CLEVELAND — Parker Messick took a no-hitter into the ninth inning, Jose Ramirez homered for the third time in four games and the Cleveland Guardians opened a seven-game homestand with a 4-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday night.
Messick, 25, was bidding to complete the first no-hitter in the majors since Sept. 4, 2024, when Shota Imanaga and two Chicago Cubs relievers combined to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 12-0 at Wrigley Field.
Making his 11th major league start, Messick (3-0) faced one batter more than the minimum through eight innings before Leody Taveras led off the ninth with a grounder that just eluded diving second baseman Juan Brito and went into right field for a single.
Blaze Alexander followed with a line-drive single to center before the rookie left-hander was removed to a standing ovation from the crowd of 14,748.
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Taylor Ward’s single off closer Cade Smith loaded the bases, and Gunnar Henderson’s sacrifice fly drove in Taveras. Pete Alonso hit an RBI double that put runners at second and third with one out.
Smith then retired pinch hitter Colton Cowser on a fly to center and Samuel Basallo on a grounder for his fourth save.
“I mean, it sucks, but it’s baseball,” Messick said. “It might happen for me one day, if the Lord wills. I’ll have plenty more years to pitch some baseball games, so, you know, it might happen again, so my only thought is just lock back in and get the next guy out.”
Messick walked two and equaled a career best with nine strikeouts. He was charged with two runs in eight-plus innings, his longest outing in the majors. He threw 112 pitches, 78 for strikes.
“That was very special what we got to watch tonight,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “That’s an unbelievably talented lineup that he took a no-hitter into the ninth against. Just continued to attack, continued to give them different looks throughout the whole game.”
Cleveland has the longest current gap between no-hitters. The team’s last one was Len Barker’s perfect game May 15, 1981, against the Toronto Blue Jays, a span of 7,055 days that represents the fourth-longest no-hitter drought in MLB history.
Thursday marked the franchise’s sixth straight failed no-hit bid after reaching the ninth inning, tied for the second-longest streak by a team in the Expansion Era (since 1961), trailing only the Boston Red Sox’s nine straight between Dave Morehead’s no-hitter in 1965 and Hideo Nomo’s no-hitter in 2001.
Chase DeLauter walked in the first, and Ramírez drove a first-pitch fastball from Shane Baz (0-2) into the right-center stands to give Cleveland a 2-0 lead.
Steven Kwan hit an RBI single in the fifth, and George Valera added a run-scoring single in the sixth.
Information from The Associated Press and ESPN Research was used in this report.
