CINCINNATI -- Nick Martinez picked quite the night to flirt with history.
Facing his former team, Martinez came within three outs of tossing the 12th no-hitter against the Padres in their 57-year history.
With the Reds parading members of the 1975-76 Big Red Machine World Series champions before the game, the Padres barely avoided the ignominy of being held hitless when Elias Díaz doubled off the wall in left-center following a leadoff walk to Trenton Brooks in the ninth.
“It’s a long game. You can’t just run out the clock,” Brooks said of his five-pitch walk. “You’ve got to keep fighting, every at-bat, every pitch, and Díaz did an awesome job of getting a good pitch and hammering it.”
The Padres would not only spoil the no-hitter, but the shutout, too, when Bryce Johnson walked with the bases loaded against reliever Taylor Rogers with two outs in the ninth. But still, the Padres fell well short Friday at Great American Ball Park, 8-1.
Martinez (5-8), who came to Cincinnati in 2024 after two seasons in San Diego, had an 0-3 lifetime mark with a 6.89 ERA in three career starts against the Padres.
The Brooks walk snapped a string of 22 straight San Diego batters retired by Martinez, who was pulled by Cincinnati manager Terry Francona following the Díaz double after 112 pitches.
“It was really important, more for the team than me to be honest, because when somebody’s got a no-hitter against us, it’s not good,” Díaz said. “We scored a run, and we [spoiled] the shutout and all the other stuff.”
Martinez allowed just the one hit and one run over eight-plus innings, striking out six and walking two.
The biggest takeaway in the Padres’ clubhouse afterward was the way they battled entering the ninth, down 8-0 and with the game out of reach.
“It was really important, because we were fighting from the beginning to the end,” Díaz said. “We were trying to put up good at-bats. You’re going to have games like this, and some days you’re going to have big games.”
“Thankfully, we put some really good at-bats together,” Padres skipper Mike Shildt said. “I was really pleased with the at-bats in the ninth, because we could have thrown some at-bats away, but Brooks led off and wasn’t going to give in. And Díaz didn’t give in, clearly. And even after that great at-bat by Jackson [Merrill]. … It was just a pro at-bat, and Johnson grinded too, but [Martinez] did a great job tonight. Just glad we were able to scratch at least a hit out there tonight.”
Before the Díaz double, there were close calls -- like the Manny Machado drive to deep center to open the seventh, the sliding catch by Reds right fielder Will Benson on a slicing liner from Merrill and then Fernando Tatis Jr.’s liner to Benson to end the inning. After the Machado at-bat, Martinez and Machado couldn’t help but smile at each other.
“I thought he got me. He looked at me, and he’s laughing,” Martinez admitted. “He said right away he didn’t get it, so that helped. I thought it was a homer.”
But the play of the night came when Benson robbed Gavin Sheets on a sliding grab to open the fifth.
As for Padres starter Dylan Cease (3-7), who authored a no-hitter against the Nationals nearly 11 months ago to the day on July 25, 2024, he did not have no-hit stuff. He took his fourth loss in six starts, allowing four runs -- three earned -- on five hits. He struck out eight in his four innings but walked three and allowed two of Spencer Steer’s three homers on the night.
“I think he just had a couple of really good at-bats,” Cease said. “That's baseball. It happens. He won today.”
Steer was thwarted in his drive for a fourth homer when Padres reliever David Morgan struck him out to open the eighth. Steer was trying to become the first Reds player since Scooter Gennett on June 6, 2017, against St. Louis to homer four times in a game. The Cardinals’ manager that night was Shildt.
“I’ve seen four homers in this ballpark and didn’t want to see it again, but good swings by him. Used both fields against Dylan,” Shildt said.
It was a rough start for Cease and a sloppy one for the defense behind him. The right-hander labored through a 24-pitch first, opening with a walk to TJ Friedl and a sharp single to right by Matt McLain.
Friedl advanced to third and McLain took second when Tatis didn’t scoop the ball cleanly on the wet grass, a result of heavy rain 60 minutes prior to first pitch.
Friedl scored on a groundout by Elly De La Cruz, then catcher Martín Maldonado couldn’t glove a mask-high fastball from Cease, and it went to the backstop for a passed ball, allowing McLain to cross for a 2-0 Cincinnati lead.