A pitcher threw a no-hitter for the first time in San Diego Padres history on Friday night. Joe Musgrove, who joined his hometown club this offseason after spending the last three years in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ organization, allowed one baserunner on a hit by pitch and was otherwise flawless in San Diego’s 3-0 win over the Texas Rangers. Musgrove threw 112 pitches and struck out 10 on the night.
It took 8,206 games for the Padres to get a no-hitter on their books, but it certainly ended up being worth the wait. Hey, speaking of having to wait for something and ultimately getting really happy when it came time to make it happen, here’s Musgrove talking after the game about how bad he had to go to the bathroom.
“I had to piss so bad in like the fourth or fifth inning.”
Joe Musgrove held it in during his no hitter despite drinking “11 or 12” water bottles
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— Sporting News (@sportingnews) April 10, 2021
“That was the one thing I didn’t want to break, the superstition of it,” Musgrove told the assembled press, according to Alden Gonzalez of ESPN. “I didn’t want to have to go use the bathroom in the middle of a start.”
Baseball players are famously some of the most superstitious athletes in the world — now is a fun time to remind everyone that Wade Boggs ate fried chicken before every game — but “I did not go pee because I thought it would keep me from throwing a no-hitter” is a new one. The only rule is it has to work, though, and this certainly did.