WASHINGTON — Hoping for a chance to stay in the game and pitch the second no-hitter in San Diego Padres history, Dylan Cease received some help from the man who threw the first.

Cease was at 95 pitches through seven innings when Padres Manager Mike Schildt glanced at Joe Musgrove.

“Joe is like, `His stuff is pretty good,’” Shildt recalled. “Well, he’s thrown one. He knows what this looks like. We let him ride.”

Cease needed only nine pitches in the eighth and 11 in the ninth in a 3-0 victory over the Washington Nationals on Thursday that completed a three-game sweep.

Cease, who fell one out short of a no-hitter two years ago when he gave up a single to current teammate Luis Arráez, retired Ildemaro Vargas and Jacob Young on groundouts for the first two outs of the ninth, then got CJ Abrams to hit a flyout to right on a 1-0 slider.

“My thought was I’m going to throw a slider and I’m going to get it down, and if it’s down, he’s either hopefully going to beat it into the ground or he can’t put in play,” Cease said. “I didn’t like it off the bat. It looked very hitterish, but fortunately fate’s on my side today.”

Cease (10-8) struck out nine and walked three in the 28-year-old right-hander’s third complete game in 145 big league starts. He threw a career-high 114 pitches in a game that included a 1-hour, 16-minute rain delay in the first inning.

“The first inning, he comes in and says ‘I’m not quite there,’” Shildt recalled. “The second inning, ‘Getting there.’ Then the third inning, he just hit his stride.”

Joe Musgrove pitched the Padres’ first no-hitter, against Texas on April 9, 2021. Houston’s Ronel Blanco threw the only other no-hitter this season, against Toronto on April 1.

Cease was within one out of a no-hitter for the Chicago White Sox against Minnesota on Sept. 3, 2022, when Arráez lined a single to right-center on a 1-1 slider over the middle of the strike zone.

“I’ve been close, and to finally get it done, it’s one of those things that feels so remarkable and hard to believe,” Cease said. “To be able to do it and go out and experience it, I really don’t even know how to feel. Just happy.”

The closest Washington came to a hit was when Juan Yepez lofted a fly to shallow center in the fifth inning. The ball popped out of second baseman Xander Bogaerts’ glove, but center fielder Jackson Merrill was there to snare the ball before it hit the ground.

Bogaerts also bobbled a ball after making a diving stop of Keibert Ruiz’s grounder with one out in the eighth but recovered in time to throw out the slow-footed catcher.

DODGERS 6, GIANTS 4: Clayton Kershaw allowed two runs over four innings in his return from shoulder surgery, Nick Ahmed and Shohei Ohtani homered on consecutive pitches in the eighth inning, and Los Angeles Dodgers won at home.

The 36-year-old left-hander gave up six hits, struck out six and walked two while throwing 47 of 72 pitches for strikes.

RAYS 13, BLUE JAYS 0: Taj Bradley extended his scoreless streak to 23 innings in winning his fifth straight decision, Brandon Lowe homered into the upper deck, and Tampa Bay won at Toronto.

RANGERS 2, WHITE SOX 1: Max Scherzer struck out a season-high nine to take over 10th place on the career list, Marcus Semien homered, and Texas won at home.

Pitching two days before his 40th birthday, Scherzer (2-3) pushed his career total to 3,400 strikeouts after first passing former teammate and fellow three-time Cy Young winner Justin Verlander with his third strikeout of the game. Scherzer leads among active pitchers.

Semien’s 15th homer led off the third against rookie right-hander Jonathan Cannon (1-5) to tie the game at 1-1. The Rangers went ahead an inning later when Nathaniel Lowe hit a leadoff double and scored on a fielder’s choice grounder by Leody Taveras.

TIGERS 3, GUARDIANS 0: Javier Báez hit a three-run homer in the second inning and six pitchers combined on a four-hitter, sending Detroit to a victory at Cleveland.

Báez homered for the first time since April 14, belting a 409-footer into the left-field bleachers. It was his second home run in 217 at-bats this season and raised his average to .180.

ORIOLES 7, MARLINS 6: Ryan Mountcastle hit a go-ahead single in the 10th inning and Baltimore rebounded after wasting a six-run lead at Miami.

Anthony Santander hit his 28th homer, and Colton Cowser and Connor Norby also went deep for Baltimore.

NOTES

RED SOX: First baseman Triston Casas is almost ready for a rehab assignment, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said on a Boston morning radio show.

“He’s made quite a bit of progress over the last week or so, where he’s taking swings at full intensity and taking full batting practice. So, I think he could find himself in rehab games pretty quickly, as quickly as potentially even the end of this week, which is a great turnaround from where we were at the timeline we were talking about a few weeks ago,” Breslow said.

“I think we’ve all talked, Alex (Cora) and I, about the sensitive nature of this rehab in that there are some feelings and tolerance that Triston needs to work through,” he continued. “But we’ve been really, really excited about the last week or so and hope to see him in rehab games here shortly.”

Casas appeared in 22 games for Boston before suffering his injury, batting .244 with 10 RBI and six home runs.