WASHINGTON — Dylan Stop had lived this second earlier than. He had carried a no-hitter into the ninth inning, when, with two outs, he was greeted by a pesky, contact-oriented, left-handed-hitting leadoff man.
When CJ Abrams’ line drive settled within the glove of Bryce Johnson for the ultimate out, Arraez made a beeline for the Padres proper fielder. He wished to current Stop with the ball. Certain sufficient, because the mob scene round Stop broke up, there was Arraez, arm outstretched, baseball in hand.
“That was superior,” mentioned Stop, who was dealt from the White Sox to the Padres in March. “I didn’t even have that in my thoughts. He offered it to me, and I used to be like: ‘Yeah, I’m safeguarding this.’ It’s undoubtedly going to go within the trophy case.”
Each Stop and Arraez landed in San Diego by way of commerce over the previous 5 months. They’ve every performed a serious position within the Padres’ success this season.
Just a few days in the past, they discovered themselves on an elevator collectively and the subject of Arraez’s no-hitter-spoiling single got here up.
“I informed him, ‘You’ve acquired great things, you may make it,’” Arraez mentioned. “Look, right now he did it. I’m actually excited for him.”
Arraez vividly recalled the final time Stop got here so shut. He was chasing a batting title on the time and acquired a 1-1 slider over the plate — considerably much like the pitch Stop threw to Abrams on Thursday. As Arraez recalled it: “Everybody in Chicago hated me.”
“Now I’m the other means, now I’m taking part in with him,” Arraez mentioned. “Now he’s my teammate. I loved watching him pitching right now.”
As Arraez alluded to, Stop was clearly on the verge. He had allowed just one hit in every of his earlier two begins and have become the primary pitcher since a minimum of 1901 to file 30 strikeouts and two hits or fewer over a three-start span.
“I have been shut,” Stop mentioned. “And to lastly get it executed, it is a type of issues that simply feels so exceptional and onerous to imagine. To have the ability to do it — to exit and expertise it — I actually do not even know the right way to really feel. I am simply completely happy.”