SAN DIEGO (AP) — San Diego's Dylan Cease held the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers in check in his first start after throwing his first career no-hitter and Clayton Kershaw lasted only 3 2/3 innings in his second start of the season as the Padres won 8-1 Wednesday night for a two-game sweep.
Kershaw made his 2024 debut on Thursday after having offseason shoulder surgery. The 36-year-old lefty had a solid outing against San Francisco then, but had a shaky performance at Petco Park, as did the rest of the Dodgers, who committed three errors and had just three hits.
All-Star Jurickson Profar had two RBI singles and Luis Campusano had a homer and RBI single for the Padres, who won for the ninth time in 11 games since the All-Star break.
The Padres clinched the season series against their biggest rivals at 7-3 with just a three-game set to go at Dodger Stadium in late September. It snapped a streak of 13 straight season series wins for the Dodgers.
“Every game we’re playing now is extremely important,” said Cease, who no-hit the Nationals 3-0 at Washington on Thursday, the second gem in Padres history. “We need to continue to bring this focus and intensity and effort to every game we’re playing. We’re really looking good right now.”
Kershaw (0-1) was pulled with two outs in the fourth after Xander Bogaerts hit a sacrifice fly. The 17-year veteran allowed seven runs — just three earned — with no strikeouts and one walk.
According to ESPN Stats & Info, Kershaw's streak of 423 regular-season starts with at least one strikeout had been the longest since the mound was moved to its current distance in 1893.
The three-time NL Cy Young Award winner and 2014 MVP committed one of the Dodgers' three errors, with second baseman Gavin Lux committing the other two. Kershaw booted Bryce Johnson's bunt in the second, making three of the four Padres' runs that inning unearned.
Four straight Padres batters reached with one out and all scored. Campusano and Profar had RBI singles, Luis Arraez had an RBI groundout and a run scored on Kershaw's error.
The Padres scored three more in the fourth. Campusano homered to left. Johnson singled, Arraez reached on Lux's second error, Profar hit his second RBI single and Bogaerts hit a sacrifice fly to chase Kershaw.
Cease (11-8) won his fourth straight start by holding the Dodgers to one run and three hits in 5 2/3 innings while striking out six and walking three. He got a nice ovation as manager Mike Shildt came out to remove him after he struck out Teoscar Hernández.
Cease was wearing a “San Diego No-No Club” T-shirt commemorating his no-hitter and the first one in team history by San Diego-area native Joe Musgrove on April 9, 2021, at Texas.
His bid to join Johnny Vander Meer as the only big leaguers to throw consecutive no-hitters ended when Jason Heyward singled with one out in the second.
“The idea of that is very appealing. It definitely crossed my mind but at the end of the day, difficult to do,” Cease said.
The Dodgers broke through in the third but a heads-up play by third baseman Manny Machado kept the damage to just one run.
Nick Ahmed hit a two-out single and Shohei Ohtani walked. Lux doubled into the right field corner and Ahmed scored. Ohtani was held up at third but broke for home when he saw the relay throw from right fielder Johnson going over the cutoff man's head. Machado alertly fielded it and flipped the ball home to get Ohtani.
“The ball got away and I went to go grab it and I saw Ohtani go," Machado said. "Just trying to get that out and save the run and get out of the inning. That could have led to a bigger inning than what it was and we got out of it.”
