SAN DIEGO_Again, the San Diego Padres flirted with history.
Just not good history.
Four days after four Dodgers pitchers combined for a no-hitter, the Padres waited until the seventh inning Tuesday night to collect their first baserunner of any kind. Travis Jankowski's leadoff single ended Nationals right-hander Jeremy Hellickson's bid for a perfect game, but a 4-0 loss � their fifth shutout, tied for the most in the majors � kept the Padres' offensive struggles a focus of yet another frustrating start to a season.
It could be worse, of course.
Nine days lapsed between two Los Angeles Dodgers no-hit defeats in 2015, a dubious NL record that eclipsed the 1971 Cincinnati Reds' previous record (20 days). In the American League, the Chicago White Sox were no-hit on consecutive days _ May 5 and May 6 _before going on to beat the New York Giants in six games in the 1917 World Series.
These Padres � already 11 games under .500 and in last in the NLWest _ are nowhere near that end goal.
They entered Tuesday with an NL-leading 364 strikeouts, ranked 28th in the majors in on-base percentage (.301), 27th in slugging (.372) and 26th in batting average.
The closest they'd come to a hit through six innings Tuesday was Eric Hosmer's diving attempt to collect an infield single in the third inning and back-to-back flyballs to the warning track from Franchy Cordero and Jose Pirela in the fifth.
But shortstop Trea Turner's running throw just beat Hosmer's dive into first base and the two long drives � to left and center field, respectively � settled safely in gloves, allowing Hellickson to move within nine outs of throwing the 24th perfect game in major league history.
Jankowski dashed those plans quickly, redirecting a 1-2 slider through the middle of the infield for the Padres' first hit. Hellickson was out of the game two batters later when Cordero's two-out drive to left field put runners on second and third.
Ryan Madson stranded them by fetching an inning-ending grounder from Pirela to finish off Hellickson's line: 6 2/3 innings, two hits and eight strikeouts.
That was plenty good enough to win _ even if Clayton Richard didn't quite deserve to lose.
The Padres' veteran left-hander tossed just his third quality start of the season, limiting the Nationals to three runs over a season-high eight innings, the longest outing for any Padres starter this season.
Richard struck out a season-high eight batters, didn't walk anyone and scattered seven hits while throwing 72 of his 102 pitches for strikes.
Two runs crossed the plate in the fifth _ via Matt Adams' double and Pedro Severino's single _ and the and the other scored in the seventh on Hellickson's double to left, his first hit of the season.
Adam Cimber allowed a run in the ninth inning.
