Carlos Rodon was nearly perfect on Wednesday night but settled for a pretty awesome accomplishment anyway: a no-hitter.
The 28-year-old southpaw struck out seven and only allowed one baserunner in the White Sox’s 8-0 win over the Cleveland Indians. He threw 114 pitches, 75 for strikes. He was all over the strike zone and used a mix of off-speed pitches to keep the Indians hitters off balance. He also got help with many hard-hit balls going straight to his defenders.
Rodon was in pursuit of the 24th perfecto in MLB history and first since Felix Hernandez did it in 2012. To start the ninth was Josh Naylor, who grounded weakly to first base. Jose Abreu beat Naylor to the bag for the out in a very close play.
The next batter was Roberto Perez, whom Rodon hit on the foot with a breaking ball. Rodon seemed chapped that Perez didn’t get out of the way on the pitch, costing the pitcher a perfect game. But he didn’t lose focus. He struck out Yu Chang next and then Jordan Luplow hit a scorching grounder to third and was thrown out for the final out of the game.
Rodon’s no-hitter was the 20th in White Sox history. It comes five days after Joe Musgrove threw the first no-hitter in Padres history. Rodon’s no-hitter also comes less than a year after Lucas Giolito threw one last season.
Rodon was the No. 3 overall pick by the White Sox in 2014. He never quite lived up to that draft status, as he battled injuries and never threw more than 165 innings in a season. He also underwent Tommy John surgery in 2019. But Rodon seems to be back to full strength and has not allowed a run in two starts this season.
More must-reads: