Houston Astros pitcher Ronel Blanco has been suspended 10 games for using an illegal substance on the mound. He will not appeal the decision.

Blanco was caught with a sticky substance in his glove before the fourth inning of Houston’s game Tuesday against the Athletics. He was ejected after umpires ruled that the substance was explicitly illegal.

“I felt something inside the glove,” umpire Erich Bacchus said after the game. “It was the stickiest stuff I’ve felt on a glove since we’ve been doing this for a few years now.”

Blanco claims that he did not know it was against the rules to use rosin on his non-dominant hand and admitted to putting some on his forearm. He claims that his sweat could have transmitted some of the rosin to his glove, resulting in the failed inspection. This conflicts the report given by umpires, who ruled out rosin in the moment.  

After some consideration with his agent, Blanco eventually decided not to contest MLB’s decision. Astros general manager Dana Brown vouched for the pitcher after the ruling was announced.

“Ronel Blanco is a good human being, he’s a good dude, and he’s worked his butt off to get into the starting rotation,” Brown said. “I think he sees it as ‘Look, I don’t want to extend this any longer. I want to get back to the business of pitching.’”

Blanco has been lights-out early in his third MLB season, earning a 4-0 record and 2.09 ERA through eight starts. The shining jewel in his young career came in early April, when he threw a no-hitter in his eighth career start. He has been a bright spot in an otherwise disappointing Astros season, as the perennial World Series contenders are currently 18-25, fourth in the A.L. West division.

Blanco’s suspension began Wednesday night and should result in two missed starts, which could give Houston short-term rotation problems. He will be available to pitch again in late May.

Last Monday, pitcher Ronel Blanco of the Houston Astros threw the first no-hitter of the new MLB season in a 10-0 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.

With four Astros pitchers unavailable due to injury, Blanco was allowed to start just his eighth-ever MLB game, and he seized the moment.

According to Astros statistics, Blanco threw 105 pitches, including 36 changeups, 34 sliders, 31 fastballs and four curveballs. He struck out seven batters and forced 59 swings and 20 misses, half of which came on his changeup pitch.

Throwing a no-hitter – where you give up zero hits pitching an entire game of baseball – is one of the most outstanding achievements in baseball. MLB hitters are getting better by the day, and no-hitters are becoming increasingly rare, especially as MLB teams constantly add depth to their bullpens. In 2022 and 2023, only eight no-hitters were pitched in total, four each year.

This is the first no-hitter an Astros pitcher has thrown since Michael Lorenzen threw one for the Philadelphia Phillies in August 2023. Framber Valdez, also in August 2023, was the most recent pitcher to do so before Lorenzen. Only 323 no-hitters have been thrown in MLB history since 1876.

Blanco will join an elite, unique list of MLB pitchers, but he’ll likely be happier about becoming a fundamental part of the Astro’s pitching rotation. Blanco earned another start on Sunday and hadn’t given up a hit until the sixth inning. Some of his teammates thought he would become the second pitcher in MLB history to throw back-to-back no-hitters, but he was unlikely to last the whole game. Blanco was taken out in the sixth inning as he gave up one hit approaching 90 pitches. Nevertheless, he earned another win, leading the Astros to a 3-1 victory over the defending World Series champions, the Texas Rangers.

The Astros are now 4-8 on the season and will expect another strong performance in Blanco’s next start.