PHOENIX — A San Diego Padres starting pitcher will allow a hit this season.
It just hasn’t happened yet.
Sean Manaea threw seven hitless innings Friday in his Padres debut, a day after Yu Darvish went six hitless innings in Thursday’s season opener.
The no-hitter was not intact for long after Manaea departed, but the Padres bullpen this time did protect a lead to the end, as the Padres beat the Diamondbacks 3-0 at Chase Field.
Whenever the hitless streak ends — and Joe Musgrove starts Saturday on the one-year anniversary of his throwing the only no-hitter in franchise history — what can be said is that the unit the Padres felt was the strength of their team has so far been that.
Padres starters had never thrown 13 no-hit innings in consecutive starts, and according to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Padres are the first team in the expansion era (since 1961) to not allow a hit over the first six innings of both its first two games in a season.
After Manaea threw 88 pitches, Tim Hill entered a game for the second night in a row with the task of trying to extend a no-hitter.
For the second straight night, that quest ended quickly.
As he did Thursday, Hill surrendered a single to the first batter he faced. This time, it was David Peralta lining a hit to left field. A one-out single by Geraldo Perdomo moved Peralta to third before Hill got the second out and was replaced by Dinelson Lamet.
Lamet threw one pitch to pinch-hitter Seth Beer, whose walk-off homer won Thursday’s game, and Beer flied out to center field.
New Padres closer Taylor Rogers pitched a perfect ninth for the save.
Jurickson Profar followed Eric Hosmer’s one-out single in the sixth inning by sending a first-pitch sinker from Oliver Perez into the seats beyond left field. Profar followed a Hosmer double in the eighth by bunting a single down the third base line, and a wayward throw to first base allowed Hosmer to score to make it 3-0.
