Can't touch this: Williams unhittable for Akron

Some might have considered Gavin Williams unhittable in the early going this season.

That was an exaggeration coming into Thursday night's game. But it wasn't after the No. 37 prospect in baseball per MLB Pipeline didn't allow a hit while striking out eight and walking one over five innings in Double-A Akron's 6-5 extra-inning win over visiting Harrisburg.

Right from the jump, Williams showed his stuff, whiffing the Senators' leadoff hitter Yasel Antuna with a fastball that nicked the inside corner. Then the right-hander induced J.T. Arruda to pop out in foul territory to third baseman Marcos Gonzalez and Will Frizzell flied out to left field to end the inning.

From there, Harrisburg hitters might have had just as much luck coming up to the plate with a pool noodle in their hands. Williams fanned two in the second, two in the third, two in the fourth and one in the fifth.

The Guardians' No. 2 prospect recorded seven of his eight punchouts with the heater.

"It was just the right time to throw it," Williams said. "You're just trying to set up the hitters. My catcher [Michael Berglund] was reading swings, I was reading swings and we were just talking between innings on what we saw during the game. So we felt comfortable going with that most of the time."

The fastball was the 2021 23rd overall pick's go-to pitch for strikeouts Thursday, but he worked on his slider throughout the offseason and will be looking to employ that more often this season.

Although it was the first time Williams posted five no-hit frames in the pros, the East Carolina product didn't really think of it any differently from his other outings.

"It's just another start really," he said. "I got another one next week, so this one's already past me. I don't really want to look at it too much."

This mentality has gotten Williams off to a hot start in the 2023 campaign. In the 6-foot-6 hurler's first start against Erie on April 6, he struck out nine over 4 1/3 scoreless innings.

In his next start on April 13, he allowed one run on four hits while fanning three against a loaded Bowie team featuring five hitters on Baltimore's Top 30 prospects list (No. 5 Heston Kjerstad, No. 9 Coby Mayo, No. 17 Cesar Prieto, No. 20 John Rhodes and No. 23 Ryan Watson.)

All of that has culminated in a filthy 0.63 ERA with 20 strikeouts and a 0.64 WHIP through three starts.