Dylan Cease’s feat – Yucatan Journal

Hoping for a chance to stay on the mound and pitch the second no-hitter in Padres history, Dylan Cease got some help from the pitcher who got the first.

Cease had thrown 94 pitches in seven innings when San Diego manager Mike Shildt turned to look at Joe Musgrove.

“Joe said something like, ‘His stuff is pretty good,’” Shildt recalled. “Well, he had thrown a no-hitter. He knew what they looked like. So we let him keep pitching.”

Cease needed just nine more pitches in the eighth inning and 11 in the ninth to accomplish the feat, and the Padres beat the Washington Nationals 3-0 to complete a three-game sweep.

Two years earlier, Cease had come within one out of a no-hitter, allowing a single to current teammate Luis Arraez. Now he finally did it, retiring CJ Abrams on a flyout to end the game.

“My mindset was always that I was going to throw a slider down the field, thinking he was going to hit a ground ball or not put the ball in play,” Cease said. “I didn’t like the way the ball came off the bat, it looked like a hit, but fortunately, everything was in my favor.”

Cease (10-8) struck out nine and walked three in his third complete game in 145 starts. He also threw a career-high 114 pitches during a game that was interrupted for 1 hour, 16 minutes by rain in the first inning.

“In the first inning he came in and said, ‘I’m not there yet,’” Shildt recalled. “In the second inning he said, ‘I’m getting there.’ And in the third inning he just got into a rhythm.”

Musgrove threw the Padres’ first no-hitter on April 9, 2021, against the Texas Rangers. Houston’s Ronel Blanco had thrown the Padres’ only no-hitter this season, on April 1 against Toronto.

CLAYTON KERSHAW allowed two runs in four innings in his return from shoulder surgery, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Francisco Giants 6-4.

Nick Ahmed and Shohei Ohtani homered on consecutive pitches in the eighth inning after Kershaw, who was making his first major league appearance since Game 1 of the NL Division Series against Arizona in October, had already departed.

PUERTO RICO Javier Báez hit a three-run homer in the second inning and six pitchers combined to allow just four hits as the Detroit Tigers beat the Guardians 3-0.—AP

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