Carlos Rodón No-Hits Cleveland

Carlos Rodón threw the 20th no-hitter in White Sox history on Wednesday night, beating Cleveland, 8-0.

The win was hardly in doubt, after a six-run outburst in the first inning that was highlighted by a mammoth Yermín Mercedes home run.

Rodón came within two outs of a perfect game, before Roberto Pérez took an 0-2 slider off of his toe for a HBP.

Rodón hit Pérez with some gallows humor as the catcher trotted to first, wondering why he couldn’t get out of the way of that one pitch that separated him from a perfect game.

But Rodón battled back to strike out Yu Chang (benefiting from an inside third strike call from home plate ump Doug Eddings, who just can’t avoid being part of White Sox history) and a full-count changeup to Jordan Luplow that made Rodón immortal:

After the pitch, you can hear Rodón yelling to Yoán Moncada, GET THERE, and Moncada did, turning a routine grounder into history.

Rodón had 19 swings-and-misses in the game, of 114 pitches. He hit a game-high 99 mph on his 110th pitch, so he was amped.

After the game, on the field, Rodón spoke with the TV booth:

“What’s up? What just happened? I can’t believe it, I can’t.”

When Jason Benetti asked what Carlos would have told him if Jason had predicted a no-hitter for him a year ago, Rodón was succinct, with a smile: “I would have told you to take a hike.”

Bill Meincke will have the full recap published later, and Jeremy Karll will provide the Six Pack. Stay tuned for a special postgame podcast with SSS staff as well.