CHICAGO -- Joey Cantillo hasn’t been dealt the easiest hand in his professional baseball career, but on Monday night at Guaranteed Rate Field, he proved just how special he can be when the situation is right.

Twenty straight batters walked to the plate, trying to figure out what the young rookie, who had made just four previous Major League starts, was doing to keep them so off balanced. One by one, they trudged back to the White Sox dugout with no answers.

Cantillo cruised through 6 2/3 perfect innings before surrendering his first hit of the night to the 21st batter he faced. Four pitches later, he lost the shutout on an RBI single but after he ended the frame, he exited the field to a roaring ovation from the Cleveland fans behind the visiting bench. His efforts were enough for the Guardians to hold on to a 5-3 victory. With a Royals loss to the Yankees, Cleveland’s lead in the AL Central expands to 3 1/2 games.

“That was so fun. That was special,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “What a great performance.”

As Cleveland fans painfully know, this organization hasn’t had a no-hitter of any form since Len Barker’s perfect game in 1981. Just a few weeks ago, it seemed like Alex Cobb would be the one to break the longest no-hitter drought in the Majors when he was perfect through six innings, but he lost it at the start of the seventh. So, when Cantillo was perfect through 6 2/3 frames, it was hard for that belief not to build all over again.

Although he didn’t make that history, the Guardians’ No. 16 prospect still joined some elite company. Since Barker’s perfect game, only seven Cleveland pitchers have thrown at least six perfect innings: Cantillo, Cobb, Triston McKenzie (2021), Carlos Carrasco (2015), Cody Anderson (2015), Corey Kluber (2014) and Charles Nagy (1991).

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This was the reason the Guardians have been excited for Cantillo’s arrival since they traded for him in 2020. But injuries have derailed most of his time in the Guardians’ Minor League system, pushing back his timeline to reach the Majors until the end of July this season. And once he was finally here, even if for a handful of spot starts, he faced the hardest opponents possible.

First, it was the Phillies in his Major League debut. Then, the Orioles, Twins and Yankees. Those aren’t the most ideal scenarios to throw a rookie starter into, but the Guardians were limited on their starting pitching options. And instead of allowing the hiccups he experienced in each of those outings get the best of him, he turned them into learning experiences so that he was ready for his next start in Chicago.

Cantillo thought back to his time in New York last month. His changeup, which is arguably his best pitch, wasn’t effective. He honed in on why it hadn’t worked and focused on making sure that didn’t happen again. He remembered pitching against the Twins and his fastball command wasn’t what he knew it could’ve been.

“So it’s like OK, understand where the fastball needs to go,” Cantillo said, “and make those adjustments and trust in your catchers and do those kinds of things and just attack and trust your stuff and go at them.”

It was those two pitches that carried him through the night. Cantillo induced 13 swings on his 30 changeups and six of them resulted in whiffs.

“I think it’s the best changeup I’ve had consistently,” Cantillo said.

"That guy threw well, did a good job using the changeup, keeping our guys off balance, we just didn’t do a good job making adjustments,” White Sox interim manager Grady Sizemmore said. “We couldn’t figure out what he was doing."

He was untouchable through six innings, when his pitch count reached 78. He hadn’t thrown more than 89 pitches this season. So, was the seventh inning going to be his last regardless of whether the perfect game was still intact?

“Let’s just say I was not super upset that the hit happened,” Vogt said with a laugh.

Yes, it was in the back of Cantillo’s mind since the fourth inning, but he did his best to block it out. What mattered was finally showcasing he could deliver at this level. Not only did he do that, but he earned his first career win in the process.

“It means a lot,” Cantillo said. “A little weight lifted off.”