After early rain delay, Nats no-hit by Cease in loss to Padres (updated)

After never happening in the team’s 18-year existence since relocating to Washington, D.C., in 2005, the Nationals have now been no-hit twice in less than a calendar year.

Two weeks from the one-year anniversary of Michael Lorenzen’s no-hitter against the Nats at Citizens Bank Park, Dylan Cease repeated the feat for the Padres in a 3-0 win in front of 20,755 fans, who saw history while sticking out a 1-hour, 16-minute rain delay at Nationals Park.

After being outscored 16-3 through the first two games this week, the Nats had the challenge of facing Cease for the second time this season. He held the Nats scoreless over seven innings of one-run, one-walk ball while striking out 10 on June 26

Entering today riding a 13-inning scoreless streak, the right-hander extended it to 22 frames by no-hitting the Nationals. It was the first no-hitter of his career and second in Padres franchise history after Joe Musgrove's no-hit the Rangers on April 9, 2021.

Cease kept the Nats off-balance with a great mix of his slider and triple-digit fastball. He got a total of 18 swings and misses with 11 coming against the slider, which he threw 53 percent of the time. And because of the Nats’ aggressive approach, his pitch count remained relatively low throughout the start for his second dominant outing against Washington in a month.

“It always stinks when you're on the side of being no-hit," manager Davey Martinez said after the game. "But that guy was really good. He was good when we faced him over there. Today, he had both breaking balls with great shape, which we knew coming in. But it was really, really good. He kept our hitters off-balance all game. I watched them all game and he never really gave us much to hit. … He was good. I tip my cap to him. He was really good today.”

Cease finished the nine innings with three walks and nine strikeouts on 114 pitches, 71 strikes, after also having to wait out the rain delay before ever taking the mound.

“He's obviously a really good pitcher," said Patrick Corbin, who watched as the opposing starting pitcher in the home dugout. "I mean, he had a warm-up as well and sit through a delay as well. So to do that plus the no-hitter is pretty remarkable. He's had a streak here where he's been very good. He's one of the best pitchers in the league for a reason. To have his stuff and to go do that, it's impressive. So as a team, it was just a tough series for us here and just got to forget about it and move on.”

The Nats were able to make some hard contact at times. In the eighth inning, Luis García Jr. hit a ball 104.7 mph with an expected batting average of .350 and Keibert Ruiz hit one 103 mph. Both ended up as groundouts. Then CJ Abrams had a hard-hit lineout to right for the final out of Cease's historic performance.

“He kind of just picks around the plate," said Lane Thomas, who drew two of the three walks off Cease. "He threw a few pitches I felt like I could have hit, but he just kind of painted against me. And I felt like I worked a couple of good at-bats because I kind of laid off some stuff away that just happened to be off the plate. But they were all really close to being strikes I thought. So props to him. It's just a good day.”

“He had good stuff today. He was in the zone," said Abrams, who drew the third walk against the right-hander. "He threw a lot of sliders in the zone then out of the zone making us chase. Just have to tip your cap and move on.”

No-hitters don't happen without a little luck, too. Leading off the fifth, Juan Yepez hit a popup to shallow center field that looked like it was going to drop in no-man's land. Xander Bogaerts was able to get to it, but bobbled the ball, only for local product Jackson Merrill to catch it on the rebound for the out. A sign halfway through the game something special was happening.

“I think it's just something you brush off. Just kind of forget those ABs," Thomas said. "I know it looked rough, but I thought some guys had a chance to get a few hits there. Keibert's ball easily could have been a hit and a couple of those soft liners in the outfield. So it just wasn't our day today.”

After losing the first two of this three-game set at Nationals Park in shutout and blowout fashions, the Nats again couldn’t muster anything against Cease in a no-hit loss to drop the sixth and final game of the season against the Padres.

“For me when you face a guy like that, you can cover everything," Martinez said. "But it's also hard because he's throwing everything for strikes … He made it very difficult for the hitters today.”

Cease's no-hitter is the second in the major leagues this season, following Ronel Blanco's no-no with the Astros against the Blue Jays on April 1. It was the third no-hitter to take place at Nationals Park and the first by a visiting pitcher (Jordan Zimmermann vs. the Marlins on Sept. 28, 2014 and Max Scherzer vs. the Pirates on June 20, 2015). And it was the first time a Washington team was no-hit in D.C. since August 16, 1893 by the Orioles.

On the other side, this one got off to a bizarre and unfortunate start for Corbin, who entered today in search of his 100th career win. After he was already laboring with the bases loaded and two outs through the first five batters, heavy rain hit Nats Park and forced the game into a delay during an at-bat against Ha-Seong Kim, visibly upsetting the left-hander who possibly could have had his start ruined after 23 pitches.

Martinez typically doesn’t allow his starters to continue pitching after long and early rain delays. But the 35-year-old Corbin, who is a 12-year veteran and on an expiring contract, must have been the exception as the lefty returned to the mound when the rain had cleared and tarp removed.

“We have a little thing about an hour and a half after or an hour and 45 minutes (before pulling a starter after a delay), so I thought we were in a good position running him back out there," Martinez said. "And like I said, he did awesome.”

In the continuation of the at-bat before the delay, Kim hit a bases-clearing soft liner that James Wood couldn’t quite get to in left field. After two singles, two walks, a strikeout, three runs, 35 pitches, and 1 hour and 30 minutes from first pitch, Corbin was finally out of the top of the first inning down 3-0.

“Things like that happen," he said. "You just try to keep warm. You don't really know how long the weather is going to be there, so you just try to stay hot. I felt good coming back out. Just a tough situation there after throwing a pitch already and being behind in the count with the bases loaded there. Just a situation that is not ideal. But yeah, you just try to keep loose and then get out there and do your job.”

But Corbin deserves a lot of credit for what he did after all of that. Starting with a strikeout of Merrill, the veteran retired 17 of the final 20 batters he faced. He stranded Jurickson Profar after a two-out double in the second. He erased Xander Bogaerts’ leadoff single in the sixth with a double play. And he stranded Merrill after a walk and stolen base in the seventh.

“I just felt good throughout," Corbin said. "I thought we made good pitches. Some balls found holes, some didn't. But just trying to change speeds. I've been working really well with Keibert back there. He's been working hard and it seems like we have a good rhythm now. It seems like we're we're thinking alike. Those are just good things to see from him.”

Corbin completed his day with three runs on four hits and three walks with seven strikeouts in seven innings. His sixth quality start of the season came on a season-high 109 pitches, 71 of which were strikes.

“On the flip side, I'm gonna give a lot of credit to Corbin. He was amazing. He really was," Martinez said. "The first inning was a little rough. We had the rain delay. He sat around here for a little while, went back out there, he gave up the three runs. But after that, at first I thought, man, our bullpen is going to be messed up going into this weekend. But for him to give us seven innings at (109) pitches was phenomenal. I've known that about Patrick. Patrick, you give him the ball and he doesn't want to come out of the game and he's gonna give you the innings. I tried to get as many outs as he (could). So he was really good.”

But no matter how hard Corbin battled for his teammates, they could not provide him even with a hit off Cease to get him off the hook for his 10th loss of the year. And after starting this homestand with a three-game sweep of the Reds, they finished 3-3 with another sweep at the hands of the Padres.

“Sometimes you gotta tip your cap to the other guy, right? He was good," Martinez said. "So let's come back tomorrow. We had a chance to do something really special here this (homestand), but we went 3-3. So let's go back on the road and 1-0 tomorrow. Like I said, there's nothing we can do about that. We could look back all we want, but it ain't gonna do us no good. Let's get ready to play baseball tomorrow.”

The Nationals will have to wait until June 2025 to get even with the Padres after losing all six of their matchups this year. Hopefully then, they’ll be able to get at least a hit.

“I think we'll be fine," Abrams said. "We have got to keep the good energy. Put it behind us and stay where our feet are and keep going.”