WASHINGTON -- Patrick Corbin could not wait to return to the mound after a spontaneous downpour interrupted and delayed his outing five batters into Thursday afternoon¡¯s series finale. The Nationals starter was the first player jogging back onto the field after 1 hour and 16 minutes, and he began to warm up.

The southpaw matched a season-high seven innings to give the Nats the length that they needed, but Padres ace Dylan Cease no-hit Washington¡¯s offense in a 3-0 loss at Nationals Park.

¡°We watched [Cease] before they came into this series and I said, ¡®This guy, his stuff is on. It will be tough,¡¯¡± manager Dave Martinez said. ¡°On the flip side, I will give a lot of credit to Corbin. He was amazing, he was.¡±

Washington was held to zero hits for the second time in franchise history. The last time the Nats were held to zero hits was on Aug. 8, 2023, against then-Phillies starter Michael Lorenzen.

Corbin faced five batters and had begun Padres shortstop Ha-Seong Kim¡¯s at-bat before the delay, leaving bases loaded with two outs.

¡°Things like that happen,¡± Corbin said. ¡°You try to keep warm and don¡¯t know how long the weather is going to be there. So you try to stay hot and it feels good coming back out. [It was] just a tough situation there after throwing a pitch already, being behind the count. ¡­ It¡¯s not ideal, but you try to keep loose and get out there and do your job.¡±

When the game resumed, the battle with Kim continued. Corbin tried to get himself out of the jam, but was unsuccessful. After a nine-pitch at-bat, Kim emerged victorious with a bases-clearing single to give the Padres a 3-0 lead.

The 35-year-old Corbin put the frame behind him and cruised through the rest of his outing. He dealt 109 pitches (71 strikes) in tying his season high for innings -- a feat which he completed a month ago against the Padres on June 24.

¡°Patrick, you give him the ball and he doesn¡¯t want to come out of the game,¡± Martinez said. ¡°He¡¯s going to give you as many innings and try to get as many outs as he can.¡±

The Los Angeles native limited the Padres to three runs, but the Nationals¡¯ offense simply could not find an answer to Cease¡¯s arsenal.

¡°Today, [Cease] had both breaking balls, great shape, and we knew that coming in, but it was really good so he kept our hitters off-balance all game,¡± Martinez said. ¡°I watched him all game and he never really gave us much to hit.¡±

¡°He kind of picks around the plate,¡± Nats right fielder Lane Thomas said. ¡°He threw a few pitches that I feel I could¡¯ve hit, but he painted [the corners] against me. I felt like I worked a couple of good at-bats.¡±

There were a few instances where the Nationals got a few swings with good contact off the bat. Juan Yepez, whose 15-game hit streak was snapped in the loss, sent a ball into the outfield toward Padres second baseman Xander Bogaerts. The ball slid out of Bogaerts¡¯ glove, which would have resulted in a hit, but teammate Jackson Merrill was right there to record the out.

CJ Abrams was also able to get some contact off some fastballs, which were hit hard, but ¡°not hard enough.¡±

Being on the no-hit side of history is not ideal. However, the Nationals will simply tip their caps to Cease and move on to their upcoming road trip to St. Louis and Arizona.

¡°He was good. So let¡¯s come back tomorrow. We had a chance to do something special, but we went 3-3 [on the homestand after sweeping the Reds],¡± Martinez said. ¡°So let¡¯s get back on the road and go on tomorrow. There¡¯s nothing we can do about that. We could look back all we want, but it won¡¯t do us any good.¡±