CLEVELAND, Ohio — Slade Cecconi lost his bid for Cleveland baseball history in the eighth inning Monday after not allowing a hit through seven scoreless frames against the Kansas City Royals at Progressive Field.
Michael Massey lined a 2-1 fastball into left center field on Cecconi’s 95th pitch of the night. The outing represented Cecconi’s longest career no-hit bid.
It marked the second time this season a Guardians pitcher completed at least seven hitless innings, joining Gavin Williams on Aug. 6 against the Mets at Citi Field.
Cecconi was looking for the first Cleveland no-hitter since Len Barker’s perfect game on May 15, 1981, a span of 44 years and three months, or 16,187 days. That marks the longest current no-hitter drought in the majors.
Toronto has the second-longest dry spell with Dave Stieb’s gem on Sept. 2 1990 at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium.
Cecconi was helped by some outstanding defense early. Brayan Rocchio robbed Salvador Perez of a hit with a fine stop on a ground ball up the middle in the second that left the bat at 108 mph. Daniel Schneemann made a fine running catch in the left center field gap on a drive off the bat of Maikel Garcia to end the third.
Cleveland scored six runs in the fourth inning and built a 10-0 lead before Cecconi went out to start the eighth.
He was attempting to complete the 15th no-hitter in franchise history — and the first in the big leagues this season. Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto lost a no-hit bid with one out remaining in the ninth inning on Saturday when Jackson Holliday hit a solo home run. The game then snowballed into a 4-3 walk-off loss for the Dodgers.
Cleveland came close to ending its no-hitter drought last month when Williams held the Mets without a hit through 8 1/3 innings before surrendering a solo home run to Juan Soto in the ninth.
The following Cleveland pitchers have taken no-hit bids into the ninth inning since Barker’s perfect game:
- Williams (2025) at Mets, 8 1/3
- Carlos Carrasco (2015) at Tampa Bay, 8 2/3
- John Farrell (1989) vs. Kansas City, 8
- Bert Blyleven (1981) at Toronto, 8
- Dan Spillner (1980) at Chicago, 8 1/3
- Early Wynn (1954) at Detroit, 8
- Al Milnar (1942) vs Detroit, 8 2/3
- Monte Pearson (1933) vs Washington, 8
The club has had three combined no-hit bids broken up in the ninth.
Below is a list of Cleveland’s 14 no-hitters.
- Len Barker — May 15, 1981: Indians 3, Blue Jays 0 (Perfect game)
- Dennis Eckersley — May 30, 1977: Indians 1, Angels 0
- Dick Bosman — July 19, 1974: Indians 4, A’s 0
- Sonny Siebert — June 10, 1966: Indians 2, Senators 0
- Bob Feller — July 1, 1951: Indians 2, Tigers 1
- Bob Lemon — June 30, 1948: Indians 2, Tigers 0
- Don Black — July 10, 1947: Indians 3, A’s 0
- Bob Feller — April 30, 1946: Indians 1, Yankees 0
- Bob Feller — April 16, 1940: Indians 1, White Sox 0
- Wes Ferrell — April 29, 1931: Indians 9, Browns 0
- Ray Caldwell — Sept. 10, 1919: Indians 3, Yankees 0
- Addie Joss — April 20, 1910: Naps 1, White Sox 0
- Addie Joss — Oct. 2, 1908: Naps 1, White Sox 0 (Perfect game)
- Dusty Rhoads — Sept. 18, 1908: Naps 2, Red Sox 1
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.cleveland.com ’
