Astros rebound with no-hitter against Blue Jays
It was Ronel Blanco’s world last night, we all just got to live in it.
The Yankees kicked off their second series of the year with a commanding victory to jump to 5-0, this time needing no comeback whatsoever to beat the defending NL champs. Their opening run is now up there with some of the best starts the franchise has seen, an impressive feat for a team as decorated as the Yankees are in just about every way.
Given the late-night start on the West Coast, a lot of the scoreboard watching from last night was actually done before or during the game, but they were treated to some positive results for the division, including one stellar outing from the place they just left.
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Houston Astros (1-4) 10, Toronto Blue Jays (2-3) 0
Fresh off of a heartbreaking four-game sweep in their own home and stuck in a lengthy streak of underperforming there going back to last year, the Astros needed some home cooking badly. They got all they could ask for and more on Monday, as the 30-year-old righty Ronel Blanco took the mound for just his eighth career start.
Blanco’s night started with a five-pitch walk to George Springer, and that was the last baserunner Toronto would see for a long time. Blanco carved through the next three batters he saw, picking up two strikeouts in the process, cruised through the next two innings and then reinforced the notion that it was his day by striking out the heart of the Jays’ lineup in order in the fourth. The fifth and sixth saw nothing but weak contact converted into outs, and by that point everyone in the ballpark knew that something was brewing.
It certainly helped that the Astros built their starter a hefty lead right out of the gate. Houston put up a three-spot in the first inning on a pair of homers from Kyle Tucker and Yainer Diaz, and Jeremy Peña broke his lengthy power-drought with a solo bomb in the second. They sprinkled in another run in the fourth on a Jake Meyers single, and then drove the dagger home with five more runs across the sixth and seventh innings. It got to the point where the Blue Jays trotted out old friend Isiah Kiner-Falefa to reprise his duty as the mop-up pitcher by the end of the game (he preserved his sterling ERA with a clean inning).
Back to the main story, however. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. led off the seventh with a strikeout and two weak fly balls closed the book on that frame, and the middle of the lineup could only muster two groundouts and a fly to left in the eighth inning. Blanco stepped into the ninth inning and worked two more grounders (the second of which was nabbed brilliantly by Jose Abreu to steal a base hit) before once again walking Springer, setting up Vlad Jr. as the Jays’ last hope of breaking up the no-hitter. It wasn’t in the cards:
