WATCH: Mets' Juan Soto breaks up would-be Guardians no-hitter with ninth-inning home run
Gavin Williams was two outs away from the first no-hitter of the 2025 season
By
Dayn Perry
•
2 min read
Gavin Williams of the Cleveland Guardians on Wednesday was two outs from throwing the first no-hitter of the 2025 Major League Baseball season, but New York Mets slugger Juan Soto was not in a cooperative mood.
With one out in the ninth and the Mets trailing 4-0, Soto got a 1-0 fastball from Williams, and he didn't miss:
That's not mistake-territory location, especially for a 97 mph fastball, but Soto is more than capable of doing damage on anything in the zone. In this instance, he sent it 420 feet to center. Despite appearances from the angle above, Guardians center fielder Angel Martínez was not particularly close to getting a glove on Soto's blast. Per Statcast estimates, Soto's drive would have been a home run in 28 of 30 MLB ballparks.The home run was Soto's 26th of the season.
Thus ended the longest no-hit bid of the 2025 season at 8 ⅓ innings. Had it been completed, Wednesday's bid would have been the first no-hitter in the majors since Shota Imanaga and a pair of Cubs relievers no-hit the Pirates on Sept. 4 of last year. It also would have been the Guardians' first no-hitter since Len Barker's perfect game on May 15, 1981. That remains the longest active no-hitter drought for any MLB franchise.
On the Mets' side of things, they still haven't been no-hit since Max Scherzer of the Nationals did so on Oct. 3, 2015. In September of last year, the Mets broke up another ninth-inning no-hitter when Francisco Lindor homered off Bowden Francis of the Blue Jays.
In addition to picking up the win in Cleveland's 4-1 victory over the Mets, Williams can also take pride in having twirled a workhorse's gem. After the Soto homer, he retired Pete Alonso on a fly ball, but a walk to Brandon Nimmo ended his day one out from his first career complete game. His final line for the day:
Those 126 pitches are the most thrown by any pitcher this season. Williams' ERA for the season now stands at 3.17 after 23 starts.
For Cleveland, the win was a critical one. Not only did they complete the sweep of the Mets with Wednesday's win, but they also are now only one game behind the Yankees for the third and final wild card spot in the American League. The Guardians are now 5-1 since undertaking a bit of a sell-off leading up to the recent trade deadline.
For the Mets, the loss leaves them 2 ½ games behind the Phillies in the National League East race. They presently occupy the third and final wild card spot in the NL.
