What Would Harry Doyle Say? Hitless Indians Leave Us Guessing

For the 12th time in franchise history, the Cleveland Indians were no-hit Wednesday against Chicago White Sox southpaw Carlos Rodon. Rodon, who is 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA in 14 innings on the year, claimed the 20th no-hitter in the history of the White Sox franchise. 

Rodon was well on his way to a perfect game with no walks or hits given up in the top of the ninth with one out. However, he hit Indians catcher Roberto Perez in the foot, ending his perfect game bid, which would have been the first in the MLB since August 15th, 2012. 

The Indians knew they had their work cut out for them when starting pitcher Zach Plesac surrendered 6 earned runs in only the first inning before being pulled. Rodon, able to pitch behind a big lead, was comfortable and locked in on the mound. Rodon recorded 12 outs with his four-seamer, which reached 99mph, eight with his slider, and seven with his changeup, all on 114 total pitches on the night. 

The bats of the Cleveland Indians have been silent all series long, as they only had two hits and zero runs in 7 innings vs White Sox starting pitcher Lucas Giolito on Tuesday. They were still able to pull out a win in the 10th, scoring 2, but that required a Shane Beiber shutout. The Indians did not have that luxury on Wednesday. 

The team is hitting only .195 on the year, which is 2nd worst within the MLB. Their on-base percentage is not much better, at 3rd worst within the MLB. They have only scored 40 runs in 11 games, where 20 of those runs were from 2 games vs the inadequate Detroit Tigers pitching staff. Taking those out, they have scored 20 runs in 9 games, which is 2.22 runs a game. With the Indians pitching staff ERA of 3.08, which is good at 7th in the league, it is still not great enough to consistently win games behind this poor offense.