've figured out a way to make stuff happen."

Game 6 is Thursday in Portland and, if the Blazers can win, Game 7 would be in Denver on Sunday.

"We've got two must-wins," Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. "Somebody was gonna have a must-win after tonight, and it's us. So we've got two must-wins ahead of us."

TORONTO -- Brett Brown became a meme, Joel Embiid was mocked by Toronto Raptors fans the way he normally mocks opponents and the Philadelphia 76ers suffered one of their worst losses in the franchise's postseason history in a 125-89 defeat Tuesday night.

The Sixers now trail the Raptors 3-2 in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

"I think we laid an egg," said guard Jimmy Butler after the 76ers coughed up 19 turnovers leading to 31 Toronto points and failed to crack 100 points for the fourth time this series.

That was putting it lightly.

The Raptors blew the doors off the Sixers early -- outscoring them 37-17 in the second quarter -- and then piled on late, leading by as many as 40 points in the fourth quarter.

By halftime, Philadelphia had committed more personal fouls (16) than they made field goals (14), and the Sixers' two All-Stars, Embiid and Ben Simmons, struggled as much as anyone. The duo combined for seven turnovers in the first half, which was more than the field goals and assists they combined to register in that time (six).

Embiid, still reeling from the upper respiratory infection that limited him in Game 4, finished with 13 points on 5-for-10 shooting (2-for-6 from 3), six rebounds, one assist and eight turnovers. In the past five postseasons, only two players have finished a game with one or zero assists and eight or more turnovers: Kevin Durant in 2016 and Embiid, who has now done it twice, as he matched his one-assist, eight-turnover game in the first round against the Miami Heat last year.

"It sucks," Embiid said. "I know I got to do a better job for us to win. I got to do the little things. When I'm needed to score the ball, I got to show up. Setting screens, I got to do a better job of rebounding the ball. So that's on me. ... I just got to do more."

Embiid played one of his finest games as a pro in Game 3 against the Raptors, putting up 33 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks to put the Sixers up 2-1 in the series. In the two losses since, he has totaled just 24 points, 14 rebounds and three blocks.

When the Sixers center checked out of Game 5 for good with 9:05 remaining in the fourth quarter, fans in the stands at Scotiabank Arena -- including Canadian rapper Drake, the Raptors' global ambassador -- spread their arms out and mimicked Embiid's airplane celebration that he broke out after his late windmill dunk in Game 3.

Embiid hasn't been able to help the Sixers land a win since.

"I just saw them shake their bodies," Embiid said of the fans. "I didn't pay attention about what the hell they were doing. Good for them. ... I don't care if it offends anybody, but what I do is all about having fun. I don't care. And I'm going to do that because I know I'm going to dominate."

Butler backed the tough talk out of the Sixers big man.

"Not concerned, man," Butler said of Embiid. "We're going to ride or die with big fella. Everybody around this locker room knows that. Everybody in the world should know it. The fans should know it.

"We'll be just fine. We're going to keep doing what we're doing, encouraging him to keep battling through all the injury, through all sickness. And we're here with him."

Brown looked like he wanted to be anywhere but where he was on the sideline as the carnage unfolded in front of him. A few minutes into the third quarter, with the Sixers trailing by 15, Brown slumped back in his seat on the bench and stared up at the rafters with a pained look on his face, his reaction instantly going viral.

Brown said the Sixers' spirit "went away quicker than I had hoped" in Game 5, but he pointed to Thursday's Game 6 at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia as a chance at redemption.

"We're excited to go back to Philadelphia," he said. "Nobody's walking out of here, 'Woe is me.' I promise you that. We have a prideful team; we have a team that had a poor performance tonight. ... But nobody's walking out of here thinking anything else but we're excited to go back to Philadelphia and find a way to win. This is the bottom line.

"There is no dent to our spirit; there is no self-pity. We're excited to get back and get ready to play again."

In what was tied for the second biggest loss in Philadelphia playoff history (the Sixers lost 121-81 to the Boston Celtics in 1982), Simmons and Embiid combined to score just 20 points. It was the third-fewest points they've scored combined this season, according to ESPN Stats & Information research, and all four of their lowest combined scoring outputs have come against Toronto.

"It just wasn't there," Simmons said. "Offensive wasn't there; defense wasn't there. We were terrible tonight."

Still, there's another game to be played -- and Embiid said there's at least one more game after that, telling Drake he planned to see him back in Toronto for a Game 7 on Sunday.

"l got to have fun. That's one of the keys of me playing so well the whole season, this postseason. It's just about -- I mean, I got to smile on the court, I got to lift my teammates up," Embiid said. "I just got to be myself, and just not really care and just do whatever I want to. And at the end of the day, that's how I dominate.

"If you see me smile, that means I'm doing what I'm supposed to do, and I intend to be doing that in two days."

DENVER -- Paul Millsap scored inside while being fouled, then did something he doesn't do very often.

The calm and often emotionless veteran flexed both of his arms.

After four games of both teams playing virtually even basketball across the board, the Denver Nuggets followed Millsap's lead and muscled their way past the Portland Trail Blazers 124-98 Tuesday night to inch within a victory of a Western Conference finals appearance.

The Nuggets lead the series 3-2.

Millsap, the steady 13-year veteran, set the tone early as he has done much of this conference semifinals series. Millsap hit seven of his first 10 shots and scored 19 of his 24 points in the first half.

"He was huge," Denver center Nikola Jokic said. "He set everything -- physicality, pace, offensively, defensively. He was really huge."

"He's actually playing really good these playoffs," Jokic added after a long pause. "Maybe he turned on the playoff mode."

When he wasn't abusing Portland's defense on the low block with an array of moves and runners, Millsap hurt Portland from outside, burying a 3-pointer while being fouled for a rare four-point play that pushed the Denver lead to 20 just before halftime. The largest lead by either team prior to Game 5 was 17, by Portland in the third quarter of a Game 2 that was decided by a mere seven points.

"They like that action with Jamal Murray and Jokic a lot," Portland point guard Damian Lillard said of Millsap. "They're playing out of the corners with Will [Barton] and Gary Harris and [Malik] Beasley ... then when all else fails, you've got to guard Millsap. They'll throw him on the block, and he's a handful for guys to guard because he's in the paint, face-up jumpers, he's making 3s. In transition, you got to find him, and then he's a monster on the glass."

Indeed, Millsap has gone into postseason beast mode, averaging 19 points, 9.6 rebounds and 54.5 percent shooting from the field against the Trail Blazers in this round.

In Game 5, Portland tried to put center Enes Kanter on Millsap early. (Kanter, a devout Muslim, is fasting from sunrise to sunset each day for the next month in observance of Ramadan.) The Nuggets adjusted, and Millsap went 5-for-5 when guarded by Kanter in the first half.

At times in Games 3 and 4, Portland tried to put Kanter on Millsap to avoid having Kanter stuck on Murray off a Jokic-Murray pick-and-roll late in games.

"They tried a few things, to switch a few things up," Millsap said. "We read them pretty quickly, but most importantly, guys were locked in today."

"I know they tried to be a little bit more physical with me these last two games against my counters," Millsap added. "For me, once they take something away and I can't bully them down there, get to my counters and just trust it."

Portland not only had no answer for Millsap, there has been no stopping Jokic. After back-to-back triple-doubles, Jokic continued his postseason surge with a near 20-20. The Serbian All-Star had 25 points, 19 rebounds and six assists before fouling out in the fourth quarter with the game in hand.

Denver ultimately outscored Portland 66-44 in the paint; the scoring margin in the paint never exceeded eight points in any of the previous four games of the series.

Jokic nearly lost his cool after taking a flagrant foul 1 shove from Meyers Leonard on a drive to the basket with the Nuggets up 20 with eight minutes remaining. Jokic, though, has kept his composure this entire postseason after being ejected three times during the regular season. He credits Millsap's calm demeanor.

"How I look at him, he doesn't have emotions," Jokic explained. "When things are not going good, he gets us together ... he keeps talking with us. ... He helps me a lot just watching him and just to learn from him to see how he is dealing with situations."

Millsap, who played in his 99th career postseason game, was the man the young Nuggets turned to on the eve of the playoffs to ask for advice on what they were about to experience.

And now many of these young Nuggets playing in their first postseason will look to Millsap again for guidance on how to close out a team on the road for the first time in the playoffs.

The Nuggets failed to clinch the series in Game 6 in the first round, losing at the San Antonio Spurs before needing to win Game 7 at home.

"It showed us what not to do," Millsap said of the Game 6 loss in Texas. "That being a lot of guys' [first] Game 6 and going into an environment like that, shocking for a lot of guys. We'll be ready."

LOS ANGELES -- A couple of weeks back, perhaps as a way to ease whatever concerns were beginning to creep in, Los Angeles Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman informed his third baseman, Justin Turner, that he had only three career home runs through the first month of a baseball season, a stretch that by April's end had spanned 429 at-bats.

Turner smiled at that memory late Tuesday night, after blasting three home runs in the Dodgers' 9-0 victory over the Atlanta Braves.

"Not sure what that's about," he said, "but definitely glad that month's over."

Turner, who didn't hit his first home run of the 2019 season until the final day of April, recorded the first three-homer game of his career and the team's first since Yasiel Puig last September, lifting the Dodgers on a night when Hyun-Jin Ryu required only 93 pitches to twirl a shutout.

Turner turned on a chest-high, 94 mph fastball from Max Fried and hit it out to left-center field in the first, then crushed a down-the-middle, 88 mph fastball from Josh Tomlin and lifted it to straightaway center in the fifth. He came up one last time, with two on and two out in the bottom of the eighth, and hit another 88 mph fastball out to left-center, the three home runs totaling 1,209 feet and averaging 102 mph off the bat.

"He's been one of the best hitters in the National League for four or five years," Dodgers right fielder Cody Bellinger said of Turner, who added a run-scoring single to give him a career-high six RBIs Tuesday night. "It was nice to see him barrel some balls up."

Turner carried a .364 on-base percentage through April 25, but his batting average was only .250 and his slugging percentage was only .284. He was displaying sound pitch selection but was missing opportunities to do damage.

So Turner began toying with his leg kick and the way his shoulders were positioned when his front foot hit the ground.

"Just trying to find something that clicks, and I think I've found something right now," he said.

Over his past 10 games, Turner has 17 hits in 41 at-bats, six of them for extra bases. His OPS has jumped from .649 to .825, which falls in line with the usual timing of his production. The 34-year-old tends to heat up as the calendar flips, his career OPS going from .730 in April to .774 in May to .892 in June.

His manager, Dave Roberts, is well aware.

"I wish we had an answer," Roberts said when asked for an explanation. "We would turn it a little bit sooner."

Philadelphia Phillies chairman David Montgomery is dead at age 72 from cancer, the team announced Wednesday.

Montgomery had surgery in 2014 for jawbone cancer.

Montgomery began his career with the team in 1971, working in the ticket office and helping to run the scoreboard.

"David was truly a great man," Phillies chairman emeritus Bill Giles said in a statement. "David was a big reason why the Phillies won 12 division championships, five National League championships and two World Series championships in that time. He was a fierce competitor in everything he did, including his battle to fight his illness. He will be tremendously missed by all who had the pleasure of knowing him."

He was promoted to president and general partner in 1997 and, after returning from his surgery in 2015, was named chairman.

Montgomery played a leading role in the team's transition from Veterans Stadium to Citizens Bank Park in 2004.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- A light malfunction almost stopped Mike Fiers' night from getting started. A high pitch count nearly prevented him from finishing it.

It's a good thing Fiers was allowed to take the mound and stay there all game, because he made history doing it.

Fiers overcame the early delay and managed the high workload to pitch the second no-hitter of his career, getting help with two spectacular defensive plays from his Oakland Athletics teammates to shut down the Cincinnati Reds 2-0 Tuesday night.

"Amazing. That's really all I can really say," Fiers said. "Things like this just happen."

This one almost didn't.

A bank of lights in left field was only partially lit before the scheduled start of the game, leading to a delay of more than 90 minutes before the teams and umpires determined there was enough light to play a full game.

Then after getting through seven innings with 109 pitches, Fiers was told by manager Bob Melvin that one more baserunner would end his night even if he still hadn't allowed a hit. He then breezed through the final two innings, following up his 2015 gem for the Houston Astros against the Los Angeles Dodgers with a 131-pitch masterpiece to become the 35th pitcher with multiple no-hitters in his career.

"I'm just really thankful for him leaving me in and trusting me," Fiers said. "I told him I felt great. I felt like everything was working. It wasn't a matter of being tired. I had adrenaline at that point."

He walked two, struck out six and ended it by fanning Eugenio Suarez with a big curveball.

The A's poured out of the dugout to mob Fiers in celebration after the final out in front of a few thousand fans remaining after the lengthy delay. Fiers tipped his hat to the crowd and raised his arms in triumph as he walked off.

"It was a great night obviously for him, for our fans, everyone wants to see a no-hitter," Melvin said. "It was no fun for me once he got past 120 pitches, I promise you that. But he deserved it."

The 33-year-old Fiers (3-3) raised his lifetime record to 57-58. The right-hander began the night with a 6.81 ERA this season and has been a journeyman for much of his career.

A journeyman with a special place in the record book, that is.

"It's pretty cool," Fiers said. "I saw a little bit of the list. I'm just grateful to be here and get the opportunity to play. I remember when I was getting drafted I wasn't too high on the charts. I was a guy throwing 88 to 90 [mph] down in South Florida. I'm one in a million down there. ... I'm just blessed to be here."

The first no-hitter of the 2019 season didn't come without tense moments as Fiers was bailed out by back-to-back great defensive plays in the sixth inning. Second baseman Jurickson Profar ran a long way to make a diving catch on Kyle Farmer's popup into short right field for the second out, prompting Fiers to throw up his arms in celebration.

Joey Votto followed that with a deep drive, but flashy center fielder Ramon Laureano reached above the fence to pull the ball back and rob the Reds' star of a home run.

"Ramon's catch, he's done that once or twice. That's a normal play for him," Fiers said. "Profar, another amazing play."

This was the 13th no-hitter in the history of the Athletics franchise, which started in Philadelphia, moved to Kansas City and shifted to Oakland. Sean Manaea pitched the previous no-hitter for the A's on April 21, 2018, at home against Boston.

Manaea, fittingly, gave Fiers an ice bath on the field when this one ended.

"It was way more nerve-wracking then I was doing it," Manaea said. "I was shaking on the bench. I don't know, it was crazy seeing him do it. It was awesome."

With Fiers' no-hitter, five pitchers currently on MLB rosters have multiple no-hitters: Justin Verlander, Jake Arrieta, Max Scherzer, Homer Bailey and Fiers.

Fiers is the eighth pitcher in MLB history to throw a no-hitter with multiple teams, joining Nolan Ryan (3 teams), Cy Young (2), Randy Johnson (2), Adonis Terry (2), Jim Bunning (2), Ted Breitenstein (2) and Hideo Nomo (2).

"I knew," Fiers said of having a no-hitter during the game. "I don't like when guys are, like, they don't know."

The no-hitter came almost exactly a year after the previous one in the majors, by James Paxton for Seattle at Toronto last May 8.

Fiers issued his only two walks in the seventh, but also got Jesse Winker to hit into a double play. Fiers needed only nine pitches to get through the eighth and zipped through the ninth, retiring rookie Josh VanMeter on a popup, getting Votto on a routine grounder and striking out Suarez.

A's catcher Josh Phegley neatly blocked the last pitch and tagged Suarez to make it official.

"I felt like he was hitting with all his pitches where he wanted it and when he wanted it," Phegley said.

Fiers' other no-hitter came on Aug. 21, 2015, in Houston, three weeks after being traded from the Milwaukee Brewers to the Astros. He threw a career-high 134 pitches in that game.

The only other Reds batter to reach was Winker, who got aboard on an error by Gold Glove third baseman Matt Chapman in the fourth. Chapman was near second base on a defensive shift and the grounder hit off his glove and landed in the outfield.

The game started after a 98-minute delay because of a lighting problem at the Coliseum. A bank of lights above the upper deck in left field had been only partially lit, causing the delay. Those lights began to flicker on as the game started.

Fiers, however, turned them out on the Reds.

"It was impressive to watch but tough to watch for us," Reds manager David Bell said. "It's one game but you have to give him a lot of credit. You don't see this very often, especially anymore. To do it against our lineup is very impressive."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

After pitching the second no-hitter of his career and the 300th no-hitter in major league history, Mike Fiers delivered the understatement of the night: "I'm just glad they got those lights working."

The start of the game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Oakland Athletics in Oakland, California, was delayed 98 minutes because of a lighting malfunction. Three panels of lights -- about 100 bulbs -- above the left-field stands weren't working, but the teams eventually agreed to go ahead and start the game. As Fiers pitched to Joey Votto leading off the game, the bulbs began turning on.

Then Fiers turned it on. He was saved with two superb catches in the sixth inning when Jurickson Profar ranged into shallow right field to make a diving catch on Kyle Farmer's blooper, and then Ramon Laureano made the play of the game when he robbed Votto of a home run with a leaping grab in left-center:

We are pleased to inform you: RAMÓN DID IT AGAIN!#RootedInOakland pic.twitter.com/IiDfflSrqB

— Oakland A's (@Athletics) May 8, 2019

In the ninth inning, sitting on a total of 118 pitches already thrown entering the inning and holding a slim 2-0 lead after Profar's home run in the eighth, Fiers induced rookie pinch hitter Josh VanMeter to pop out to third base on a 0-1 changeup. Votto grounded out to first base on a 3-2 changeup, perfectly executed low and away (a great pitch following a 3-1 changeup that was up and away). Eugenio Suarez took an 88 mph fastball for strike one, fouled off another fastball, took two four-seamers up out of the zone for balls and then swing and missed at a curveball in the dirt:

HE DID IT!!!! pic.twitter.com/nI5XriThKX

— Oakland A's (@Athletics) May 8, 2019

Fiers joins Max Scherzer, Jake Arrieta, Justin Verlander and Homer Bailey as active pitchers with two no-hitters, but this one is remarkable in another regard: It was arguably the most unexpected no-hitter of all the no-hitters.

Fiers entered the game with a 6.81 ERA in eight starts. According to Elias Sports Bureau research, that's the highest ERA for any player throwing a no-hitter with at least 25 innings entering the start. The previous high: José Jiménez had a 6.69 ERA when he threw his no-no for the Cardinals in 1999 (he would finish the season with a 5.85 ERA). That list:

Fiers, 2019: 6.81
Jiménez, 1999: 6.69
Dwight Gooden, 1996: 5.67
Ken Holtzman, 1971: 5.33
Jonathan Sanchez, 2009: 5.30

Take away the 25-inning qualifier and you get a few others, including Francisco Liriano's no-hitter in 2011. He had made five starts that season with a 9.13 when he threw his no-hitter on May 3.

Fiers' no-hitter is unusual in another regard, at least for this era of baseball: He threw 131 pitches, the most in a no-hitter since Fiers himself in 2015 when he no-hit the Los Angeles Dodgers while pitching for the Houston Astros. These days, when 120 pitches is a rarity, Fiers' outing was just the fifth since 2015 with 130 pitches:

Fiers, 8/21/15: 134 pitches (no-hitter)
Clayton Kershaw, 9/2/15: 132 pitches (15 strikeouts)
Matt Moore, 8/25/16: 133 pitches (lost no-hitter with two outs in ninth)
Sean Newcomb, 7/29/18: 134 pitches (lost no-hitter with two outs in ninth)
Fiers, 5/7/19: 131 pitches (no-hitter)

Because of the limited pitch counts these days, there has been speculation that the individual no-hitter is all but dead. For example, since 2016 there have been six pitchers pulled while throwing at least seven no-hit innings. Managers simply won't let a pitcher go much beyond 130 pitches, even in pursuit of a no-hitter. The no-no isn't quite dead yet though. Sean Manaea and James Paxton achieved the feat last season, although both were very efficient (108 and 99 pitches). That's the more likely scenario in 2019.

Adding to the unusual nature of this no-hitter is this list of the pitchers with at least two no-hitters and the worst career ERA:

Bailey: 4.58
Hideo Nomo: 4.24
Fiers: 4.11
Bill Stoneman: 4.07

So congrats to Fiers for having two days when everything went his way. The Reds certainly weren't picking up his high fastball for whatever reason (besides bad lighting) as the right-handed batters in particular were late on a lot of fastballs. Or maybe the Reds were still disoriented from the swarming bees in Cincinnati on Monday.

When you think of the great pitchers who never threw a no-hitter -- guys such as Pedro Martinez (although he once took a perfect game into the 10th inning), Roger Clemens, John Smoltz, Steve Carlton, Don Drysdale, Whitey Ford, Madison Bumgarner, just to name a few -- Fiers' achievement feels even more amazing.

That's baseball. On any given night, anything can happen. Even a no-hitter.