From a dream to reality: The historic night of Pavel Hernández
Before preparing to wind up his 122nd pitch of Tuesday night at the Latinoamericano stadium, Pavel Hernández signaled to his catcher Oscar Valdés.
Hernández framed the strike zone, announcing that he would challenge his opponent again. He placed the glove on his chest, to prepare her grip on his lethal weapon. The next pitch was another fastball, and Yordan Manduley hit a weak grounder to shortstop.
History was written: Pavel Hernández achieved the No-hitter in the 7-0 success against the Holguín Cubs, ending a dominant night where he exhibited the brilliance of the ace that Industriales' starting rotation needs in this 63rd National Series of the Cuban baseball. When shortstop Ángel Alfredo Hechevarría fielded Manduley's grounder and threw the ball toward first base, Pavel's emotion was uncontrollable.
The first reaction of the 6'5'' tall giant was to take a leonine leap in front of the mound, and then hug his battery mate, catcher Oscar Valdés. But that was just the beginning of the celebration around the mound, where all the players and coaches of the Industriales team went to congratulate Pavel Hernández.
That affection from his teammates will be recorded in the history of No-hitter number 66 in the National Series, as will the name of Pavel Hernández among the honorable club of the six pitchers who have signed the feat wearing the Industriales uniform:
1. Jesus Perez
Stadium: J. Diaz, Artemisa, Sunday, January 7, 1968: Industriales 5, Vegueros 0
2. Andrés Liaño
Stadium: Latinoamericano, Tuesday, February 4, 1969: Industriales 8, Pinar del Río 0
3. Rigoberto Betancourt
Stadium: Latinoamericano, Wednesday, January 7, 1970: Industriales 1, Oriente 0
4. Ángel Leocadio Díaz
Stadium: Latinoamericano, Saturday, January 16, 1982: Industriales 2, Holguín 0
5. David Mena
Stadium: Augusto César Sandino, Tuesday, September 19, 2017: Industriales 2, Villa Clara 0
6. Pavel Hernández
Stadium: Latinoamericano, Tuesday, May 7, 2024: Industriales 7, Holguín 0
There are two interesting stories to highlight here. The first: as you can see, it had been 42 years since an Industriales pitcher had not achieved a No-hitter pitching in the Latinoamericano stadium. Before Hernández, it had been Ángel Leocadio Díaz, and coincidentally he also beat a team from Holguín. However, the No-hitter announcement was not made official that Saturday, January 16, 1982. What was the reason? A day later, the Official Scorer considered that the only hit was undeserved, and charged an error to the Blues' third baseman, Rolando Verde.
The second of the strange but true cases was the No-hitter of right-hander David Mena, who pitched just five innings in the 2-0 victory against Villa Clara. Industriales came out ahead on the scoreboard and the weather conditions prevented the game from extending beyond the fifth inning. I remember I wrote a column about my opinion regarding recording No-hitter with less than nine innings. I was one of those who categorically opposed it. I still think mistakes like that should be rectified for obvious reasons: 15 outs is only 56% of a true No-hitter of at least 27 outs. The files remain identical. In fact, only four of the last 10 No-hitters have been validated with nine innings, including Pavel Hernández's dominant hit last night against the Holguín Cubs. Let's hope that the statisticians of the National Series reflect on all this and finally there are corrections.
When I think about a five-inning No-hitter, it is inevitable to remember every game I saw where Industriales pitchers were close to perfection. It happened to Deynis Suárez twice. First in 2005 against Holguín at the Latinoamericano stadium, and two years later challenging the Granma lineup at the Mártires de Barbados stadium. Oscar Del Rosario and Luis Ferrales, respectively, ended up as the protagonists who broke the spell. Something similar happened to Yamel Guevara in 2003, when he conceded a triple by Marino Luis at the Cándido González stadium.
Left-hander Arleys Sánchez still wonders how Yoquel Gil's swing hit the single that changed the epilogue of an almost perfect afternoon on the mound at the Santiago “Changa” Mederos stadium. Arleys also bordered on perfection that afternoon in 2005 against Metropolitanos. Five years later, history was repeated against Arleys: one out from the No-hitter, Leonys Martín reached base with a bounce single through the center of the infield.
If there's one outcome that's hard to predict in baseball, it's probably No-hitters. It is true that Pavel Hernández faced the worst lineup in the league this Tuesday in batting average (.253), slugging (.336), OPS (.690) and home run rate (0.8%), but leaving a team hitless It constitutes one of the most difficult collective feats in baseball. Just think for a moment: the pitcher needs to get 27 outs, and have efficient support from the offense and defense.
One of the main keys to achieving a No-hitter is for the pitcher to limit the balls put into play. During Tuesday night, Pavel Hernández struck out eight opponents, so he needed a defensive support of 19 outs. A crucial point in his favor was that the Cubs hitters hit 13 ground balls, one of the main negative trends on offense. In the entire game, they hit only four fly balls to the outfield and three to the infield.
From the beginning of the game, Pavel Hernández's fastball was an almost impossible task for the Cubs to solve. After facing the lineup for the first time, Hernández had half of his eight strikeouts. Four of them were in a row, and three ended with a slider zigzagging toward the corners of the strike zone.
Edilse Silva struck out against a 90 mph fastball to deliver the third out of the first inning. Hernández retired the second inning with three strikeouts, generating swings and misses with the slider against rookie Juan Christian Onofre, Nelson Batista and Edward Magaña. At the beginning of the third inning, the Cubs returned to the fray, trying to get on base using their speed, but Pavel neutralized them.
Obviously, after nine consecutive outs the omens of a No-hitter are still far away. However, I think Pavel's pitch mix began to cause concern when he finished the fourth inning by striking out sluggers Yasiel Andy González and 43-year-old veteran Edilse Silva. Yasiel's matchup case has a similar background, as he entered the game 0-for-8 with three strikeouts in his matchups against Pavel Hernández. Instead, Silva stood out as the most consistent hitter, hitting 3-for-5. Before the game, if we removed the impact of Silva against Pavel, the current Holguín lineup would have lowered its batting average from .229 to .167.
Without a doubt, Pavel Hernández focused on each opponent, but limiting the Cubs' poor power was key on the way to his pitching gem that ended in a historic No-hitter. After Pavel recorded his first 12 outs without allowing a hit, Onofre reached base on an error by third baseman Roberto Álvarez starting the fifth inning. A force out, followed by a wild pitch, seemed to give oxygen to the Cubs, who put their first runner in scoring position. And, well, what happened then? Total Neutralization: Pavel dominated the next 14 opponents in a row. He struck out two more batters, getting the extra in the top of the eighth, and retired the ninth generating three ground balls into the infield.
The fastballs resonated with catcher Oscar Valdés' glove, and the Cubs couldn't successfully hit the sliders of Pavel Hernández, who recorded a 68% strike rate on his 122 pitches.
This time, Pavel could not complain about the pitch trip with enough offensive support from the team: Industriales scored a pair of two-run rallies in the first two innings, added one in the fifth and two in the sixth. Every starter in the lineup, with the exception of second baseman Alfredo Rodríguez, had at least one hit. The duo Oscar Valdés (3) and rookie Roque Tomás (2) led the offensive production, although the team left 14 runners on base, and did not take advantage to extend the lead to 7-0.
Either way, Valdés' two-run RBI single against rookie José Manuel Rivas would have been enough for a decisive lead from the first inning of the game. You already know the reason: it was Pavel Hernández's night, and the path to No-hitter in an instant stopped being a dream and became a reality.