Padres right-hander follows Joe Musgrove into history by not allowing Nationals a hit in 3-0 victory
WASHINGTON — The Padres went 8,206 games before a native son threw the franchise’s no-hitter back in 2021.
On Thursday, just 582 games after Joe Musgrove made San Diego history, Dylan Cease did it again.
The right-hander, who had four times this season allowed one hit over seven innings, waited out a rain delay of 76 minutes before taking the mound Thursday. He then drowned the Nationals in fastballs and sliders.
The Padres scored all their runs on Ha-Seong Kim’s bases-loaded, bases-clearing single in the first inning and then pretty much settled in to watch Cease work his way through what ended up a 3-0 victory.
When Bryce Johnson caught CJ Abrams’ line drive for the final out, he hopped off the mound and was immediately embraced by catcher Luis Campusano as the Padres infielders and outfielders sprinted toward the pair and players streamed from the dugout and bullpen.
Cease had taken a no-hitter through 26 outs on Sept. 3, 2022, before the Twins’ Luis Arraez — how his Padres teammate — ended the bid with a single.
Arraez watched from the dugout Thursday and was one of the men embracing Cease by second base after the final out.
One of the four times this season Cease had gone at least seven innings while allowing one hits was June 26 against the Nationals.
Despite walking Lane Thomas twice, Cease had faced the minimum number of batters through four innings.
Thomas was caught stealing in the first inning and eliminated by an inning-ending double play in the fourth.
Juan Yepez almost dropped in a single to start the fifth inning on a ball skied to shallow center field that second baseman Xander Bogaerts raced back to try to catch, only to have the ball pop up out of his glove and into that of center fielder Jackson Merrill for the first out.
Cease went on to strike out James Wood and get Keibert Ruiz on a groundout. And with that, Cease had gone nine innings without allowing a hit going back to the start of the fourth inning on Saturday in Cleveland.
Then he was through the sixth in 13 pitches and, after walking CJ Abrams to start the seventh, got through that with two groundouts and a fly ball to left field.
Cease was at 94 pitches, however, and likely needed a quick eighth to not make manager Mike Shildt nervous about keeping him in.
He walked off the mound after the eighth pumping slowly after throwing just nine pitches.
A slow roller by Ildemargo Vargas to Bogaerts got the first out. One pitch later, Jacob Young grounded out to Kim. Then came Abrams line drive and a celebration.
All this came after rain forced the game to be stopped nine minutes after it started.
It was dry, and the clouds didn’t seem all that threatening during the game’s first three at-bats, which left the Padres with two runners on after Donovan Solano’s single and Bogaerts’ walk.
The rain, steady right from the start, began as clean-up hitter Manny Machado stepped to the plate. Many fans headed for cover, but a good number stayed put as Machado made the inning’s second out on a soft line drive to second base.
It began to pour as Jake Cronenworth was seeing five pitches, wiping his bat on his pant legs a few times as he worked a walk, which loaded the bases.
Water was dripping from Kim’s helmet, which he shook as he walked from the on-deck area.
Kim was in the batter’s box for one pitch before crew chief Adrian Johnson ran in from second base with his hands raised.
The deluge continued for about 20 minutes, turning the warning track into a brown puddle surrounding the grass. That took the longest to clear before the game could resume.
Kim was the first Padres player on the field, running along the edge of the infield as the final preparations were made on the field and the umpires reemerged in new outfits.
On the eighth pitch he saw after the storm, a 3-2 cutter at the bottom of the zone, Kim flared a soft line drive into left-center that bounced past diving James Wood as all three runners raced around the bases and scored.
Nationals starter Patrick was at 55 pitches after two innings. But he ended up getting through seven innings while throwing just 54 more pitches, which was second among the impressive feats done by a starting pitcher in Thursday’s game.
