1. Chris Heston, San Francisco Giants. The 27-year-old rookie spun the season's first no-hitter in pretty dominant fashion, recording 11 strikeouts with no walks (although he became the first pitcher to hit three batters in a no-no). For more on why he's for real despite a non-prospect pedigree, check my earlier post.

2. Joey Votto, Cincinnati Reds. It hasn't been a fun season so far in Cincinnati, but don't blame Votto, who is now hitting .300/.406/.560 after going 3-for-4 with three of the Reds' five home runs in an 11-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies. Votto's home runs:

Third inning off Aaron Harang, first-pitch changeup;

Fifth inning off Harang, first-pitch fastball;

Seventh inning off Dustin McGowan, first-pitch fastball.

I think I see a trend there. Votto, of course, has been criticized -- mostly in Cincinnati -- for being too passive at times at the plate, so this outburst will undoubtedly lead to many screaming, "See!!! We were right!!! He just needs to swing more!!!"

I'm pretty sure Votto knows more about hitting than any of us, so we'll leave the advice to others. It's true that Votto has a low swing rate -- he ranks 154th out of 168 regulars in percentage of pitches he swings at. However, he actually ranks 51st in first-pitch swing percentage; he swings at the first pitch 32.5 percent of the time, higher than the MLB average of 28.2 percent. This is why Votto is a smart hitter and ignores the experts in the radio booth or the stands. As the Phillies learned tonight, you better be careful with that first pitch.

How bout Joey Votto today?!? 3 HR's matching Johnny Bench as only @Reds players to hit 3 HR's 3 different times! Dude is on fire.

— Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) June 10, 2015

That is correct. The Reds have now had 33 three-homer games in franchise history, with Votto being the last guy to do it in 2012.

Joey Votto admitted he was trying for his fourth homer in the 8th #Reds

— C. Trent Rosecrans (@ctrent) June 10, 2015

Votto again swung at the first pitch but grounded out.

3. Joey Terdoslavich, Atlanta Braves. After trailing 5-0, the Braves tied it with five runs in the bottom of the sixth, and then Terdoslavish won it with a pinch-hit homer in the eighth off Joaquin Benoit, his first major league home run.

Terdoslavich's dad was here tonight. "I was texting with him afterwards and he said he was still shaking" #Braves

— Kevin McAlpin (@KevinMcAlpin) June 10, 2015

4. Chris Young, Kansas City Royals. Young took his own no-hitter into the seventh against the Minnesota Twins before Trevor Plouffe tripled with one out. Even though Young had thrown just 83 pitches at that point, the score was 1-0. With Young being a guy who throws a lot of fly balls and doesn't get a lot of strikeouts, Royals manager Ned Yost decided to go to his bullpen. Yost's quick hook worked, as Franklin Morales got Eddie Rosario to ground out with the infield in, and Kelvin Herrera retired Kurt Suzuki. Wade Davis and Greg Holland then closed it out in the final two innings, the Royals winning 2-0 to take a one-game lead over the Twins in the AL Central.

5. Carlos Correa, Houston Astros, and Albert Pujols, Los Angeles Angels (tie). The first of many and another of many. Correa cracked the first home run of his career, although the Astros lost 4-2 to the Chicago White Sox. And Pujols hit his 536th career home run in an 8-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays, tying Mickey Mantle for 16th on the all-time list. Mantle's favorite target: He hit 13 off Early Wynn. Pujols' favorite target: Eight off Ryan Dempster.

Pretty good day of baseball. We didn't even mention the Toronto Blue Jays winning their seventh in a row to climb to .500, Masahiro Tanaka outpitching Max Scherzer, Giancarlo Stanton swatting two big ones, or several other outstanding pitching performances.