Does Dylan Cease's no-hitter cap off best three-start stretch ever?

On a humid, 83-degree day in the nation's capital, Dylan Cease was sweating through his San Diego Padres uniform, the brown pin-striped jersey now more of a dark gray. The ninth inning had just begun and Cease had yet to allow a hit. He had thrown 103 pitches -- a low enough total, even in today's game, to get a shot at completing the no-hitter.

Ildemaro Vargas battled for eight pitches, fouling off five pitches, before finally grounding out to second base. Jacob Young swung at a first-pitch slider and grounded out routinely to shortstop. CJ Abrams took a slider low and in and then swung at another one, lifting a soft liner to right field.

With that final out, Cease had his first career no-hitter -- just the second in franchise history after Joe Musgrove broke through in 2021 -- and completed one of the great three-game stretches in major league history.

On July 13, he allowed one hit with 11 strikeouts in six scoreless innings to beat the Atlanta Braves. Then, in his next start July 20, he allowed one hit with 10 strikeouts in seven scoreless innings to beat the Cleveland Guardians.

Now, he has gone the distance, striking out nine batters en route to the first no-no of his career.

Cease, who pitched 8 no-hit innings with the White Sox in a 2022 game before seeing the bid broken up by current teammate Luis Arraez, said he first started thinking about the no-hitter after the sixth inning, "but the pitch count was high, so it was like, 'Uhh ... .'"

He issued a leadoff walk in the seventh but managed to get through the inning in 16 pitches. He told manager Mike Shildt that he still felt great but figured he had to get through the eighth inning in 105 pitches. With an easy nine-pitch inning, he had room to go out for the ninth.

Remarkably, this was Cease's sixth start this season of at least six innings allowing one or fewer hits. That's a major league record -- 10 pitchers, including Cease in 2022, are tied for second with four such games in a season. This might not be quite as impressive as it seems; since pitchers rarely throw complete games anymore (or even eight innings), seven of those other 10 pitchers did it since 2021. Still, it points to how difficult it is to square up Cease, especially his slider, which he threw 60 times Thursday. He leads the majors in strikeouts; batters are hitting just .191 against him (although his ERA is a bit high for a Cy Young contender at 3.50).

Now, about that three-start stretch. To say Cease's is an all-time great is a little more difficult since you're comparing him to pitchers who, back in the day, would have thrown three straight complete games. Still, he's the first pitcher to have three consecutive starts of at least six innings allowing one or fewer hits. Let's list some of the other candidates, leaving out the dead-ball era:

• Johnny Vander Meer, 1938 Cincinnati Reds (June 5-15): The only pitcher with back-to-back no-hitters, Vander Meer allowed three hits and one run in his start before the first no-hitter. But he also had 14 walks and 17 strikeouts over the three games. Three-start average game score: 84.7

• Sandy Koufax, 1963 Los Angeles Dodgers (July 3-12): He tossed three consecutive three-hit shutouts, racking up 26 strikeouts. Average game score: 89.0
• Koufax, 1965 Dodgers (Sept. 25-Oct. 2): With the Dodgers battling for the pennant (they'd win by two games over the San Francisco Giants), Koufax tossed two shutouts, allowed one run and fanned 38 batters in his final three starts. Average game score: 88.3
• Bob Gibson, 1968 St. Louis Cardinals (June 15-26): The best three-game stretch of Gibson's 1.12 ERA season: three straight shutouts with 26 strikeouts and 13 hits allowed (part of a stretch of five straight shutouts). Average game score: 86.7
• Nolan Ryan, 1972 Los Angeles Angels (Aug. 22-31): Three straight shutouts -- one of them 12 innings, which boosts his average game. Overall line: 30 IP, 13 H, 13 BB, 31 SO. Average game score: 89.3
• Dwight Gooden, 1984 New York Mets (Sept. 7-17): The 19-year-old rookie tossed an 11-strikeout one-hitter and then back-to-back 16-strikeout games, one of those another shutout. Average game score: 87.7
• Randy Johnson, 1997 Seattle Mariners (May 28-June 8): Three straight scoreless starts, including two 15-strikeout games and just seven hits allowed. Average game score: 89.7
• Roger Clemens, 1998 Toronto Blue Jays (Aug. 20-30): Three-hit shutout, three-hit shutout and two-hit shutout with strikeout totals of six, 18 and seven, respectively. Average game score: 90.3
• Pedro Martinez, 1999 Boston Red Sox (Aug. 30-Sept. 10): This was part of a ridiculous eight-start stretch where Martinez fanned at least 11 batters in every start (107 strikeouts in 62 innings with a 1.16 ERA). He allowed one run in six innings with 11 K's, no runs in eight innings with 15 K's and then one run in his famous 17-strikeout game against the New York Yankees. Average game score: 86.0
• Max Scherzer, 2015 Washington Nationals (June 14-26): A 16-strikeout one-hitter, followed by a 10-strikeout no-hitter (he lost a perfect game when he hit the 27th batter), followed by eight innings of two-run ball. Average game score: 89.3

• Clayton Kershaw, 2015 Dodgers (July 18-Aug. 1): Peak Kershaw was something. In this stretch, he allowed no runs in 25 innings with just 8 hits, 32 strikeouts and 1 walk. And in the game before this stretch, he tossed an eight-hit shutout with 13 strikeouts. Average game score: 88.7
• Dylan Cease, 2023 Padres (July 13-25): Two hits allowed over 22 innings with 30 strikeouts and no runs. Average game score: 85.0

Subjectively, I'd probably go with Scherzer's trio, which features probably the most dominant back-to-back efforts ever -- although you have to give Koufax extra credit for doing it in the final days of a heated playoff race in 1965. For me, Cease just didn't play quite enough innings to get the nod for the best three-start stretch ever.

Well, not yet -- but let's see what he does next time out.