Chisox lefty Carlos Rodon pitches no-hitter
Hit batter in ninth spoils perfect game
CHICAGO — Carlos Rodón threw the second no-hitter of the young baseball season Wednesday night, losing his bid for a perfect game on a hit batter with one out in the ninth inning, as the Chicago White Sox cruised to an 8-0 victory over the Cleveland Indians.
The left-hander retired his first 25 batters before he plunked Roberto Pérez on the back foot with an 0-2 slider. An incredulous Rodón looked on almost in bewilderment as Pérez made his way to first.
Rodón (2-0) regained his composure in time to strike out Yu Chang looking and retire Jordan Luplow on a sharp grounder to third, starting a joyous celebration.
It was the first no-hitter for the White Sox since Lucas Giolito pitched one Aug. 25 last year against Pittsburgh and No. 20 in franchise history, second-most among major league teams behind the Los Angeles Dodgers (23).
“It just feels good to finally sit here and tell you I dominated today, and it felt good,” Rodón said. “I’ve never really done that. I’ve never done that on this level at least, and it feels good to say I did it.”
Rodón’s gem came just five days after Joe Musgrove threw a no-hitter for the Padres at Texas.
Rodón threw 75 of his 114 pitches for strikes. He struck out seven in his first career shutout and second complete game.
The closest call for Rodón and the White Sox occurred when Josh Naylor led off the ninth with a slow bouncer. First baseman José Abreu picked it up and got his toe on the bag just ahead of a sliding Naylor.
RED SOX 3-7, TWINS 2-1: In Minneapolis, Alex Verdugo had three hits, including a two-run single in a six-run fifth inning, as Boston extended its winning streak to nine games, beating the Minnesota Twins 7-1 to sweep Wednesday’s doubleheader.
Eduardo Rodríguez (2-0) pitched five innings and gave up one run on five hits for Boston. The Red Sox have their longest winning streak since a 10-game run in 2018.
Verdugo had five hits in the doubleheader and capped the day with his second homer of the season in the seventh inning. The Red Sox won the first game 3-2.
In the opener, Nathan Eovaldi (2-1) gave up two runs on five hits in five innings for the Red Sox.
GIANTS 3, REDS 0: In San Francisco, Johnny Cueto pitched neatly into the sixth inning before exiting with a tight lat muscle as San Francisco beat Cincinnati.
Cueto (2-0) removed himself from the game after fanning Nick Castellanos for the second out in the sixth. The right-hander motioned to the Giants’ dugout and walked to the clubhouse, accompanied by a member of the training staff. RANGERS 5, RAYS 1: In St. Petersburg, Fla., Nate Lowe hit a solo homer and rookie Kohei Arihara got his first major league victory, pitching into the sixth inning as Texas beat Tampa Bay.
Arihara (1-1) allowed two singles and a double over 5 2/3 scoreless innings in his third start since signing with the Rangers after six seasons with the Hokkaido NipponHam Fighters of Japan’s Pacific League.
PIRATES 5, PADRES 1: In Pittsburgh, Gregory Polanco homered and Pittsburgh beat San Diego’s Joe Musgrove in his first start since throwing the first no-hitter in franchise history.
Polanco hit a solo shot into the right-field stands in the second inning. That ended a 32-inning scoreless streak by Musgrove that dated to last season when he was still with the Pirates.
METS 5, PHILLIES 1: In New York, David Peterson (1-1) matched a career high with 10 strikeouts in six dominant innings and batterymate James McCann hit his first home run with New York, sending the Mets past Philadelphia for their third straight win.
McCann had three hits, including a two-run homer in the eighth. Brandon Nimmo and Dominic Smith also got three hits apiece.
TIGERS 6, ASTROS 4: In Houston, Michael Fulmer (1-0) earned his first win since 2018 and Detroit built a big lead before holding off Houston for a three-game sweep.
Outscored 14-4 in losing the first two games with a full roster, the Astros went into the wrapup after putting five players, including stars José Altuve, Alex Bregman and Yordan Álvarez, on the COVID-19 injured list.
BREWERS 7, CUBS 0: In Milwaukee, Corbin Burnes struck out 10 in six dominant innings and also delivered a two-run single for his first career RBIs as Milwaukee defeated Chicago.
Burnes allowed just two hits to continue his sizzling start to the season. His bases-loaded single up the middle capped the Brewers’ four-run outburst in the sixth.
ROYALS 6, ANGELS 1: In Kansas City, Mo., Salvador Pérez homered and doubled, leading Brad Keller and Kansas City over Los Angeles.
A day after picking off David Fletcher at third base to end a 3-2 win, Pérez drove in two runs. The All-Star catcher went 8 for 12 with four RBIs this week against LA.
Carlos Santana also homered as KC took two of three from LA. BLUE JAYS 5, YANKEES 4: In Dunedin, Fla., Bo Bichette homered twice, including a game-ending drive leading off the ninth inning that lifted Toronto over New York.
Bichette drove a pitch from Chad Green (0-2) the opposite way to right-center field as Toronto took two of three.
Aaron Judge hit two home runs for the Yankees.
NATIONALS 6, CARDINALS 0: In St. Louis, Joe Ross pitched six sharp innings and Washington threw its first regular-season shutout at Busch Stadium, blanking St. Louis.
Ross (1-0) improved to 3-0 in four career starts against the Cardinals. He allowed four hits, struck out five and walked one.
MARLINS 6, BRAVES 5 (10): In Atlanta, Jesus Aguilar drove in the winning run with a 10th-inning double and Miami overcame two homers by Ronald Acuña Jr. for its third straight win at Atlanta.
Leading off in extra innings with Starling Marte placed at second, Aguilar dumped a low pitch from Tyler Matzek (0-1) down the left-field line to bring home the tiebreaking run.
Note
NEW YORK — Major League Baseball wants to see if moving back the pitcher’s mound will increase offense.
MLB will experiment with a 12-inch greater distance between the mound and home plate during a portion of the Atlantic League season in an effort to decrease strikeouts and increase offense.
The pitching rubber will be moved back to 61 feet, 6 inches starting Aug. 3 during the second half of the independent league’s season.
“It’s a direct response to the escalating strikeout rate, where you’re giving the hitter approximately one one-hundreth of a second of additional time to decide whether to swing at a pitch, which has the effect just in terms of reaction time of reducing the effective velocity of a pitch by roughly 1.5 mph,” said Morgan Sword, MLB’s executive vice president of baseball operations.
“The purpose of the test and hope is giving hitters even that tiny additional piece of time will allow them to make more contact and reduce the strikeout rate.”
In 2019, the last full season, strikeouts set a record for the 12th consecutive year at 42,823, up 33% from 32,189 in 2007. Strikeouts exceeded hits the last three seasons after never occurring before in major league history.