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PHILADELPHIA — Cristian Javier‘s parents, Trinidad Mieses and Cecilio Javier, flew from the Dominican Republic to Philadelphia and sat in his hotel room late Tuesday night, in the buildup to the biggest outing of his life. The Houston Astros were coming off a difficult loss and needed Javier to rescue them from an overwhelming World Series deficit, but Trinidad and Cecilio attempted to strike an optimistic, supportive tone.

They proved to be prophetic.

“Let’s try to stay positive,” Javier recalled hearing from his mother and father. “God willing, you’ll throw a no-hitter.”

Less than 24 hours later, Javier teamed with Astros relievers Bryan Abreu, Rafael Montero and Ryan Pressly in completing the first combined no-hitter in postseason history, using his devastating fastball to vex a helpless Philadelphia Phillies lineup through the first six innings of what became a 5-0 Astros victory in Game 4 on Wednesday. The win tied the Series at two games apiece and placed Javier in exceedingly rare company, joining former New York Yankees right-hander Don Larsen — author of a perfect game in 1956 — as the only pitchers in World Series history to finish an outing with no hits allowed in six or more innings.

“This is the best gift I could have ever given my family, my parents,” Javier said in Spanish. “To me, it’s even more special knowing that they were able to see that in person.”

Javier’s start was a reenactment of the combined no-hitter he played a key role in against the Yankees on June 25, making Javier the first pitcher to start multiple combined no-hitters within a career, let alone the same season. He set the tone for what became the third no-hitter of any kind in the 119 years that Major League Baseball has staged the postseason, and the second — along with Roy Halladay’s in the 2010 National League Division Series, against a Cincinnati Reds team managed by current Astros manager Dusty Baker — that took place at Citizens Bank Park.

“That’s what’s strange about life,” Baker said of finally getting on the right side of a postseason no-hitter. “I remember being on the other end of that. It was the seventh inning and it seemed like it was the second inning, and I looked up on the board and it’s the seventh inning already. Then you’re trying not to be no-hit and then you’re trying to win the ballgame and — yeah, that’s pretty remarkable.”

Javier himself is remarkable. He was signed for $10,000 seven years ago from La Victoria, a small town within Santo Domingo known mostly for the notorious prison that shares its name. He was nearing his 18th birthday then, old in an international market where prospects agree to deals at 12 and 13 years old, and he threw only in the mid-80s. But his fastball was already extremely difficult to hit. As he got stronger, his velocity continued to increase. He became the organization’s Minor League Pitcher of the Year in 2019, established himself as a dynamic weapon — in the rotation or out of the bullpen — in 2020 and 2021, and reached a new level in 2022, posting a 2.54 ERA in 148⅔ regular-season innings.

As the year went on, Javier only got better.

Dating back to Sept. 14, the 25-year-old right-hander has thrown at least five scoreless innings and allowed no more than two hits in six consecutive starts. He is now the first pitcher in postseason history with at least five innings and no more than one hit allowed in back-to-back starts.

“Just going into today’s game, we had so much confidence in him,” Astros center fielder Chas McCormick said. “Even coaches, I had a feeling — Javier’s going to shove today. And he’s been shoving.”

Javier struck out nine batters and issued just two walks through the first six innings. At the start of the fourth, he began a stretch of five consecutive strikeouts. In the sixth, the pitcher with the lowest groundball rate in the majors during the regular season — among those who compiled at least 140 innings — benefitted from three consecutive groundouts. At that point, Javier became the first pitcher to reach six no-hit innings in the World Series since Jerry Koosman in 1969.

Javier did it, of course, with his four-seam fastball. He threw it 72% of the time, the highest percentage of his major league career, and recorded 14 of his 18 outs — including two-thirds of his strikeouts — with that pitch. He also got 27 foul balls off it, the most of any pitcher on a singular pitch in a game this season, according to research by ESPN Stats & Information. It was a sign that the Phillies were consistently late, the main characteristic Astros co-pitching coach Joshua Miller looks for in Javier.

“It’s a good fastball,” Phillies left fielder Kyle Schwarber said. “He’s got good extension, good ride, things like that. When it says ’92’ up on the board, it’s playing a little bit harder than that.”

The Astros let Javier extend all the way to 115 pitches while recording the first 21 outs of the combined no-hitter at Yankee Stadium in late June. A little more than four months later, he was pulled after throwing 97 pitches through 18 outs, in part, Miller said, so they could potentially use him out of the bullpen later in this series.

By that point, the Astros’ offense had already scored five runs — all in the fifth, when Jose Alvarado inherited a bases-loaded, none-out situation and proceeded to plunk Yordan Alvarez, then gave up a two-run double to Alex Bregman, a sacrifice fly to Kyle Tucker and a run-scoring single to Yuli Gurriel. Abreu entered in the bottom of the seventh and struck out the side despite facing the heart of the Phillies’ order.

He said he had no idea that he had inherited a no-hitter in progress. He found out an inning later, when he was in the clubhouse and heard his teammates get really animated as Montero took the ball for the eighth inning.

“I was shocked,” Abreu said in Spanish.

Montero followed suit by retiring all three batters, the last on a 99 mph Jean Segura line drive hit directly at Astros right fielder Tucker — a batted ball that came with an expected batting average of .910. Pressly, the Astros’ dominant closer, then finished it off in the ninth, just like he did in late June, this time working around a walk to record three outs on a Brandon Marsh strikeout, a Rhys Hoskins flyout and, lastly, a J.T. Realmuto groundout.

“You get slapped in the face yesterday and go back today and make a statement,” said Pressly, who watched the Phillies crank out five home runs against Lance McCullers Jr. in the Game 3 loss. “You try to have the mind of the goldfish in this game. You try not to think about anything. You just want to go out there and try to produce and put a ‘W’ in the column.”

There have been 18 combined no-hitters throughout major league history, but none have come particularly close to occurring in the postseason. The only other one that extended through seven innings was done by the Atlanta Braves, against these Astros, in Game 3 of last year’s World Series. Javier, Abreu, Montero, Pressly and Astros catcher Christian Vazquez, who filled in for Martin Maldonado largely because of how well he works with Javier, all posed with the baseball on the field postgame. The National Baseball Hall of Fame preserved one of the baseballs Javier pitched with and got it signed by all five players, also keeping a rosin bag and John Smoltz’s scoresheet.

“It’s a very special day for us,” Vazquez said.

It was even more special for Javier because of who attended. His mother, Trinidad, has been able to see him a handful of times, but Wednesday marked the first time his father, Cecilio, has been able to take in one of his major league games in person. Their prediction ultimately helped.

“I knew I had a very important start in front of me,” Javier said. “When they told me [that I was going to throw a no-hitter], it gave me faith.”

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Horns’ Ewers leads ‘new era’ of college football

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Horns' Ewers leads 'new era' of college football

ARLINGTON, Texas — Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said Thursday that quarterback Quinn Ewers, with the emergence of name, image and likeness and the transfer portal, has become the face of this “new era of college football.”

Ewers initially committed to Texas, but he then opted to skip his senior year of high school and reclassify to the 2021 recruiting class before enrolling a year early and joining Ohio State during preseason practice.

Still the nation’s No. 1 ranked overall prospect, Ewers landed one of the first marquee NIL deals worth $1.4 million.

Ewers, who lasted one season with the Buckeyes before transferring to Texas, will square off against Ohio State on Friday night in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl with a trip to the College Football Playoff national championship on the line.

“It’s not been an easy journey for him,” Sarkisian said Thursday. “There’s been ups, there’s been downs, there’s been injuries, there’s been great moments, there’s been tough moments. … But at the end of the day, he’s always stayed true to who he is. The guy’s been a steady sea for us.”

Ewers has been making college football headlines since Ohio State offered him a scholarship when he was just in middle school. This week, Buckeyes coach Ryan Day recalled meeting Ewers for the first time when he was an eighth-grader visiting a Buckeyes football camp.

“He was a boy at the time really, who just had a tremendous release,” Day recalled. “And I remember grabbing him and grabbing his dad and said, ‘Man, you got a bright future ahead of you. I don’t know if this is good or bad, but we’re going to offer you a scholarship to Ohio State.'”

C.J. Stroud, who has since led the Houston Texans to the NFL playoffs, emerged as a star quarterback for the Buckeyes then, prompting Ewers to transfer to Texas.

“Boy, it was strange how it all shook out,” Day said. “He decided he really wanted to play. And it was disappointing for us, but we certainly understood. From afar I’ve watched him. He’s a really good player. He comes from a great family, and he’s had a great career at Texas and a lot of people here still have good relationships with him and think the world of him.”

At Texas, Ewers has started in 27 wins and led the Longhorns to back-to-back playoff appearances. This season, he has thrown for 3,189 yards and 29 touchdowns with 11 interceptions.

Ewers noted that the “coolest part” of the NIL era is being able to provide for his parents. He has even hired his mom, making her CFO of his finances while giving her a salary.

“Which is nice just because all the effort and work they put into me growing up,” he said. “I mean, when we were living in South Texas, they both quit their jobs and moved up to Southlake [to support Ewers’ budding athletic career].”

Whatever happens in the playoff — whether it be a loss Friday or a national championship victory against the winner of Notre DamePenn State on Jan. 20 — Ewers’ career at Texas figures to be coming to a close.

Though Ewers still has one season of eligibility remaining, blue-chip quarterback prospect Arch Manning appears primed to finally take over in Austin next season.

Manning, the nephew of NFL quarterback greats Peyton and Eli Manning, who could become the No. 1 overall prospect for the 2026 NFL draft, has backed up Ewers for two seasons waiting for his opportunity. Sarkisian even momentarily benched Ewers in favor of Manning during Texas’ 30-15 loss to Georgia on Oct. 19.

Still, Ewers figures to have options.

ESPN football analyst Mel Kiper Jr. ranks him as the No. 6 quarterback prospect eligible for the upcoming draft. Rumors have also emerged recently that Ewers could put off the NFL for another year and transfer to a third school for millions more in NIL money.

Amid those distractions, Ewers has thrived in the playoff bouncing back from oblique and ankle injuries from earlier in the year to complete 69% of his passes with four touchdowns in Texas’ two victories.

In the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl quarterfinal, Ewers tossed 29- and 25-yard touchdown passes in the overtimes, lifting Texas to the 39-31 win over Arizona State.

“I’ve just been proud of him,” Sarkisian said, “because he’s found a source for him that has been a motivating factor, where he can play free and play loose and play confident.”

Ewers added that, whatever the future holds, even contemplating it now would be “selfish,” with a national title still in reach for him and the Longhorns.

“I owe my teammates the best version of me right now,” he said. “I can’t be looking forward or I’ll trip on the rock that’s sitting right in front of me. I’ve got to be locked in on what’s right here.”

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Texas RT Williams back in lineup for CFP semi

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Texas RT Williams back in lineup for CFP semi

ARLINGTON, Texas — Texas starting right tackle Cameron Williams will return for the College Football Playoff semifinal against Ohio State on Friday, Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian said Thursday.

Williams suffered a right knee sprain in the playoff opener against Clemson. The injury forced him to miss Texas’ quarterfinal overtime victory over Arizona State.

A junior, Williams has played in 37 games in his career with 16 starts for the Longhorns. Williams is rated as the No. 28 overall prospect and fifth offensive tackle in ESPN’s NFL draft rankings.

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Sources: Georgia QB Beck enters transfer portal

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Sources: Georgia QB Beck enters transfer portal

Georgia quarterback Carson Beck has entered the NCAA transfer portal, sources confirmed to ESPN on Thursday.

Beck had declared for the NFL draft on Dec. 28 but is now reversing course and will explore a transfer.

Sources told ESPN that Miami looms as the favorite for Beck and the timeline for his decision is expected to play out within a week.

While Miami is the favorite for Beck, a source said Beck’s camp intends to listen to all potential suitors for the best situation: “It’s a strategic thing, not an emotional thing,” the source said.

Beck, a two-year starter at Georgia, is currently recovering from surgery to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing elbow after suffering the injury during the Bulldogs’ SEC championship victory over Texas.

Beck will not be able to throw until March, sources told ESPN, which would have complicated his NFL draft process and will likely force him to miss spring practice at his next school. Sources said the variety of feedback he got from the draft process led to this decision, as he changed his mind in the past 24 hours. He received advice that if he could return and wanted to, he should probably return and play another season in college.

A source said Beck received feedback that he could end up anywhere between the first and third round, with much of that uncertainty due to the fact that he would not be able to throw for a team in predraft workouts.

Despite that injury setback, Beck will immediately become the most coveted quarterback available as a late entry to the transfer market. While Miami looms as the favorite, there are other big brand teams that could jump out as suitors including Texas Tech and Notre Dame.

The 6-foot-4, 220-pound senior went 24-3 as the Bulldogs’ starter and was viewed as a potential No. 1 draft pick entering the 2024 season. He threw for 3,485 yards with 28 touchdowns and 12 interceptions this season and led Georgia back to the SEC title game.

Beck injured his elbow on the final play of the first half against Texas on Dec. 7. Renowned orthopedic surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache performed Beck’s surgery on Dec. 23 in Los Angeles.

“He wants to win,” said the source close to Beck. “He didn’t come back to get knocked out at halftime of a conference championship.”

Entering his fifth college season, Beck was viewed as a potential top-10 draft pick. ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. currently considers Beck the No. 5 quarterback in his draft rankings.

Miami has not added a transfer quarterback this offseason to succeed Cam Ward, the potential No. 1 pick. They’ve quietly been canvassing the transfer market in recent weeks, per sources, as they have been set on bringing in a front-line starter who can produce immediately, much like Ward did.

Ward made a similar decision last January, initially declaring for the NFL draft but changing his mind and transferring to join the Hurricanes after he was unsatisfied with his draft feedback. Ward finished fourth in Heisman Trophy voting in his lone season in the program after producing 4,313 passing yards and 43 total touchdowns.

On3 first reported Beck’s intentions to enter the portal.

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