Ronel Blanco lived up to his name, turning in the young season’s first no-hit game as the Astros romped 10-0 over Toronto. Blanco walked the first batter of the game and the next-to-last (both former Astro George Springer) but retired everyone else, as no Blue Jay reached second base. It was the 13th no-hit game by an Astro pitcher (11th at home), and the second time Houston has no-hit Toronto. More after the jump.

Blanco is the 10th pitcher from the Dominican Republic to pitch a no-hitter, and the third within a year, after teammate Framber Valdez last August and Domingo German‘s perfecto last June. Blanco becomes the 10th pitcher with a no-hit game in his season debut, including fellow Astro Ken Forsch in 1979. Blanco is also the 10th pitcher with a no-hit game in his team’s first 5 games of the season, including Jack Morris (1984) and Addie Joss (1910), in their second starts of those seasons.

Blanco’s no-no gives the Astros their first win of the season. That’s happened only three other times, most notably in 1940 when Bob Feller blanked the White Sox on opening day. Blanco’s gem comes in his 25th career game (8th start), the 26th pitcher with a no-hitter that early in his career, and the oldest of that group at 30 years, 214 days.

Some random observations on the new season.

• As of this writing, road teams have held the upper hand, winning 34 of 55 games (a nifty .618 clip) for the month of March. That winning percentage for visiting teams is the highest since 1970, when the away team posted a .633 mark through the first four team games of the season. Better road winning percentages to start the season (first 4 team games) happened only in 1937 and 1928 (.667), and in 1913 (.656). The Pirates and Yankees led the road warriors, sweeping the Marlins and Astros respectively. They are the 38th and 39th teams since 1901 to open the season with four road games and win all of them. They are also the only franchises to do so on four occasions, with the Bucs also posting that result in 1903, 1983 and 2003, and the Bronxmen doing likewise in 1911, 1928 and 2003.

• Luis Arraez went 0 for 6, one AB shy of the worst opening day oh-fer. He is the first defending batting champion to start the season that way. But, he has good company, with 10 HOFers and Mike Trout among the 66 players with an 0 for 6 or worse OD game. The HOF contingent includes Luis Aparicio, one of six players sharing the OD record 0 for 7 mark. Arraez is the fifth league batting champion (at any point in a career) to record an 0 for 6 on opening day, including George Brett who claimed the 1990 AL batting crown despite that inauspicious start. (Quiz: which player began an MVP season with an 0 for 6 on opening day?)

• Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Nick Martini drove in 5 runs, the 62nd and 63rd times a player has posted a 5+ RBI game on opening day, including 31 times in the past 30 seasons. (Quiz: who is the only player with two such games?) Gurriel becomes just the 3rd player to do so for a defending league champion, joining Yogi Berra (1956 Yankees) and Placido Polanco (2010 Phillies). Gurriel’s D-Backs smoked the Rockies 16-1; the only larger opening day winning margin was in 1955 when the Yankees pummeled the Senators 19-1 (a game attended by our own Richard Chester).

• Corbin Burnes, in his Oriole debut, allowed one hit and no walks to claim the victory over the Angels. He is the just the 3rd starting pitcher to win such a game on opening day, following John Means (2021) and Irv Young (1906), the latter a CG shutout. Burnes joins Johnny Cueto (2008) as the only pitchers to win a 1 hit, 0 walk, 10+ K start in a debut game for a new franchise.