HOUSTON — Ronel Blanco, a player for the Houston Astros, achieved the first no-hitter in the major leagues this year, shutting out the Toronto Blue Jays 10-0 on Monday night.
The right-handed pitcher struck out seven and walked two batters. He walked George Springer at the beginning of the game and again with two outs in the ninth inning. When Vladimir Guerrero Jr. made the final out, Blanco smiled widely before raising his arms above his head just before being surrounded by teammates.
This marked the 17th no-hitter in Astros history and the first in the majors since Philadelphia’s Michael Lorenzen threw one against the Washington Nationals on Aug. 9 of last year.
Houston’s most recent no-hitter occurred about a week before that one, when Framber Valdez achieved it in a 2-0 victory over Cleveland on Aug. 1.
Kyle Tucker and Yainer Diaz both hit the ball out of the park twice to lead the offense in this game as the Astros secured their first win of the season after losing four games to the Yankees. Houston’s Joe Espada became the first manager in major league history to secure his first win in a no-hitter.
Blanco threw 105 pitches, with an average speed of 93.6 mph, including 31 fastballs, 36 changeups, 34 sliders, and four curveballs. The 30-year-old pitcher from the Dominican Republic had a smooth game and didn’t require many exceptional plays from his defense. However, in the ninth inning, Cavan Biggio hit a grounder to the right side. First baseman Jose Abreu fielded it while diving to his right and then, still on the ground, threw to Blanco covering first for the out.
In the eighth inning, Alejandro Kirk hit a ball that Blanco deflected, and it rolled away from him. Mauricio Dubón, who had just entered the game for Jose Altuve at second base, charged in and grabbed it before making the throw to first to retire Kirk.
Blanco, who had never pitched a complete game as a professional, was making his eighth major league start and had never pitched more than six innings.
The Astros hit Toronto’s Bowden Francis (0-1) with 10 hits and seven runs in his first major league start.
Altuve hit a leadoff single before Tucker’s shot with one out in the inning made it 2-0. There were two outs in the first when Diaz connected on his first homer to push the lead to 3-0.
Peña’s home run to the seats in left field made it 4-0 with one out in the second.
Chas McCormick doubled with one out in the fourth and scored on a two-out single by Jake Meyers that made it 5-0.
Peña extended the lead to 7 with a two-run single in the sixth.
Yordan Alvarez walked to start the seventh before Tucker homered again to make it 9-0. There was one out in the inning when Diaz connected again, sending one into the seats in right field to push the lead to 10-0.
