Another insane detail from Ronel Blanco no-hitter benefits Astros manager Joe Espada

Well I guess that's one way to end a four-game losing streak to start the season. Just a day after Astros manager Joe Espada faced criticism for blaming luck for his team's season-opening sweep at the hands of the Yankees, Houston turned things around in a big way, beating the Blue Jays 10-0 behind a no-hitter from Ronel Blanco.

You'd be forgiven if you'd never heard of Blanco, the 30-year-old Dominican righty, before Monday night's gem. The pitcher has been in the Astros system since 2016, and only made his major league debut in 2022. Monday's game was only his eighth start and third win in the big leagues, and he only got the call in the first place because Justin Verlander and three other Houston pitchers are on the injured list. FanSided's Zachary Rotman laid out some of the amazing details of one of the unlikeliest no-hitters in recent memory.

Ronel Blanco's no-hitter had extra meaning for Astros manager Joe Espada

Blanco's no-no occurred on April 1, but it was no April Fool's joke to a team desperate for a win after a rough start to the season. Besides Blanco himself, who had years of hard work in the minor leagues validated by a single magical night, the win may have been most important to Espada, who has the unenviable task of following future Hall-of-Famer Dusty Baker.

Espada is well known to Astros fans, as he was the team's bench coach for six years under Baker and previous manager AJ Hinch before being promoted this past offseason. Succeeding two World Series-winning managers is a difficult task, though, and while losing four games to start a 162-game season isn't yet cause for hitting the panic button, Astros fans, who have become very accustomed to winning in recent years, were understandably concerned with the team's poor start.

Even though the Astros have somehow become MLB's no-hit kings (the five they've thrown over the past five seasons is the most by a team in any five-year span in MLB history, per OptaSTATS), they still made history by giving his Espada his first major league win in such spectacular fashion.

Ronel Blanco's no-hitter helped Joe Espada make history

There are few things in life guaranteed to always take a good thing and make it even better, but a Sarah Langs tweet is one of them. There have now been 323 no-hitters in MLB history, but as Langs points out, this is the first time one gave a manager either his first career win, or his first win with a new team.

Espada's record joins Johnny Vander Meer's back-to-back no-hitters and Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hit streak as baseball feats we may never see again. The bad news? With 157 games to go, it's probably all downhill from here. Something tells me that Espada and the Astros will be just fine, though, whether they toss any more no-hitters this year or not.