On June 1, 2012, when New York Mets pitcher Johan Santana threw the team’s first ever no-hitter after a 50-plus-season 8,019-game drought, the San Diego Padres took on the role as being the only Major League team with no no-hitter.
The Padres streak at that time was a young 6,896 regular-season games, and the team kept adding to it through 2019, when the Friars surpassed the Mets’ streak.
The drought finally ended on April 9, 2021, when Joe Musgrove no-hit the Texas Rangers to stop the Padres’ drought at 8,205 regular-season games and 40 post-season games.
These archived pages celebrate that streak.

It took the Padres 52 years to throw a no-hitter?
That’s correct … well, a major league Padres pitcher had never hurled a no-hitter before Musgrove. Prior to the 1969 MLB expansion, the Padres were a minor league team in the Pacific Coast League, and the squad recorded three no-hitters. On May 7, 1959, when the Padres were an Indians AAA affiliate, Russ Heman no-hit the Vancouver Mounties en route to a 2-0 win. Al Worthington, a AAA White Sox affiliate pitcher, no-hit Hawaii 5-0 on Aug. 26, 1961, and Sammy Ellis got one against Tacoma when the Padres were a Reds affiliate on Aug. 14, 1962, 4-0.
So even with great pitchers like Randy Jones, Jake Peavy and Clay Kirby, the MLB club couldn’t break through?
None of them could do it, although Kirby came close … several times. And perhaps Kirby’s start on July 21, 1970 reveals the origin of The Curse.
In that game, the New York Mets were beating the Padres 1-0 but Kirby still had a no-hitter going through eight innings. With two outs in the bottom of the eighth, San Diego skipper Preston Gomez decided to pull Kirby for a pinch hitter, Cito Gaston. Gaston struck out, reliever Jack Baldschun gave up a ninth-inning lead-off single to Bud Harrelson and the Mets rallied to pad their lead to 3-0, which would be the final score.
Would Kirby have reached base and started a rally that would have given them a 2-1 lead and an eventual no-no win? Would Kirby have struck out, yet kept the no-hitter alive through the top of the ninth to set up a ninth-inning Padres walk-off victory? We’ll never know, but it no longer matters after April 9, 2021.
So were the Padres are cursed?
I have no idea, but perhaps a blessing from The Swinging Friar helped break it. (Not sure if there’s a Franciscan prayer for no-hitters.)
Great site! I’m a Pads fan and would love to see them break this streak. Perhaps a move back to their classic brown & yellow unis would help. Oh yeah, a World Series title would be nice too!
Yes. Their current uniforms look bland, uninteresting, uninspired. A return to the brown and yellow would be awesome.
Man did this guy call the uni change or what
It WILL happen someday. Keep the faith, Friar fans!
https://www.facebook.com/SDPadresBrown/
#bringbackthebrown
50+ years Mets’ fan. Just watched the last three innings of Musgrove’s No-No. As the SS released the ball the fact that this was the first in franchise history popped into my head! I’m happy for Padres’ fans tonight. You guys have a “legit” No-No…