Rea falls short of notching first Padres no-hitter
While you were sleeping Thursday night, Padres right-hander Colin Rea tried to make franchise history. For those unaware, no San Diego pitcher has ever recorded a no-hitter.
Unfortunately, for Rea and the Padres, that statement remained true after Thursday’s game. He held the Mets hit-free through six, only to have his efforts thwarted by Yoenis Cespedes, who grounded a single through the wide-open side of the shifted infield with two outs in the seventh inning. Rea would later yield more hits, thereby ensuring that his performance wouldn’t even go down as the franchise’s most recent noteworthy close call.
That distinction — at least in the past decade — belongs instead to Chris Young. On Sept. 22, 2006, Young was two outs away from no-hitting the Pirates. Alas, he fell behind 3-1 in the count to Joe Randa and allowed a two-run home run that prevented history from being made. Young would add a walk and a strikeout to his line before departing.
MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell detailed some other close calls back in 2013, including this since-forgotten gem:
On July 9, 2011, five Padres pitchers combined to throw 8 2/3 no-hit innings against the Dodgers before Luke Gregerson surrendered a double. With the game scoreless in the bottom of the ninth, however, they would have needed at least one more unblemished frame to accomplish the feat.
We’ll end this on an interesting, albeit trivial note: The Mets have been on the opposite end of a lot of Padres no-hit attempts. Between 1991 and 1995, the Padres threw four one-hitters — each coming against the Mets. Blame it on the lack of interleague play, random chance, or some combination thereof.
You get the sense that, if the Padres are ever meant to notch a no-hitter, it’s supposed to happen against the Mets — just not Thursday night.
Colin Rea made his bid to throw the first no-hitter in Padres history. (USATSI)
