{"id":45990,"date":"2021-04-15T23:43:17","date_gmt":"2021-04-16T03:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=45990"},"modified":"2021-04-15T23:43:17","modified_gmt":"2021-04-16T03:43:17","slug":"padres-no-hitter-san-diego-legit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2021\/04\/15\/padres-no-hitter-san-diego-legit\/","title":{"rendered":"Padres No-Hitter Marks San Diego as Legit"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Diego Padres: A Team Finally Worth Rooting For<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The San Diego Padres<\/a><\/span>‘ no-hitter marked a momentous shift for the franchise. This is finally a team that deserves the national spotlight \u2014 one that has never shone brightly in San Diego.<\/p>\n

Remember when the Padres were bad and wore blue? Some San Diegans probably shudder at the mere memory. Streaks of losing seasons, a long playoff drought, the painstaking reality that a World Series was (for many years) far out of reach. Prior to 2015, the Padres were the only team without a player to never hit for the cycle. Prior to 2020, they hadn\u2019t punched a ticket to the playoffs in over a decade. And up until last Friday night, no Padre had ever thrown a no-hitter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t too long ago (<\/span>2014 to 2019, to be exact<\/span><\/a>) that the Padres finished six consecutive seasons 26th or lower in the majors in many categories. Batting average. On-base percentage. Runs batted in. Chase rate. Strikeouts. You name it, the Padres were among the worst.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But now the Padres are good and wear brown. They\u2019ve hit milestones most franchises have \u2014 a cycle, a recent playoff berth, a no-hitter \u2014 and a first World Series title now in sight.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Even though the evolution from bad to great had more to do with the talent that A.J. Preller and his staff acquired than their new and improved uniforms, these milestones signify something greater: San Diego is ready to win it all.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two Cycles Are Better than One<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Four months after his hiring in December of 2014, Preller exchanged a total of 24 players in a three-day span \u2014 the most in major league history. Two of those acquisitions were Matt Kemp and Wil Myers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Then, on August 13, 2015, Kemp made history by becoming the first Padre to hit for the cycle, doing so against the Colorado Rockies<\/a> at Coors Field. Nearly two years later, on April 10, 2017, Myers became the second.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

San Diego had gone 7,443 games without a cycle. In a span of 215 games, they had two.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.@Wilmyers<\/a> collects ALL of the hits to nail down the second cycle in @Padres<\/a> history (Matt Kemp, 2015). pic.twitter.com\/eO0ZnfaujN<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 MLB (@MLB) April 11, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n