Carlos Rodon
Carlos Rodon celebrates his no-hitter.
Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images
  • White Sox pitcher Carlos Rodon threw a no-hitter against the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday night.
  • Rodon had a perfect game going in the ninth inning but grazed the toe of Roberto Perez.
  • Rodon bounced back to get the last out he needed to save the no-no.
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Carlos Rodon was almost perfect on Wednesday night.

Through eight innings, Rodon faced 24 batters from the Cleveland Indians, and none of them got further than stepping up to home plate.

With the world watching, a tense ninth inning unfolded. The first scare came from Josh Naylor, who slapped a grounder to first base and sprinted out of the box. First baseman Jose Abreu made a play on the ball and dashed back to the base, kicking out his leg to barely beat out Naylor as he dove headfirst at the bag.

One down. Two to go.

Unfortunately for Rodon, he'd finish just shy of perfect. After getting up 0-2 in the count against Roberto Perez, Rodon threw a slider chasing for strike three. The pitch barely got away from him and grazed the toe of Perez. Had he been two shoe sizes smaller, the perfect game might have survived.

Alas, Cleveland had finally made it to first.

But Rodon was still chasing a no-hitter and recovered to write his name into the history books, throwing the 20th no-hitter in White Sox history.

Rodon's performance was as electric as the result was rare. As Jeremy Frank noted on Twitter, just six times since the turn of the 20th century have pitchers thrown a no-no with the only base-runner coming as a result of a hit-by-pitch.

Because baseball is a strange sport, it's happened twice in the past week.

Rodon wasn't perfect on Wednesday, but he sure was special.

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