After a less-than-stellar opening weekend, the Houston Astros won their first game on the young season victory on Monday night in historic fashion. One of the problems the past weekend was the bullpen giving up a lead, so on Monday night, Ronel Blanco threw the He threw the 17th no-hitter in franchise history in a 10-0 win over the Blue Jays, walking two batters and striking out seven.

Blanco walked the first batter he faced before sending down 26 Blue Jays in a row. A two-out walk to George Springer in the ninth prompted Espada to get a reliever to warm up and catcher Yainer Diaz to stroll to the mound for a breather. Blanco got Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to ground out to second base on his 105th pitch to polish off the first no-hitter of the 2024 season.

Blanco worked part-time at a car wash in 2016 in his native Dominican Republic to help support his mother, Maria, when the Astros signed him. Blanco was making only his eighth Major League start and wouldn’t have been in the Astros’ rotation to begin the year had it not been for injuries to Justin Verlander and José Urquidy. Manager Joe Espada told him last week that he had won the final spot in the rotation — on the same day he and his wife welcomed their second child.

“It’s been a very long road traveled for me, a lot of ups and downs — a lot of falls and me getting back up,” Blanco said through an interpreter. “But I think all of that has been worth it for me to be able to get to this moment.”

Making mom proud.❤️ pic.twitter.com/uQOKnqw4rG

— Houston Astros (@astros) April 2, 2024
 
 

Source: https://www.mlb.com/astros/news/ronel-blanco-no-hits-blue-jays