The MLB’s second no-hitter of the season came early yesterday afternoon in a 1 p.m. game between the San Diego Padres and Washington Nationals. Dylan Cease, starter for the Padres, came into the contest with a 3.5 ERA and a .98 WHIP. Cease ended the game with nine strikeouts and just three walks on 114 pitches, completing the full nine innings of a no-hitter.
Dylan Cease became only the second pitcher in Padre’s franchise history to accomplish this feat. The only other one coming from his teammate, Joe Musgrove, who did it during the 2021 season. San Diego had gone a full 52 years without a no-hitter, and now they have two in the last four seasons.
In a post-game interview with ESPN’s Kevin Negandhi, Cease said that he spoke with Musgrove and other members of the pitching staff in between innings as he got closer to making history. He said, “I would go in and talk with King and Joe and we’d talk sequencing… it worked out it was awesome.”
Cease has been on a tear of late, with batters only coming away with two hits in his last three starts combined. That’s a total of 67 batters, and an average of .029.
During his interview, he went on to speak about his recent dominance as well as what was going through his mind as he faced the final batter on Thursday afternoon.
“I’ve come close before, and to do it it really is remarkable and hard to put into words…I’m ecstatic… [I had to] empty the tank, I wanted to get my slider low because I figured it was either gonna be a ball, a swing, and miss, or a ground ball. I threw it hard…and the rest is history.”
