Remarkable facts to know about Cease's 1st career no-hitter

Both Dylan Cease and the Padres have known no-hit bid heartbreak in the past.

On Sept. 3, 2022, Cease (then with the White Sox) lost a no-hitter with two outs in the ninth inning when the Twins’ Luis Arraez (now his teammate in San Diego) knocked a single. The Padres, meanwhile, endured an infamous 53-season wait for their first no-no before Joe Musgrove finally made them the 30th and final franchise to throw one on April 9, 2021.

On Thursday afternoon in Washington, however, there was no heartbreak. Cease, in his first season with San Diego, finished the job in a 3-0 win over the Nationals. He has his no-hitter, and the Padres’ wait for their second lasted a measly three years.

Cease becomes the sixth pitcher in the Expansion Era (since 1961) to both lose a no-hit bid with two outs in the ninth inning or later and later complete a no-no, joining Roy Halladay, Dave Stieb, Tom Seaver, Jim Maloney and Larry Dierker.

Here's a collection of amazing facts and figures to know about MLB’s second no-hitter of the 2024 season.

• All-time no-hitters in MLB history

Cease completes the feat

• Cease’s aforementioned close call was also his only previous nine-inning complete game in the Majors. In fact, he had recorded one out past the seventh inning only one other time, when he pitched eight innings in the start immediately before his near-no-hitter in 2022. This season, Cease’s longest start was seven innings, something he’d done five times.

• Cease’s final pitch of the no-hitter was his 114th of the game. That set a new career high for the most pitches he’s thrown in any game. Cease had thrown 113 pitches twice, on May 8 this season and on April 16, 2023.

• While Cease had a limited record of complete games, in another respect he was a top candidate for a no-hitter. Entering the day, he had made 13 starts with at least five innings pitched and no more than one hit allowed since the beginning of the 2021 season. That was the most in the Majors over that span, three more than both Blake Snell and Freddy Peralta.

• Cease’s no-hitter continued a run of recent dominance. The right-hander allowed just one hit in six scoreless innings on July 13, striking out 11 Braves. On Saturday, he pitched seven one-hit frames in a scoreless outing against the Guardians, striking out 10. Cease became the first pitcher since at least 1901 to go six or more innings and allow one hit or fewer in three straight outings. This year, he has six outings of six or more innings with one hit or fewer allowed, and no other pitcher since at least 1901 has more than four in a season. With Thursday’s nine-strikeout gem, Cease became the first pitcher since at least 1901 with 30 or more strikeouts and two or fewer hits allowed in a three-outing span.

An overwhelming performance

• Cease struck out Jacob Young in the sixth inning with a 100.0 mph fastball. It was his first 100-plus mph strikeout in 145 career regular-season starts. Cease does also have one triple-digit K in the postseason -- he struck out Alex Bregman with a 100.1 mph fastball in Game 3 of the 2021 ALDS while with the White Sox.

• Cease brought the heat all day Thursday. Besides the 100 mph strikeout vs. Young, he also fanned star Nationals prospect James Wood twice on fastballs at 97.9 mph and 98.6 mph. And his four-seamer averaged 98.3 mph for the game -- Cease’s third-highest fastball velocity for any game of his career, behind only a start on Sept. 25, 2020, against the Cubs (98.8 mph) and that ’21 ALDS start against the Astros (98.5 mph).

• Cease didn’t just no-hit the Nats -- he fully dominated. Washington managed only three hard-hit balls (95-plus-mph exit velocity), and two of those were grounders. Of the 16 batted balls against Cease, nine had an expected batting average below .200, and 14 had an xBA below .300. Coincidentally, by far the closest call by that measure came on the final out, as CJ Abrams’ sinking liner -- which hung up just long enough for Padres right fielder Bryce Johnson to snag -- had a .560 xBA. Balls hit with similar combos of exit velocity (82.6 mph) and launch angle (22 degrees) often drop in front of an outfielder for a hit.

Other notes to know

• It was appropriate that Cease’s no-hitter came on July 25, as it’s not the first time he has dominated on that date. Exactly six years earlier, in 2018, Cease was with Double-A Birmingham in the White Sox system when he authored perhaps the finest outing of his Minor League career. Facing The Tennessee Smokies, Cease allowed only one hit and one walk while striking out 12 over seven scoreless innings.

• Speaking of July 25, this was the third no-hitter recorded on that date. The Phillies’ Cole Hamels no-hit the Cubs in 2015, while the legendary Old Hoss Radbourn of the NL’s Providence Grays no-hit the Cleveland Blues way back in 1883.

• The Nationals have now been no-hit in back-to-back seasons, their first and second times being no-hit since moving from Montreal in 2005. (Michael Lorenzen of the Phillies no-hit Washington on Aug. 9, 2023.) As the Expos, the franchise was victim to four no-hitters, most recently David Cone’s perfect game for the Yankees on July 18, 1999. The franchise has been no-hit six times, tied with the Rangers and Rays for seventh fewest in MLB.