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HOUSTON — Ronel Blanco, making his first start of the season, baffled the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday night, pitching a no-hitter in the Houston Astros10-0 victory.

Blanco, coming off a modest 2-1 season in which he finished with a 4.50 ERA, ignited an Astros’ club that was coming off a four-game sweep at the hands of the New York Yankees, giving Houston its first victory of the season and Major League Baseball its first no-hitter of the year. He threw 105 pitches, posting seven strikeouts along the way, with just two walks.

When Vladimir Guerrero Jr. grounded out to end it, Blanco smiled broadly before raising his arms above his head just before being mobbed by teammates decked out in Houston’s Space City uniforms.

“Impressive performance,” Houston manager Joe Espada, who is in his first season, said. “We needed that. Blanco stepped up and gave us an incredible performance.”

It’s the eighth time in franchise history that the Blue Jays have been no-hit, and continued a topsy-turvy start for the Toronto offense. In a four-game opening season vs. the Tampa Bay Rays, Toronto scored 17 runs in its two wins, and just three in two losses at Tropicana Field.

“Give him credit, I know that’s really hard to do,” Toronto manager John Schneider said. “I know he hasn’t been starting much, but he was really good and his changeup was outstanding.”

Blanco, 30, a native of Santiago in the Dominican Republic, appeared in 17 games for the Astros last season, and seven in his rookie year of 2022. Monday’s no-hitter was just his eighth start in the major leagues, and was the 17th in Houston’s franchise history.

“It was special. For me personally, getting that first win as a manager is special,” Espada said. “(But) it’s about Blanco, he should get the lineup card. It’s about him.”

The Astros led 7-0 after early home runs by Kyle Tucker, Yainer Diaz and Jeremy Pen. Houston finished with five long balls, more than enough support for Blanco.

“It’s tough, you want to be patient, but his stuff was good,” Schneider said. “If anything, you just tip your hat to a guy who threw a no-hitter. He had good stuff.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Wisconsin QB O’Neil carted off with leg injury

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Wisconsin QB O'Neil carted off with leg injury

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin quarterback Danny O’Neil was carted off the field and into the locker room after injuring his leg in the first quarter of the Badgers’ game against No. 24 Washington (No. 23 College Football Playoff) on Saturday.

O’Neil got up at the end of a 21-yard keeper, limped and then went back down and clutched his right leg. Wisconsin announced in the second quarter that O’Neil would miss the rest of the game with what was officially ruled a lower-body injury.

The San Diego State transfer was making his first start since a Sept. 13 loss to Alabama, though he had played in a reserve role Sept. 20 against Maryland and Oct. 18 against Ohio State.

Freshman Carter Smith took over for O’Neil and made his college debut Saturday.

Quarterback issues have hindered Wisconsin throughout the season. Billy Edwards Jr. was Wisconsin’s first-team quarterback at the start of the year, but he sprained his knee in the second quarter of the Badgers’ season opener and has played only one full series since.

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Ohio St. WR Tate sits out with undisclosed injury

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Ohio St. WR Tate sits out with undisclosed injury

Ohio State standout receiver Carnell Tate sat out Saturday’s game against Purdue after suffering a minor undisclosed injury during pregame warmups.

Coach Ryan Day said the Buckeyes held Tate out just as a precaution.

“[Tate] wanted to play,” Day said, “but we’ve got a lot of football ahead us.”

The top-ranked Buckeyes (9-0, 6-0 Big Ten) still defeated Purdue 34-10 to remain unbeaten. Jeremiah Smith led Ohio State with a career-high 10 receptions for 137 yards and a touchdown.

This season, Tate has 39 receptions for 711 receiving yards and 7 touchdowns.

The Buckeyes play UCLA next weekend.

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Texas Tech hands BYU 1st loss, improves to 9-1

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Texas Tech hands BYU 1st loss, improves to 9-1

LUBBOCK, Texas — Stone Harrington kicked a school-record five field goals and standout Texas Tech linebacker Jacob Rodriguez had two takeaways as the No. 9 Red Raiders defeated No. 8 BYU 29-7 on Saturday, holding the previously undefeated Cougars to a season-low 255 total yards in a game with Big 12 and playoff implications.

Behren Morton passed for 216 yards and threw a 9-yard touchdown to Caleb Douglas while Cameron Dickey ran for 121 yards and a 1-yard score for Texas Tech (9-1, 6-1 Big 12, No. 8 CFP), which played in its first top-10 matchup since 2008.

“I told the team we have another gear,” Tech coach Joey McGuire said. “We can play better.”

BYU (8-1, 5-1, No. 7 CFP) had never played in such a game, though the teams could meet again in the Big 12 championship game in four weeks in Arlington, Texas.

Harrington kicked field goals of 47, 39, 34, 29 and 27 yards.

Rodriguez, the FBS leader with seven forced fumbles, had an interception midway through the third period leading to Harrington’s fourth field goal. He recovered a backward pass late in the fourth quarter that set up Harrington’s final kick.

Tech has gone from ranking 121st last season in the FBS allowing 34.8 points per game to fifth at 13.2 going into Saturday and lowering that to 12.6.

“Yeah, we are a better [defensive] team than we were last year,” Rodriguez said. “But … we’ve still got a lot of things to clean up.”

BYU snapped a 10-game winning streak dating back to last season. The Cougars avoided their first shutout since 2017 when Bear Bachmeier threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to Chase Roberts midway through the fourth quarter.

The Cougars went into the game third in the FBS in turnover margin at plus-1.25. They lost two fumbles, threw an interception and muffed a punt.

Bachmeier was 23-of-38 passing for 188 yards. The true freshman also had two turnovers, an interception and a backward pass for a fumble.

“A couple of passes and a muffed punt cost us, I think, 13 points,” BYU coach Kalani Sitake said. “Even after that, I thought we were going to be able to respond and make a game of it in the second half, but we weren’t able to do that.”

The Cougars went into play averaging 36.3 points and 434 yards per game. Their previous low offensive output this season was 332 yards in the 27-3 win over Stanford on Sept. 6.

Both teams have home games remaining against UCF, while the Cougars also play at No. 25 Cincinnati — the only other Big 12 team with one league loss — after hosting TCU next week. The Red Raiders host UCF next week before an open date and then their regular-season finale at West Virginia.

The Red Raiders, charter members of the Big 12 in 1996, are in position to play in the conference championship for the first time. Their remaining two opponents are a combined 3-10 in conference play.

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