The 28-year-old left-hander proceeded to get the next two batters out before being mobbed by Chicago teammates in a joyous celebration near the mound.
Over 114 pitches, Rodón threw 75 strikes and got seven strikeouts with no walks. At the start of the ninth inning, his bid for perfection received a critical assist from first baseman José Abreu, who picked up a slow-rolling grounder and barely beat Cleveland’s Josh Naylor to the bag. That produced a roar from the 7,148 in attendance at Chicago’s Guaranteed Rate Field.
The previous no-hitter this season was tossed Friday by Joe Musgrove of the San Diego Padres, marking the first in the history of that franchise. Rodón’s effort Wednesday made for the 20th no-hitter in the history of the White Sox, following one thrown by Lucas Giolito in August.
While there have been over three hundred recognized no-hitters in MLB history, there have been just 23 perfect games. The most recent occurred in August 2012, courtesy of then-Seattle Mariners star Felix Hernandez. The period of eight years and eight months since then is the largest gap between MLB perfect games since a stretch from May 1968 to May 1981 was ended by the Indians’ Len Barker.
Rodón said Wednesday he began thinking he might be on his way to history when a fastball he knew Cleveland’s José Ramírez was expecting got turned into a hard-hit out to end the seventh. Of Abreu’s diving effort in the ninth, Rodón said, “Hell of a play.”
“He was very determined, but he never got tight,” White Sox Manager Tony La Russa said of Rodón. LaRussa said he didn’t give much thought to possibly pulling his starting pitcher because he never saw Rodón having to “labor” to put away batters.
Asked what he would have said if told a couple of years ago he would throw a no-hitter in April 2021, Rodón said his response would have been, “Take a hike.”
The third overall pick of the 2014 MLB draft out of N.C. State, Rodón reached the majors with the White Sox the following year. After a solid but injury-marred start to his career — including getting struck in the head by a line drive while on a minor league rehab assignment — he was named Chicago’s Opening Day starter in 2019. In May of that year, he underwent Tommy John surgery and didn’t take the mound again until July 2020.
In four appearances and two starts during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Rodón produced an 8.22 ERA, and the White Sox declined to tender him a 2021 contract in December. He returned to the team in January on a one-year, $3 million deal, but he still had to compete for a spot in the rotation.
On Wednesday, Rodón looked much more like the ace the White Sox hoped they were drafting seven years ago than any sort of mere fringe starter.
“He kind of overwhelmed us,” said Indians Manager Terry Francona. “When he’s good, he gets stronger as the game goes on, and you saw him touch 99 (mph) on pitch 110 and his breaking ball got better and he even threw some change-ups. He got into a rhythm and just got stronger as the game went.”
La Russa is now the first manager to oversee two no-hitters in both the American and National Leagues (per ESPN). His pair in the NL came via St. Louis Cardinals pitchers José Jiménez (1999) and Bud Smith (2001), and Dave Stewart threw one in 1990 when La Russa was managing the Oakland Athletics.
