Last Night in Baseball: A Near No-No For Guardians Thriving Rookie

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A near no-no for the Guardians

Cleveland has had baseball long enough to have multiple no-hitters in its history — 14 of them, in fact — but the last one came all the way back in 1981. To give you some perspective on how long ago that was, it’s three years before the Guardians’ manager, Stephen Vogt, was born. And hell, Vogt was born 10 years before FOX Sports was first founded. It’s been a while, is the thing.

On Thursday, the Guardians had a chance at their first no-no in 45 years, when rookie starter Parker Messick got through eight no-hit innings against the Orioles. It was just the 11th start of his career, as he made seven of them in 2025 without losing his rookie eligibility, and Thursday was his fourth of the current season. He has shined throughout his brief time in the majors — his combined ERA through his first 65.1 innings in the bigs is 2.07 — but has never been better than on Thursday.

Messick tied a career-high with nine strikeouts, walked two and didn’t allow a hit through the first eight innings against Baltimore. He would enter the ninth inning already at 106 pitches — his first time over 100 in the majors, and also the first time he pitched into the eighth or ninth — and give up a hit on the first pitch of that frame to center fielder Leody Taveras.

The Guardians kept Messick in the game at first, to pitch to shortstop Blaze Alexander and see if he could get out of this with a complete game, at least, but another single followed, and he was pulled. While Messick was charged with two runs on the day, those came about because the runners he bequeathed to closer Cade Smith both scored.

Cleveland did not end up breaking the no-hitter drought, but on the bright side: Parker Messick. He’s been pitching like the kind of shutdown starter the Guardians — which are not exactly an offense-first team — need if they are going to thrive in the AL Central. That’s not nothing.

Messick had help in securing the 4-2 W, most notably from star third baseman Jose Ramirez. Ramirez had a great catch in foul territory where he somehow managed to hold on to a ball that he snowconed while coming up against the wall…

…and he was also responsible for the first two runs of the day for the Guardians, when he belted a middle-middle 96 mph four-seamer over the fence in right-center field in the bottom of the first inning.

That’s 289 career homers for Ramirez now, who looks likely to become the ninth-ever player with 300 home runs and 300 steals at some point this summer.

Padres sweep Mariners for eighth-straight W

The Padres barely put up a fight for last year’s inaugural Vedder Cup between San Diego and the Seattle Mariners, but things are going very differently in 2026. The Padres won on Thursday, 5-2, sweeping the M’s and ensuring that the best result Seattle can get here is a season split with San Diego.

A four-run second inning did the job for the Padres. First baseman Gavin Sheets hit a one-out double, which was followed by back-to-back singles from DH Miguel Andujar and catcher Luis Campusano. Second baseman Jake Cronenworth would then reach on a fielding error to load the bases, which allowed a ground out by left fielder Ramon Laureano to score another run. Right fielder Fernando Tatis would then hit a two-run single to make it 4-0, and while the Padres didn’t need another run for the dub, they got it in the seventh on an RBI single by third baseman Manny Machado.

Mason Miller came in for the save and struck out the side to give San Diego its eighth-straight victory.

Miller is on an absurd run at the moment: he now holds the second-longest scoreless streak in Padres’ history, as he passed Randy Jones in this outing and is now at 30.2 innings without allowing a run. (The Padres are wearing patches to honor Jones this season, as died in November at the age of 75.) Cla Meredith’s franchise record is 33.2 innings.

Oh, and Miller is getting there by being dominant in a way that has literally never happened before.

Miller has pitched in nine games and thrown 9.1 innings. He has 23 strikeouts against two (2!) baserunners. The last time he gave up a run in a Padres’ uniform was Aug. 5, 2025, in his second appearance with the team: he struck out 42 batters with nine walks, four hits and no runs allowed for the rest of the regular season.

Caminero’s timely homer, for his mom

Junior Caminero bashed 45 homers in 2025, so his going yard in 2026 isn’t exactly a shocker. However, the Rays’ third baseman promised his mother that he would hit a homer for her on her birthday, and like a good, devoted son, he delivered.

This wasn’t just some random homer for mom, though. The Rays were down 3-2 to the White Sox in the ninth inning on the road when Caminero strode to the plate to leadoff the inning against new pitcher, Chicago closer Seranthony Dominguez. Dominguez missed with his first three offerings, and Caminero watched a 3-0 sinker up in the zone for strike one. Next came another 98-mph sinker, this time inside as it broke across the plate and right into the path of Caminero’s bat instead of underneath it. It barely made it over the wall, but it got out in a hurry and counts all the same.

Tampa Bay would end up plating three runs that inning, and the White Sox couldn’t muster a response in the bottom of the frame. The White Sox are now just 6-13, while the 11-7 Rays are winners of six in a row and atop the AL East. 

Angels rout Yankees as Trout makes history

Angels’ star center fielder Mike Trout was in position to make history against the Yankees on the road on Thursday — all he needed was one home run, and a couple of best-ever accolades would come his way. New York starter Max Fried pitched him carefully for most of the game, walking him twice early, putting Trout’s ability to hit a home run for the fourth-straight game — and his fifth in four days — into question for most of the series-concluding matchup.

Then, the seventh inning came, and reliever Angel Chivilli was on the mound instead. He threw one too many pitches in the strike zone, and did not fool Trout with an 89.7 mph changeup low in the zone following a much quicker slider in the same place a pitch before. The result? Explosive.

Trout didn’t just hit a homer. He drove that pitch 446 feet to deep left-center field, with an exit velocity of nearly 115 mph. He crushed that changeup, and put the Angels up 7-4 in the process. With this dinger, Trout became the first-ever opposing player at Yankee Stadium — any version — to hit a home run in four-straight games, and as it was his fifth of the series as well, he tied the all-time lead for home runs by a visiting player in a series against the Yankees, joining George Bell (1990), Darrell Evans (1985) Hall of Fame slugger Jimmie Foxx (1933).

Not wanting Trout to become the first-ever player to hit six long balls in a series against them, the Yankees then walked the red-hot slugger the next time up. It worked, sort of: the Yankees avoided another dinger from Trout himself, but that walk loaded the bases for right fielder Jo Adell, who hit a grand slam instead to get the game to its final score of 11-4.

The dinger after an intentional walk; there’s nothing quite as satisfying. 

The Yankees lost, but: Aaron Judge

Mike Trout obviously deserves attention for a series by a visiting player unlike any that has come before at Yankee Stadium, but living in his shadow a bit was the Yankees’ own star slugger, Aaron Judge. Judge went deep again on Thursday, too, giving him four home runs during the series.

That also ties Judge with Cardinals’ outfielder Jordan Walker for the MLB lead, while putting him atop the American League — one ahead of Trout. Both had a bit of a slow start to the season, but Trout is now up to .246/.416/594 with seven dingers, and Judge is at .236/.321/.597 with eight, so, safe to say they seem to be coming out of their respective early funks.

Brewers bunt three times in a row, win

The Blue Jays and Brewers were both having trouble scoring runs on Thursday, with the game still tied up at 1-1 in the bottom of the seventh. So, Milwaukee decided that playing for one run wasn’t so bad when a single run might end up being all that was needed to win. They took this concept to the extreme, and bunted in three consecutive plate appearances.

Garrett Mitchell pinch-hit and drew a walk to start the inning, and then the bunting began. Outfielder Greg Jones was out on a sacrifice bunt to move Mitchell over, and that was followed by a bunt for a hit from third baseman David Hamilton when the throw to first took Kazuma Okamoto off the bag. Milwaukee decided to roll the dice a third time, having shortstop Joey Ortiz attempt to bunt Mitchell home from third, and while Ortiz ended up out, the damage was done; the Brewers now led, 2-1.

And that would end up being the final score. Hey, when you play for one run, that’s all you’ll get, but sometimes one run is enough.

Oneil Cruz has your hardest hit of 2026

Not a home run, no, but Pirates’ center fielder Oneil Cruz tattooed this ball all the same. That’s an exit velocity of 119 mph for Cruz on this double off of Nationals’ lefty Foster Griffin.

Cruz is no stranger to hitting baseballs very hard, but it is still funny that Cruz’s earlier hit, a single to center, came off the bat at "just" 94 mph. Guess he had to course correct a bit, and did he ever.

Tigers walk it off for sixth-straight win

What a game between the Tigers and Royals. It took a late rally for Detroit to come out ahead and notch their sixth-straight W, but they got there in the end. It took until the middle of the game for the scoring to truly get going, too, as it was just 2-1 Tigers through four innings, but then everything opened up. Detroit scored four runs in the fifth to extend the lead to 6-1, but then catcher Salvador Perez hit a sac fly to cut into the lead slightly, and a huge sixth inning put Kansas City ahead, thanks to a six-run effort.

The Tigers clawed back a run in the seventh, but things could have gone better than that for Detroit, if not for this incredible sliding catch out in right-center field by Kyle Isbel.

He had to consider not just his own place in the outfield relative to the wall, but also his incoming teammate, right fielder Jac Caglianone, who was also speeding to the fence to make the grab. The only way to make it work without incident was by sliding, and Isbel pulled it off — luckily, Calgianone knew enough to hop up against the wall to avoid running right into Isbel as he was defenseless on the ground.

On top of this bit of run prevention, the Royals got the one they did give up back in the top of the ninth to make it 9-7, Kansas City, with three outs to go for Detroit. This was not an insurmountable lead: Royals’ closer Lucas Erceg came in for the save, but instead, he allowed a leadoff single to second baseman Gleyber Torres and a walk (after an ABS challenge) to rookie infielder Kevin McGonigle. It looked like Erceg might escape trouble after getting the next two batters out, but left fielder Riley Greene doubled in both Torres and McGonigle, and suddenly it was tied up 9-9.

Third baseman Colt Keith, who entered the game earlier as a pinch-hitter, got an 89.8 mph changeup middle-middle from Erceg, and was not fooled. He laced it through the hole in the right side of the infield, and Greene came around to score the winning run.

The Tigers were in real trouble for a bit very recently, but have turned things around from a 4-9 start to now be 10-9. Meanwhile, the Royals just made getting back to .500 or better more difficult thanks to Detroit getting the brooms out. But hey, it’s early on both fronts: Detroit was a mess a week ago, and now they’re surging!