Homer Bailey no-hit the Pirates on Friday night, the first time the Pirates have been no-hit since 1971. Bailey racked up 10 strikeouts in the process, walking just one. A.J. Burnett -- who, of course, nearly pitched a no-hitter of his own this season -- pitched eight strong innings, but allowed a run on a sacrifice fly in the first, and took the loss as a result.

The number zero doesn't bother me so much. Or, at least, it doesn't bother me much more than all the two- and three- and four-hitters pitchers have put up against the Pirates this season. It bothers me that the Pirates' offense seems to sleepwalk through entire games, but even then, you can make the argument that it didn't really do that in this one, having had a bunch of hard-hit balls. The sleepwalking bothers me. The number zero doesn't, especially in a year where there have been so many no-hitters that it's unlikely that many folks outside Pittsburgh or Cincinnati will even remember this one.

Pirates hitters have batted .245 this year. (Believe it or not, seven teams have been worse.) When you do that, no-hitters happen every so often. It's amazing to me that this is the first time in the Pirates' streak of losing seasons that this has happened. Now that it has, you can wallow in misery, especially given that the resulting loss rules out the possibility of a winning season. Or you can appreciate that, even in a year where no-hitters happened over and over again, you got to see something that doesn't happen every day. I was at PETCO Park in 2006 when Chris Young took a no-hitter into the ninth against the Pirates. Joe Randa broke it up with a two-run homer. I was disappointed. I was hoping to see something I hadn't seen in person before, and I just missed it.

Anyway, good for Bailey. For the Pirates, this shouldn't be that big a deal, just another terrible game in what's become a long, long string of them. The season was already over. Don't be upset. Be amused.