Houston Astros (1-4) SP Ronel Blanco hurled 9 no-hit innings against Toronto (2-3) during the Blue Jays 10-0 loss to Space City. This marks the 8th time that the Toronto Blue Jays have been no-hit since their establishment in 1977, with the most recent event happening on July 8th, 2023, against Matt Manning and the Detroit Tigers. The most recent time that an Astro has no-hit the Blue Jays was on September 1st, 2019, when Justin Verlander blanked Toronto in the hit column for the second time in his career. Overall, it wasn’t a bad outing for the Astros’ SP5.
W: Ronel Blanco (1-0) L: Bowden Francis (0-1)
Blanco Blanks Blue Jays Offence
Outside of two walks taken by George Springer, the Blue Jays offence had no baserunners against Ronel Blanco. Blanco tallied a whopping 20 swings-and-misses and 7 strikeouts in his 9 innings of work. The right-hander was also extremely efficient, retiring Toronto’s offence over 9.0 frames in only 105 pitches. Blanco utilized his changeup and slider to perfection, using the changeup all over the strike zone, specifically low-and-away to both righties and lefties. The slider, on the other hand, was exclusively used on the outside corner to righties, forcing plenty of weak ground balls and high pop flies.
I want to turn your attention to Justin Turner’s second at-bat against Blanco in the top of the 4th inning. Blanco starts the veteran off with a curveball on the outside corner for a called strike. Then, the righty hurls a well-located slide piece outside of the zone that gets Turner to chase, pinning him in an 0-2 count. The 30-year-old pitcher then threw a 94.5 MPH fastball just off the outside edge, making the count 1-2. Intelligently, Blanco whipped a changeup down-and-away to cut Turner down on strikes. The changeup appeared the same as the fastball just prior, forcing Toronto’s DH to be mistimed during the 1-2 pitch.
Overall, it was a pitching masterclass by SP Ronel Blanco that left Toronto’s offence stymied. The final 3 outs were a simple continuation of what he was doing all night. To begin the top of the 9th, 3B Isiah Kiner-Falefa chased an outside slider that he weakly grounded to Blanco, giving him an easy throw to Jose Abreu for the first out. Cavan Biggio roped a 97 MPH grounder to first base, but Abreu laid out and trapped the baseball. The veteran made an accurate throw to Blanco at first base to retire Biggio. After a free pass to George Springer, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. waved at an outside changeup and slapped it to 2B, giving Jose Altuve an easy play to conclude the contest, making Ronel Blanco a part of MLB history.
Bowden Francis: A Silver Lining?
The one glimmer of positivity for the Blue Jays was SP Bowden Francis and his relatively solid performance. 7 earned runs doesn’t seem to be the result of a “solid outing,” but it was the result of excellent approaches and swings from the Astros offence rather than poor pitching from Francis. The 27-year-old tallied 7 strikeouts and 14 whiffs (8 from CRV, 3 from 4SFB, 2 from SPL, 1 from SL) during his 5.1 innings of work. His four-seam fastball sat around 93-94 MPH, while topping out at a game-high 96.1 MPH.
The specific at-bat I want to focus on is OF Kyle Tucker’s plate appearance against Francis during the 5th inning. Francis began the AB with a 93.5 MPH four-seam fastball down-and-in for a called strike. Then, the right-hander hurled an 85.5 MPH splitter in the same area that Tucker swung right through, making the count 0-2. A splitter is a pitch that appears like a fastball out of the hand, but has late vertical break and a distinct velocity difference that makes it an excellent complementary pitch. Francis concluded the plate appearance with another splitter, this time even more down in the strike zone, that Tucker chased, resulting in a strikeout for Francis.
If Bowden Francis can continue developing the splitter, he can have a reliable third pitch to complement his curveball and medium-velocity four-seamer. With SP Alek Manoah still dealing with a lingering injury, Francis will certainly serve as much-needed starting depth as the 2024 season progresses.
Historic Night in H-Town
It was definitely a night to forget for Toronto Blue Jays fans. Prior to tonight, Toronto had been no-hit 7 times in franchise history. Ronel Blanco’s longest outing in his 7 career starts had been 6.0 innings before Monday, but this 9-inning no-hitter certainly tops that mark. Toronto’s offence will get set to face Astros ace Framber Valdez while the Blue Jays will trot out Jose Berrios in an attempt to get back in the win column. Maybe Toronto can at least register a hit in Tuesday’s contest.