Kyle Lohse might not be the St. Louis Cardinals' best starting pitcher.

That's probably Chris Carpenter. Or Adam Wainwright. Or Jaime Garcia.

But it's Kyle Lohse who got the Opening Day start against the Miami Marlins, and it's Kyle Lohse who faced the minimum number of Marlins through the first six innings and didn't allow a single hit.

In the bottom of the seventh, with Jose Reyes leading off against Lohse, ESPN's Orel Hershiser read a quote from Lohse: "I'm trying to keep guys off balance, keep the ball off the middle of the plate, and get 'em to hit someplace weakly, and hopefully they will hit it at somebody."

Which is just about what he'd been doing, through six innings. Only two strikeouts, but zero hits and zero walks (and just one baserunner, a hit batter erased by a double play).

But Jose Reyes killed Lohse's no-hitter dreams by smacking a hanging curveball into right field for a no-doubt single. Lohse did escape the inning with no more damage -- though Giancarlo Stanton did propel a long drive to deep center field -- thus preserving the Cardinals' 3-0 lead.

And this was the longest no-hit bid in Lohse's career, which stretches back to 2001.