Astros’ Ronel Blanco shuts down Rangers amid historic start to season
It took 51 batters to finally get a hit off of Houston Astros starting pitcher Ronel Blanco.
Six days prior, Blanco had just completed a nine-inning, 105-pitch no-hitter. On Sunday, he was misleading the Texas Rangers’ left-handed lineup. The Astros won 3-1 at Globe Life Field in Arlington to earn their third victory of the season, and he didn’t allow a hit until the sixth inning.
Through an interpreter, Blanco stated, “I really wasn’t thinking about that [no-hitter], I was just trying to think about throwing my best pitches to get the batters out.”
Blanco’s 44 outs before his first hit allowed are the most by a pitcher to begin a season in the expansion era (1961), according to MLB.com’s Sarah Langs. The prior record of 35 outs was held by Austin Cox (2023), Brad Clontz (1998) and current Astros teammate Josh Hader (2020).
Right now, the team has won two of its three games thanks to Blanco’s pitching, and all of those victories have come when the opposition has managed only two hits. This is due to the star-studded lineup and bullpen having an unusually slow start.
For the first five innings, there was a chance that Blanco would go down in history as the only pitcher to throw two straight no-hitters, Johnny Vander Meer, a 1938 left-hander for the Cincinnati Reds. In the sixth inning, it was Adolis García, an outfielder for the Rangers, who broke through with an 80-mph ground ball to center field for a single. Although the slider was located far to the right of the zone, García’s knack for hitting odd pitches has
