ARLINGTON — He is supposed to be stowed in a Triple-A rotation, protection in case baseball’s pitching injury pandemic plagues some of his big-league brethren. When it did this spring, Ronel Blanco received his moment: a three-start, four-week audition to turn heads and take a spot in a starting rotation so many assumed had been set.
Blanco’s entire career is a case study in seizing chances. On the sport’s biggest stage, for a team seeking someone to buoy it, Blanco is becoming one of baseball’s best stories, morphing from insurance to indispensable.
“He’s pitching his way into establishing himself as one of the starters,” Houston Astros manager Joe Espada said. “That’s what you do: you get an opportunity, you take advantage of it and you run with it. He’s doing just that.”
Six days after throwing one of baseball’s most unforeseen no-hitters, Blanco authored a legitimate bid for another. He fell 10 outs shy of joining Johnny Vander Meer in one of the sport’s most unreachable feats, but still spun six innings of scoreless ball for a team in desperate need of it.
“I’m a believer that all the hard work you do is going to pay off at some time or another and it really doesn’t surprise me,” Blanco said through an interpreter after Houston’s 3-1 win. “I knew this was going to come.”
Blanco began his season with 14 2/3 hitless innings, a fate even the most optimistic member of this organization could not have foreseen. In an otherwise brutal beginning to Houston’s season, Blanco has blossomed into force, a substitute starter who may have already secured a more permanent place in the Astros’ rotation.
Historic beginning to the season for Ronel Blanco! 👏👏
His 44 outs before his first hit allowed are the most by a pitcher to begin a season in at least the expansion era (1961).
h/t @EliasSports pic.twitter.com/rM6dx7BCk3
— MLB (@MLB) April 8, 2024
“I think he’s surpassed all the expectations that people had for him and I think he’s making people have a closer look at him,” designated hitter Yordan Alvarez said through an interpreter.
Houston has three wins in its first 10 games. Blanco started both of them. After the first, a whole sport heard about his journey from a Dominican carwash to the sport’s pinnacle.
The second may have shown this isn’t a novelty act. Beneath a big crowd and broadcast on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball, Blanco bullied a Texas Rangers lineup that had rocked Houston pitching for 17 runs and 31 hits across the series’ first two games. Blanco limited them to one: Adolis García’s two-out, sixth-inning single that evaded Jose Altuve’s outstretched glove.
Blanco faced 50 batters and recorded 44 outs before allowing a hit. Since the dawn of the expansion era in 1961, no other major-league pitcher started his season with a longer streak of hitless innings. No pitcher since 1901 ever had two season-opening starts of at least 15 innings and one or fewer hits.
“He’s throwing an invisiball right now. No one can hit it — literally,” setup man Ryan Pressly said. “It’s really fun to watch him throw right now. I couldn’t be happier for him. It’s really fun to watch.”
Blanco bedeviled two of baseball’s most star-studded lineups with a steady diet of four-seam fastballs that rarely reached 95 mph and a changeup that’s becoming his calling card. All seven of Toronto’s strikeouts concluded against it during Monday’s no-hitter.
Ronel Blanco, K’ing the Side with Changeups. pic.twitter.com/AQ8bLI25Dq
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 2, 2024
Six days later, Texas took 10 swings against the 28 changeups Blanco threw. Just two generated whiffs, but five others were spoiled foul. Seven more were called strikes, illustrating the impressive command of his signature pitch.
Blanco failed to harness it with the rest of his arsenal, removing any realistic hope for another solo no-hitter. Before the game, Espada acknowledged the club would be more conscious of Blanco’s pitch count. He threw a career-high 105 against the Blue Jays and, even though he received an extra day of rest, pushing him too far this early in the season felt unwise.
Consecutive one-out walks forced Blanco to throw 28 pitches in the second. He procured two quick outs in the fifth before walking eight-hole hitter Josh Smith and No. 9 hitter Travis Jankowski. His pitch count neared 80 as Texas’ lineup turned over for a third look at him.
Leadoff man Marcus Semien mashed a hard groundball to third base that stranded both baserunners. It exited his bat at 101 mph — an anomaly in this amazing run.
Texas had a .128 expected batting average on the 15 balls it put in play against Blanco. Three of them were struck harder than 90 mph. Of the 35 batted balls Blanco has surrendered this season, just seven have been hit harder than 90 mph.
“The changeup adds another pitch for hitters to be thinking about,” Espada said. “That’s when you induce some soft contact because hitters are not reacting, they’re not seeing it well and that’s why he’s getting a lot of off-balance swings.”
García gave another in the sixth. Blanco served him a first-pitch slider on the outer half of the strike zone. García somehow got his barrel to the ball and bounced it 126 feet into shallow center field — a clean single to finally sully Blanco’s line.
Ronel Blanco gave it another run!
His bid for a second straight no-hitter ends after 5 2/3 innings on #SundayNightBaseball. pic.twitter.com/KT7TWi7ygP
— MLB (@MLB) April 8, 2024
“I have to tip my hat to him,” Blanco said, “he was able to make contact with a very tough pitch.”
Blanco began the inning understanding it could be his last. He entered it with 81 pitches, nine short of the target Houston had for him entering the start. Evan Carter’s flyout allowed him to finish the frame and spend the final three innings increasing his celebrity. ESPN even interviewed him in-game — a rarity for a starting pitcher who just finished a day’s work.
“That guy is one of the harder-working guys I’ve seen in a long time,” Pressly said. “He puts in the work and it’s paying off right now. It’s really fun to watch him throw.”
Blanco began this season on borrowed time. Injuries to Justin Verlander and José Urquidy — along with a failed late-spring pursuit of Blake Snell — are the only reason he even cracked Houston’s starting rotation.
Now, it seems impossible to remove him. Verlander made his first minor-league rehab start on Sunday at Triple-A Sugar Land, building his pitch count to 65 across three traffic-filled innings. He surrendered seven hits and six earned runs, but maintained his fastball velocity at 93.5 mph and exited the start feeling “physically great,” he told reporters.
Verlander will require at least one more rehab start before returning to the major-league rotation. If he adheres to a five-day schedule, he could make his season debut as early as April 17 against the Atlanta Braves at Minute Maid Park. Houston has four scheduled off days from April 18-29, removing any possibility of a six-man starting rotation.
Blanco profiled as an obvious odd man out once Verlander returned. Then, he started to pitch.
“Every time he steps on the mound, he wants it,” Espada said. “It’s an opportunity he’s getting and he’s making the best out of it.”
(Photo of Ronel Blanco: Jerome Miron / USA Today)
