Dylan Cease no-hits the Nationals as Padres complete sweep

Publish date: 2024-07-07

All no-hitters are improbable, but the one San Diego Padres right-hander Dylan Cease spun Thursday afternoon was especially unlikely at around 12:14 p.m. It was then that the skies opened over Nationals Park, a deluge that forced a 76-minute rain delay in the top of the first with the visitors in the midst of a three-run first inning.

Cease had not yet thrown a pitch but had already warmed up. Suddenly, everything was on hold as the tarp was rolled onto the field. For Padres Manager Mike Shildt, a decision loomed: Did he transition to a bullpen game to be cautious with his starter’s health, or would he let Cease figure things out?

Shildt stuck with his pitcher. Cease warmed up on a mound inside, under cover, managing his arm and biding his time until the weather cleared. And 3½ hours later, he completed just the second no-hitter in franchise history, methodically dismantling the Washington Nationals in a 3-0 win to complete San Diego’s three-game sweep.

Two years ago, Cease was one out from a no-hitter. This time, the ball with the best chance to drop was the last — a line drive from CJ Abrams off a low-90s slider, a rare pitch that the righty left over the plate but one that found Padres right fielder Bryce Johnson right in his tracks for the final out.

“Think I had a little flashback right there,” Cease said. “Man, off the bat right there, it looked kind of like a bloop hit. I saw it stay up. Just screaming and yelling. That was awesome.”

“Hit that — I guess hard but not hard enough,” Abrams said.

Cease was the first to celebrate, his index finger toward the sky as euphoria coalesced at the mound, catcher Luis Campusano the first to embrace the right-hander. Luis Arraez, who broke up the no-hit bid in 2022 and now plays for San Diego, was the one who handed Cease the ball from the final out.

“Magnificent performance,” Shildt said. “Start of the game was interesting enough, gets hot, then has an hour 15 minute rain delay. … First inning, he comes in and says, ‘I’m not quite there.’ Second inning, ‘getting there.’ Third inning, he just hit his stride.”

The no-hitter capped a dazzling run of starts for Cease, who has allowed just two hits in 22 innings over his past three starts. It also marked the second time the Nationals have been no-hit in franchise history. The first was Aug. 9, 2023, by the Philadelphia Phillies’ Michael Lorenzen.

Cease, who was traded to the Padres (55-50) from the White Sox in a spring training blockbuster that sent three top San Diego prospects to Chicago, avoided hard contact all afternoon, nibbling around the zone. He threw 114 pitches, 71 for strikes, and struck out nine while walking three.

“He had to warm up as well and sit through a delay as well, so to sit through that plus the no hitter is pretty remarkable,” said Washington lefty Patrick Corbin, who allowed three runs in seven innings.

“I’ve been on both sides of no-hit, perfect games,” Nationals Manager Dave Martinez said. “This is the 10th one I’ve seen live. Every one, it’s something special.”

The first rumblings of history looming came in the fourth inning when one of the 20,755 in the crowd yelled from the upper deck behind home plate that Cease was throwing a no-hitter, a blatant attempt to jinx the 28-year-old. No such luck.

After striking out Jacob Young with a 100-mph fastball to end the sixth, Cease spun toward the direction of his second baseman. When he was done watching Juan Yepez ground out to finish the seventh, he turned toward the dugout and spun his finger before shaking Shildt’s hand, making it all the more evident that he wanted to finish the game — but perhaps wouldn’t be given the shot, with lefty Adrian Morejon warming in the Padres’ bullpen.

Indeed, Shildt said after the game, the plan was to pull Cease after the frame. There was a debate. For only the second time in the manager’s career, he was talked out of a decision to remove a starter.

“Thankfully, they let me talk him into it,” Cease said. “And then here we are.”

Cease came back out for the eighth and needed just nine pitches to dispel James Wood (strikeout), Keibert Ruiz (groundout) and Luis García Jr. (groundout). As he returned to the dugout, he pumped his fist softly by his chest.

Cease’s go-to pitch against Washington (47-56), just as it was in his dominant start June 26, was his slider. In that previous game, the Nationals managed all of one hit. On Thursday, they barely sniffed a knock. Abrams pulled a long fly out to right field in the fourth, but it needed another 10 feet to clear the wall. Ruiz nearly poked one through the infield in the eighth, but Xander Bogaerts corralled it, bobbled it, then narrowly got Washington’s slowest runner at first base.

“His fastball’s got the ride, and the slider bites, so he gets a lot of swing-and-miss or weak contact,” Abrams said. “You saw that today.”

“In every no-hitter, there are a couple of plays that save it,” Cease said. “I think there were a couple right there. Made it happen.”

He struck out Wood three times, twice on a fastball and once on a slider. Only Lane Thomas and Abrams reached base, the former walking twice and the latter once. The Nationals scored in just one inning during the entire series — a three-run first Wednesday in what turned into a 12-3 loss. The team continues to struggle against strong sliders.

“He kind of just picks around the plate,” Thomas said. “Props to him. Just a good day.”

In the ninth, the Milton, Ga., native came out to applause from behind the visiting dugout, briefly allowing the umpires to check his glove. They didn’t find anything nefarious.

And so Cease went to the rosin one final time for a bit more grip. Ildemaro Vargas made him work for an eight-pitch groundout, bringing his pitch count to 111, his dugout now at a standstill. Young grounded out on the next pitch, and a roar went up inside the park. The San Diego dugout clapped. Then Abrams slashed a liner to right that found Johnson’s glove.

That fan who tried to jinx him back in the fourth? He was right — Cease had a no-hitter.

“It’ll set in even more as time goes,” Cease said. “But I’ve been close, and to finally get it done, it’s one of those things that’s just — it feels so remarkable and hard to believe. To be able to do it and go out and experience it, I really don’t even know how to feel, I’m just happy.”

Notes: Before Thursday’s game, Washington signed second-rounder Luke Dickerson, a high school shortstop from New Jersey, to a $3.8 million bonus, a pool-era record for a player drafted in the second round or later. The slot value for his pick, No. 44, is $2,122,200 — he signed for roughly the equivalent value of pick No. 22 ($3.802 million). Because the Nationals traded for pick No. 39 in the Hunter Harvey deal, they had more bonus pool money to work with and therefore could negotiate to pay well over slot value for a player they regarded highly.

Washington has signed 19 of its 21 picks, with only Florida State righty Yoel Tejeda Jr. (14th round) and Florida third baseman Colby Shelton (20th) left. The deadline to sign picks is 5 p.m. Aug. 1.

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Dylan Cease no-hits the Nationals as Padres complete sweep