Do Cristian Javier’s parents have any stock tips? Recommendations for Powerball numbers? I mean, they announced to their son Tuesday night that he was going to throw a no-hitter in Game 4 of the World Series. Javier’s mother, Trinidad Mieses, and father, Cecilio, missed one small detail — that it would be a combined effort. But let’s not nitpick an otherwise accurate prediction of only the second no-hitter in the 118-year history of the World Series.
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Javier, who pitched the first six, breathtaking innings, told me of his parents’ declaration in response to the first question I asked him in our postgame interview on FOX: “When did you know the night would be special?” With Astros interpreter Jenloy Herrera translating from Spanish, Javier concluded his answer by saying, “My parents told me I was going to throw a no-hitter. Thanks to God I was able to accomplish that.”
“They told you that you were going to throw a no-hitter?” I asked.
“They told me last night,” Javier replied.
“And what did you say?” I continued, fairly certain that Don Larsen’s parents did not make such a pronouncement in 1956.
“That we’re going to stay positive, with God helping us, we can do it,” Javier said.
Cristian Javier's parents told him today that he'd throw a no-hitter…@Ken_Rosenthal spoke with the @astros Game 4 starter who just helped his team do just that. pic.twitter.com/Fjtv3bQOvG
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) November 3, 2022
He made it sound simple. His accomplishment was monumental. And for Javier, a native of the Dominican Republic, the joy ran particularly deep. He said his mother had seen him pitch in the U.S. previously, but Wednesday night’s game was the first time his father attended one of his major-league games.
Oh, the stories Cecilio will tell.
Javier and relievers Bryan Abreu, Rafael Montero and Ryan Pressly combined for a 5-0 victory against a Phillies team that one night before set a Series record by hitting five home runs off one pitcher, Astros righty Lance McCullers Jr. The Phillies had been 6-0 at Citizens Bank Park in the postseason, outscoring opponents 42-15. Another victory in Game 4 would have put them ahead in the series, three games to one.
If Javier, 25, wasn’t quite pitching to save the Astros’ season, he was attempting the closest thing to it, and in front of a decidedly hostile crowd. Yet for all anyone knew from Javier’s demeanor, he was back home in the Dominican Republic, playing catch.
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He smothered the Phillies with his deceptive four-seam “Invisiball”, striking out nine, walking two. The series, tied at two games each, is assured of returning to Houston for at least Game 6 and possibly Game 7. All because of a kid the Astros signed a week before his 18th birthday in 2015, for the grand sum of $10,000.
After Javier needed only 12 pitches to strike out the Phillies’ 3-4-5 hitters, J.T. Realmuto, Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos in the fourth inning, I received a text from Rays manager Kevin Cash.
“He is ridiculous,” Cash wrote. “Maybe the best pitcher on both rosters.”
Think about that for a moment. Cash was saying Javier might be better than the Phillies’ Zack Wheeler, who finished second in the 2021 NL Cy Young voting, and Aaron Nola, who finished third in 2018. He also was saying Javier might be better than the Astros’ Justin Verlander, the AL Cy Young favorite, and Framber Valdez, who set a major-league record during the regular season with 25 consecutive quality starts.
Cash’s assessment, though, is not the least bit outlandish. Since Sept. 7, Javier has allowed one run, a solo homer by the Mariners’ Eugenio Suárez in Game 1 of the Division Series, in his last 38 innings.
Now think about this: The Astros are so loaded with pitching, they did not start Javier in this Series until Game 4.
After the no-hitter, on-site representatives from the Hall of Fame quickly got to work. They secured a baseball autographed by Javier, Abreu, Montero, Pressly and catcher Christian Vázquez. They also collected a rosin bag and FOX analyst John Smoltz’s scorecard from the game, with more items to come.
A ball signed by all four pitchers and catcher Christian Vázquez is headed to the Hall of Fame. pic.twitter.com/zv29Lq4qaZ
— Stephanie Apstein (@stephapstein) November 3, 2022
The no-hitter, perhaps more than anything, was testament to the Astros’ skill in acquiring and developing pitching talent under two GMs, Jeff Luhnow and James Click, as well as the efforts of Oz Ocampo, the team’s director of international scouting from 2012 to 2017.
When Ocampo first saw Javier, the youngster threw only 84 to 86 mph, about the same as Abreu, another Ocampo signee. But even then, Javier’s fastball had riding action. And on the mound, he demonstrated other unique qualities. Good arm speed. Fluid movement patterns. A classic, clean delivery — the same delivery, in fact, that Ocampo saw when Javier threw seven innings to start the Astros’ combined no-hitter at Yankee Stadium on June 25.
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Javier’s velocity improved in the minors, and he developed a slider to replace his curveball as his primary secondary pitch. He cracked the Astros’ roster in 2020, Dusty Baker’s first season as manager, and immediately captivated Baker’s son, Darren, a second baseman who has since moved from the University of California to the Nationals’ farm system.
“My son loved Javy from the moment he saw him pitch,” Baker said. “He said, ‘Dad, that’s my favorite right there.’ That’s what he told me from the very beginning.”
Ocampo, whom the Marlins recently hired as their assistant general manager, signed Javier, Valdez, Luis Garcia and José Urquidy for a combined $140,000 — and Urquidy, who cost $100,000, commanded most of that amount. Abreu was another unheralded acquisition, signing for $40,000 out of the Dominican Republic when he was 16, but not playing for a full-season minor-league team until his fifth professional season in 2018.
A little more than four years later, Abreu was the first reliever the Astros used in their World Series no-hitter, unleashing a vicious slider, nearly touching 100 mph with his fastball, striking out Realmuto, Harper and Castellanos on 15 pitches in the seventh.
“Nasty,” Astros pitching coach Josh Miller said. “Super nasty.”
The two final relievers, Montero and Pressly, both joined the Astros in trades. Montero, after getting designated for assignment by the Mariners on July 23, 2021, became part of a Click deal that brought Kendall Graveman to the Astros four days later. A right shoulder issue sidelined Montero after only four appearances, but he re-emerged as a force this season, producing a 2.37 ERA in 68 1/3 innings and converting 14 of 16 saves. In the postseason, he has allowed only one run, a homer by the Yankees’ Anthony Rizzo in Game 1 of the ALCS, in nine innings.
Pressly, a Luhnow acquisition, arrived from the Twins for right-hander Jorge Alcala and outfielder Gilberto Celestino shortly before the trade deadline in 2018. The Astros, by asking Pressly to dramatically increase the use of his curveball, helped transform him into one of the game’s top relievers. During the regular season, Pressly converted 33 of 37 saves with a 2.98 ERA. In the postseason, he has yet to allow an earned run in 8 1/3 innings.
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Oh, and let’s not forget Vázquez, whom Click acquired from the Red Sox for two prospects at this year’s deadline. Vázquez, the backup to Martín Maldonado, had caught only one complete game in the past month (though he did play the final 12 innings of the Astros’ 18-inning victory over the Mariners in the Division Series clincher). Baker started him in part because Vázquez is more of an offensive threat than Maldonado, and in part because he had a 1.31 ERA in 34 1/3 innings with Javier.
Vázquez is now one of two catchers in Series history to catch a no-hitter. The other: Hall of Famer Yogi Berra.
“When we get old,” Vázquez said. “We’re going to remember this.”
Baker, after returning from his postgame news conference, sat in the visiting manager’s office at Citizens Bank Park, signing scorecards for Astros owner Jim Crane and putting the no-hitter into context as only he can.
At 73, Baker has spent more than a half-century in the game as a player, coach, scout and manager. He was in the on-deck circle when Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s career home-run record in 1974, and he was Barry Bonds’ manager when Bonds broke Mark McGwire’s single-season homer record in 2001.
The no-hitter brought Baker within two victories of his first World Series title as a manager; he lost the Series with the Giants in 2002 and Astros in 2021. He has managed nearly 4,000 regular-season games with five different franchises, seen just about everything one can see in the game.
Where did the no-hitter rank for him?
“On my side, it ranks at the top, as far as a pitching performance,” Baker said.
Baker, though, quickly recalled being on the other side. Twelve years earlier, he sat in the same office, trying to digest the only previous no-hitter in postseason history besides Larsen’s — the one the late Roy Halladay threw in the 2010 Division Series, against Baker’s Reds.
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Halladay allowed only one baserunner, a two-out walk to Jay Bruce in the fifth inning.
“That’s the only reason it wasn’t a perfect game,” Baker said. “He was dealing. If you took a pitch, it was a strike. If you swung it, it was impossible to hit. I was like, goddang.”
Halladay threw 104 pitches that night. Javier had 97 through six innings, right around the 100 the Astros targeted for him. He threw a season-high 115 pitches in the combined no-hitter against the Yankees in late June, and had exceeded 100 only once in 18 games since.
“It’s baseball in 2022,” Baker said. “It’s always tough to take a guy out, but you have to weigh the no-hitter and history versus trying to win this game and get back to 2-2 in the World Series.”
A number of the Astros spoke the same way, saying they were far more focused on the outcome of the game than the completion of the no-hitter. Pressly said he wasn’t even thinking about making history. He just wanted to pitch a scoreless inning, “close the door and go on to the next day.”
Which, in the end, makes the Astros’ accomplishment all the more remarkable. The game was so important, it overshadowed the no-hitter. And yet, performing under about as much pressure as the sport can muster, they combined for the no-hitter anyway.
Baker loved that it started with Javier, calling him a “quiet, unassuming but confident guy who has grown before our eyes.” Vázquez, an eight-year veteran, told Fox’s Tom Verducci that Javier’s fastball was the best he has ever seen.
Javier did not get into the specifics of how he overwhelmed the Phillies. He said he merely tried to stay focused, stay calm, stay positive.
“He’s the most underrated pitcher in the league,” Pressly said.
Not to his parents. And not anymore.
(To photo of Cristian Javier: Bill Streicher / USA Today Sports)