No fooling: April 1 was a day for no-hit bids. On Monday afternoon at Wrigley Discipline, in his main league debut, Shota Imanaga threw 5 2/3 innings of hitless ball in opposition to the Rockies earlier than yielding a single to Charlie Blackmon. On Monday night at Citi Discipline, in his first begin for the Mets, Sean Manaea matched Imanaga with 5 2/3 hitless innings in opposition to the Tigers earlier than lastly surrendering a single to Andy Ibáñez. (The Mets nonetheless managed to lose in further innings.) And eventually, on Monday evening at Minute Maid Park, Ronel Blanco went the gap for the Astros in opposition to the Blue Jays, at one level retiring 26 hitters in a row. He capped a 10-0 rout by getting Vladimir Guerrero Jr., whom he’d beforehand struck out 3 times, to floor out to second base.
The win was the Astros’ first of the season after they opened with 4 straight losses at house in opposition to the Yankees. In accordance to MLB.com’s Sarah Langs, supervisor Joe Espada, who took over from the retiring Dusty Baker, grew to become the primary skipper ever to notch his first main league win — or his first with a brand new workforce — with a no-hitter. That is the earliest no-hitter by calendar date, per Sportradar, surpassing Hideo Nomo’s April 4, 2001 no-no for the Purple Sox in opposition to the Orioles. The primary of final yr’s 4 no-hitters, a good sport by the Yankees’ Domingo Germán, wasn’t thrown till June 28.
For those who haven’t heard of Blanco, you’re forgiven. The 30-year-old Dominican-born righty entered the sport with simply 58 1/3 main league innings underneath his belt, and till final yr, he hadn’t made greater than two begins in a season since 2017, his second in professional ball. He’s a late bloomer who was by no means thought of a lot of a prospect; he did place thirtieth on our Astros Prime Prospects listing final yr as a 35+ FV reliever, with Eric Longehagen and Tess Taruskin describing him as an “up/down aid piece” whose 94-97 mph fastball “performs under its velocity.” In accordance a 2022 profile at The Athletic by Jake Kaplan, Blanco is a former place participant who didn’t start pitching till he was 18. He signed for a $5,000 bonus in 2016, when he was 22, after making an attempt out for not less than 4 different groups. Earlier than getting signed, he practiced baseball within the mornings and washed vehicles within the afternoons in his hometown of Santiago as a way to assist himself and his mom. Astros scout Francis Mojica noticed him throwing 94 mph whereas scouting Julio Rodríguez, who had the identical coach.
Blanco made seven appearances out of the bullpen for the Astros in 2022, however on the behest of recent basic supervisor Dana Brown received a shot at beginning final yr. He break up his season between Triple-A Sugar Land (13 begins and two aid appearances), the Astros’ bullpen (10 appearances), and their rotation; of his seven begins, six got here in June and July as a part of a six-man rotation. For the Astros, he posted a 4.50 ERA and 5.99 FIP in 52 innings, strolling a tightrope with a 12.4% stroll price and a pair of.08 homers per 9.
Now Blanco is having a greater week than simply about anyone in baseball. He entered Monday evening’s sport contemporary off profitable the fifth starter job with a 10-strikeout, 4 1/3-inning efficiency in opposition to Sugar Land final Wednesday, on the ultimate day of spring coaching. Earlier that day, his spouse had given delivery to the couple’s second baby. He received the beginning job primarily as a result of the Astros needed to dig into their depth chart; not solely are Luis Garcia and Lance McCullers Jr. each recovering from surgical procedures (Tommy John surgical procedure for the previous, flexor tendon and bone spur elimination for the latter), however Justin Verlander and José Urquidy landed on the injured listing throughout spring coaching, the previous on account of shoulder irritation, the latter on account of a forearm pressure.
Regardless of that modest prologue, Blanco made his first begin of the 2024 season one for the historical past books. He’d by no means thrown greater than six innings or 99 pitches in any of his main league begins, and maxed out at seven innings (final August 9 at Sugar Land) and 100 pitches (July 24, 2017 at Quad Cities) for his skilled profession; he exceeded these earlier highs on Monday, although he wanted simply 105 pitches to finish the job. He confronted simply 29 hitters, with a pair of walks to George Springer — one on 5 pitches to steer off the sport, the opposite on six pitches with two outs within the ninth — being the one blemishes. He went to a three-ball depend in opposition to solely two different hitters, Justin Turner within the first inning and Kevin Kiermaier within the second.
Blanco was in a position to spend a lot of the evening cruising as a result of his teammates shortly took the strain off of him. They scored three runs within the first off Blue Jays starter Bowden Francis on homers by Kyle Tucker and Yainer Diaz, every of whom would add one other later; in doing so, Diaz grew to become the primary catcher to homer a number of occasions whereas catching a no-hitter. The Astros progressively prolonged their result in 7-0 earlier than Francis departed within the sixth. Down 10-0 within the backside of the eighth, supervisor John Schneider moved third baseman Isiah Kiner-Falefa to the mound for this season’s second pitching look by a place participant. (The primary was by the Giants’ Tyler Fitzgerald in opposition to the Padres on Sunday).
Blanco struck out seven Blue Jays whereas producing 20 whiffs on 59 swings (34%). Working off a four-seamer that averaged 95.6 mph, his changeup was completely phenomenal, netting 10 whiffs and 5 referred to as strikes for a CSW% of 42%; batters chased 61% of his changeups outdoors the zone. All seven of his strikeouts got here through the change, 4 swinging, two trying — each completely positioned on his glove-side fringe of the zone in opposition to Guerrero and Daulton Varsho — and one on a foul tip. That is only a lovely job of retaining these two-strike changeups out of the guts of the zone:
Seven of Blanco’s 20 in-play outs got here on the changeup as properly. His slider — typically his finest pitch — was fairly efficient, too, accounting for eight whiffs, a 32% CSW%, and eight in-play outs. Certainly, he did a wonderful job of avoiding exhausting contact, permitting simply 4 batted balls with exit velocities of 95 mph or increased. Within the third inning, Kiner-Falefa smoked a 99.9-mph line drive to deep left area, the place Chas McCormick ran it down. Within the seventh, Turner hit a towering however routine 98.2 mph fly ball to heart fielder Jake Meyers. Within the eighth, in a heart-stopping second, Alejandro Kirk hit a 100.7-mph comebacker that deflected off Blanco’s glove. Second baseman Mauricio Dubón, who had simply changed Jose Altuve, barehanded the ball and made the throw in time; had a distinct batter, one who didn’t place within the second percentile in dash velocity final yr, been working, it will have been an infield single.
The tickers of anybody who cared received one other jolt with one out within the ninth. Cavan Biggio pulled a 97.6-mph grounder towards the opening between first and second; first baseman José Abreu dove to his proper to make a backhanded cease, then threw to Blanco racing for first whereas nonetheless sprawled on the bottom.
After that gem, all Blanco needed to do was get Guerrero yet another time, which he did. In doing so, he notched the seventeenth no-hitter in franchise historical past and the sixth of the previous six seasons:
Latest Astros No-Hitters
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Remarkably, no different workforce has greater than two no-hitters — both solo or mixed — in that span, and it’s conceivable that in some unspecified time in the future this yr the Astros might cycle by way of 4 starters with not less than one (together with combos) underneath their belts. Houston’s complete of 17 no-hitters is essentially the most of any workforce for the reason that begin of the enlargement period in 1961; the Dodgers and Angels are tied for second with 13. Whereas the offense-suppressing Astrodome could have boosted that complete, simply six no-hitters have been thrown there, all by the Astros, throughout its 1965–99 run. In different phrases, the workforce has matched that complete prior to now six years, a time when batting averages have dipped to ranges not seen for the reason that early Seventies.
On that notice, significantly on a day when two different pitchers took no-hitters into the sixth inning, we’ll notice batters are hitting for a .247 common to this point, down one level from final yr even whereas scoring has risen from 4.62 runs per sport to 4.93. It’s far too early to get a really feel for which means the developments will go, but it surely’s not like we’re out of the blue in 1972 once more. The Blue Jays entered the sport hitting .221/.322/.382, twenty second amongst all groups in batting common however fifteenth with a 109 wRC+. Such is the affect of a single sport at this stage that they dropped to twenty ninth in batting common (.184) and twenty second in wRC+ (78).
As for Blanco, whereas he’s hardly assured a everlasting spot in Houston’s rotation, it will not be stunning if the workforce sticks with a six-man plan as soon as Verlander returns. The 41-year-old righty is about to go out on a rehab project after throwing three innings and 52 pitches in a simulated sport on Monday. The Astros tied for third within the majors final yr with 128 begins on not less than 5 days of relaxation; not all of these have been inside a six-man rotation, but it surely’s clearly one thing with which they’re comfy. No matter how issues play out, Blanco will all the time have Monday evening’s unlikely and unforgettable effort. He’s a part of baseball historical past now.