The San Diego Padres are one of two Major League franchises never to have thrown a no-hitter. On Saturday afternoon, against the Los Angeles Dodgers, they had one working for 8-2/3 innings. There were just two problems:
San Diego Padres No-Hitter Bid Broken By Juan Uribe; Dodgers Win In Ninth
(1) The Padres had only one hit of their own, and no runs
(2) 8-2/3 innings isn’t the same as 9 innings
The Padres went down in the top of the ninth, and then sent Luke Gregerson to the mound in the bottom, with the righty looking to continue the Padres' combined no-hit effort. He struck out Matt Kemp to lead off, and then induced a harmless grounder from James Loney. At that point, there were two down, and none on.
But up stepped Juan Uribe, and after falling behind 1-2, Uribe drilled a high slider over Chris Denorfia's head in left field for a double, and the Dodgers' first hit. And then, five pitches later, Dioner Navarro dropped a single into center to score Uribe and end the game. For 8-2/3 innings, the Dodgers were hitless. And then in the span of six pitches, they picked up two hits and a win.
Prior to the ninth, Aaron Harang, Josh Spence, Chad Qualls and Mike Adams combined to work eight hitless innings, with five walks and seven strikeouts. For the Dodgers, Rubby de la Rosa, Matt Guerrier, Mike MacDougal and Blake Hawksworth wound up winning a combined one-hitter, with four walks and ten strikeouts.
In the Friday series opener, the Dodgers also beat the Padres 1-0.
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