Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Gavin Williams was just two outs away from making history in his Aug. 7 outing against the New York Mets.
Williams nearly notched Cleveland’s first no-hitter in 44 years, but it wasn’t meant to be. Mets slugger Juan Soto crushed a solo homer to dead center field with one out in the ninth, wiping a possible complete game shutout off the table as well.
Williams made an appearance on the Foul Territory Show podcast to reflect on the outing and what he was thinking in real time.
“This dude wants me to keep going?” Williams said of getting encouragement from a fan as his pitch count continued to swell. It was then that he looked at the scoreboard and realized he had a no-hitter going.
“Dang, I’m cooking right now,” he said of the career-best outing.
Needless to say, Williams was committed to chasing history as manager Stephen Vogt kept his starter in the game well beyond 100 pitches.
“If it took me 150 pitches to try and get a no-hitter done, then that’s what I would have done,” Williams said.
When asked what pitches were working best for him against a star-studded Mets lineup, Williams noted his cutter and sinker. He said he was throwing the sinker to both lefties and righties, which he hadn’t made a habit of doing in the past.
Gavin Williams’ stats
Following the near no-no against the Mets, Williams is 7-4 with a 3.17 ERA across 23 starts. Williams’ biggest issue in 2025 has been his command. He’s walked a league-leading 66 batters across his 125 innings so far this season.
For his career, Williams is 13-19 with a 3.66 ERA across 55 starts at the time of writing.
A former first round pick in the 2021 MLB draft out of East Carolina University, the 6-foot-6 righty continues to try and harness that potential — and Guardians fans saw just what he’s capable of in that masterful outing against New York.
Williams is still just 25 years old, so perhaps the confidence he gained from the near no-no will springboard into more success for the Cleveland starter moving forward.