Nats no-hit for first time, ending longest active streak in majors (updated)

PHILADELPHIA – It has never happened. Not in the team’s 18-year existence since relocating to Washington, D.C., in 2005.

The Nationals have never been no-hit.

In fact, entering today, the franchise had the longest active streak of avoiding a no-hitter dating back 24 years, 0 months and 22 days to David Cone’s perfect game against the Expos at Yankee Stadium on July 18, 1999.

That streak came to an end tonight as Michael Lorenzen, making his first home start for the Phillies since being acquired at the trade deadline from the Tigers, no-hit the Nationals in a 7-0 win in front of 30,406 raucous fans at Citizens Bank Park.

“That was the coolest moment of my baseball career, going out there for the ninth,” Lorenzen told reporters after the game. “Just walking out of the dugout and hearing the fans go wild, it gave me the chills. It gave me that boost of energy that I needed for sure."

“He had it going on today. He was good," manager Davey Martinez said after the game. "Mixed all of his pitches in, threw to a bunch of strikes. His changeup was really good to the lefties, slider was good to the righties. Just it was his day today. Like I said, he threw strikes, he threw the ball over the plate. Good mix of pitches.”

The Nationals did draw four walks against Lorenzen to deny him a perfect game. And he didn't really overpower the Nats lineup, striking out only five. This was only the fifth no-hitter in the last 50 years with four or more walks and five or fewer strikeouts.

“I didn’t really have great stuff," Lorenzen said. "My changeup, I will say we made an adjustment. (Phillies pitching coach) Caleb (Cotham) helped me with the changeup. Showed me a grip from back in ‘19. And my grip for the past two years was different and I didn’t realize it. So we went back to that grip and the changeup played really well for me tonight.”

“We knew he had a good fastball, four-seam and two-seam. Good slider, good changeup," Martinez said. "But like I said, his changeup was really effective to lefties today. His slider was really good. But he pumped strikes. Kept our hitters off balance and threw strikes.”

“He threw a lot of strikes," said Dominic Smith. "He controlled the zone, controlled the tempo, get ahead. And when you're able to get ahead, sometimes you're able to get quick outs. And that's what he was able to do tonight.”

With a flyout to center field, Smith was the last out of history, something no hitter wants to be. In his previous at-bat, he hit one to the warning track, one of the good chances the Nats had for a knock tonight.

“Yeah, I hit it well," Smith said. "I got a little bit off the end, but playing here in Philly, you hope something like that goes out. But he made some good pitches. Just missed that one right there. I think our whole team had some decent at-bats against him. His defense played well behind him. And like I said, he made good pitches.”

There were some hard-hit balls off the right-hander, however. The Nationals hit three balls with an exit velocity of 100 mph or greater, with Keibert Ruiz’s 101.8-mph seventh-inning groundout registering an expected batting average of .510. Six other balls off Nats bats had expected batting averages of .340 or higher.

“I think they were really trying to stay back, stay in the middle of the field," Martinez said. "I mean, look, we barreled some balls up, probably eight or nine. The eighth inning we hit some balls well. Just wasn't our day. And like I said, sometimes it's meant to be and today it was meant to be for him.”

“I think everybody wants to be the guy to break it up," Lane Thomas said. "So that can kind of go against you in some of those at-bats.”

Some tough luck for the visiting team.

“He threw strikes," Thomas said. "I thought he threw pitches around the zone, not really in the middle of the zone. So he made it difficult for us. I thought he just made good pitches when he needed to, especially when his pitch count got high. I thought he threw some good pitches to get some soft contact.”

The only other time the Nationals have come close to being no-hit was when Michael Wacha carried a bid into the ninth inning on Sept. 24, 2013, only for Ryan Zimmerman to break it up with a two-out infield single. The last Washington team to be no-hit was the Senators by Sonny Siebert on June 10, 1966 in Cleveland.

“I didn't really notice what was going on until about the sixth," Thomas said. "So I think that's when you start maybe trying to overcompensate a little bit and put some stuff in play you normally wouldn't swing at.”

The no-hitter also ended the Nats’ streak of not being shut out. It had been 96 games since the last time they were shut out on April 19 against the Orioles. It was the longest single-season streak in Nationals history (2005-present), and the longest streak in the majors this season. They were one game away from tying the 2021 Mariners for the longest single-season streak in major league history.

“Everybody's trying to get a hit," Smith said. "And we're trying to talk about, we're trying to jinx him, we're trying to do everything we can to disrupt his rhythm that he had tonight. Everybody knew what he was doing and how effective they were. We were trying to mix it up, swing early, take a couple of pitches, work the counts. And he was able to combat that, throw strikes and eventually get the job done.”

While the offense had nothing going against Lorenzen, MacKenzie Gore put the Nationals in a big hole early.

After the Phillies put on a homer barrage yesterday – hitting four longballs between the two games of the doubleheader – Gore proceeded to give up three in the first three innings en route to allowing six runs to score over his five frames.

Nick Castellanos hit a two-run shot in the first inning as part of a three-run first frame. Weston Wilson, making his major league debut, hit his first career homer in his first at-bat to lead off the second inning. Then Castellanos, doing his best Kyle Schwarber impression, hit his second of the night and 200th of his career in the third.

“Just those three bad pitches," Gore said. "We got a lot of swings and misses. But I made three bad pitches and they hit three homers. And there were more pitches that were not great, but those three, they didn't miss them.”

It was the third multi-homer game for Castellanos this year and his first since June 2 at Nationals Park.

Gore departed after five innings and 83 pitches, his ERA now at 4.62

“Just some missed locations," Martinez said. "Overall, I know it looks bad when he gave up one run here and one run there. The three runs. But overall, MacKenzie threw the ball fairly well, threw strikes. Just those guys can hit. When they hit, they get hits.”

While Gore had to deal with the Phillies hitting homers off him, he also had to watch Lorenzen no-hit his teammates.

“I was more worried about the six runs I gave up," Gore said. "It's tough to win any game when the starter gives up six runs. They hit balls hard tonight, but congrats to him. It's hard to do. But I was more worried about the mess I had put us in.”

But tonight belonged to the Phillies, both at the plate and on the mound.

The Nationals had some streaks snapped tonight. The only thing they can do is tip their caps and start new ones tomorrow.

“It's only one game, right?" said Martinez. "Come back tomorrow and go 1-0.”