Cecconi’s bid to end Guardians’ no-hitter drought cut short

CLEVELAND — Slade Cecconi didn’t need anyone in Cleveland’s dugout to tell him he was throwing a no-hitter. He found out on his own.

Stealing a glance at Progressive Field’s giant scoreboard in the fourth inning, Cecconi noticed something unusual.

“I was like, huh, a lot of zeros up there on our side,” he said.

He kept it like that for a while.

Cecconi took a no-hitter into the eighth before Kansas City’s Michael Massey hit a leadoff single to spoil the right-hander’s bid to throw the majors’ first no-hitter this season and finally end Cleveland’s four-plus-decades-long drought without a no-hitter.

But that hardly mattered as the Guardians rolled to their fourth straight win, 10-2, to jump the Royals in the standings.

Leaning on a slow curveball that manager Stephen Vogt said had surprising “teeth,” Cecconi dominated the Royals over the first seven innings before Massey lined a 2-1 fastball into left-center for Kansas City’s first hit.

“I didn’t even want to look,” Cecconi admitted.

After Massey’s hit dropped, the right-hander received a nice ovation, and Cecconi stepped off the mound, took off his cap and soaked in the roars.

Last No-HitterGuardians1981 Len BarkerBlue Jays1990 Dave StiebRoyals1991 Bret SaberhagenBraves1994 Kent MerckerRangers1994 Kenny Rogers

His performance came at an optimal time for the Guardians, who moved into second place ahead of the Royals in the AL Central. Cleveland entered the four-game series 2½ games behind Seattle for the final wild-card spot.

“Everybody in that locker room believes that we’re a playoff team and we’ve believed that since the day we showed up to spring,” said Cecconi, who was lifted after the eighth. “There’s not a guy in that locker room that doesn’t believe that we belong in October.”

Making his career-high 20th start and first against Kansas City, Cecconi, who was acquired in an offseason trade from Arizona, was in command from the outset. He needed just eight pitches to get through the first.

He got a big defensive stop from second baseman Brayan Rocchio in the fourth, and center fielder Daniel Schneemann raced into the gap to make a catch on the warning track in the third to keep Cecconi’s no-no intact.

Once he got through seven, Cecconi had gone further with a no-hitter at home than any Cleveland pitcher since 2019.

Cecconi couldn’t remember the last time he got so deep.

“I’d have to look back into high school to be honest with you, to really find another one,” he said. “I remember in college I had one. I think I went out for the fifth and took a line drive off the face that wasn’t fun, broke up the no-hitter.

“But I think this is definitely the furthest I’ve taken in a game in the big leagues by far.”

Cleveland has been here before.

The franchise hasn’t had a no-hitter since Len Barker’s perfect game in 1981. Its dry spell between no-hitters is the longest current one in MLB — and fourth longest of all time. It’s a shocking gap considering the franchise’s rich pitching history with five Cy Young Award winners over the past 44 years.

The Guardians had a close call earlier this season as Gavin Williams took a no-hitter into the ninth at New York before it was broken up by Juan Soto’s one-out homer.

“It’s certainly something that sticks out,” Cecconi said of Cleveland’s drought. “It’s an anomaly, especially because we’ve seen so many people come close. So many guys come through that have won Cy Youngs and done that and you got to look at the whole picture. You can’t just look at one little stat like that. And I’m sure somebody will. Shoot, I mean maybe tomorrow, who knows.”