SAN DIEGO _ Jordan Lyles allowed nine runs over his final four appearances in the Colorado bullpen last year. He hadn't been permitted to pitch out of the Rockies rotation since May 2016.
Perhaps, no one in Petco Park's visiting dugout Tuesday afternoon saw this coming.
The 27-year-old Lyles retired the first 22 batters in a 4-0 win against his old team before Rockies shortstop Trevor Story broke up a bid for the first no-hitter and perfect game in Padres history in the eighth inning.
A crowd of 19,598 stood on its feet anyway when Story's one-out single to left field fell in front of Franchy Cordero. They stood again when Padres manager Andy Green called on Kirby Yates after Pat Valaika followed with a walk.
Lyles returned the gesture with applause of his own as he walked to the dugout with the second-longest perfect game bid in franchise history. He settled for his first win of the season when Brad Hand pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the eighth to preserve the four-run lead built on two-run homers from Eric Hosmer in the first inning and Christian Villanueva in the sixth.
The Padres are the only major league franchise without a no-hitter. They've been on the receiving end of 10, most recently at the hands of four Dodgers pitchers earlier this month in Monterrey.
That list of tormenters includes names like Milt Pappas and Bud Smith.
Hear from starting pitcher Jordan Lyles, who is moving to the rotation after time in the bullpen.
Lyles _ who started the season in the Padres bullpen _ was perhaps obscure as anyone to be chasing the 24th perfect game in baseball history.
Yet he was through seven innings on 72 pitches.
He'd thrown 57 strikes at that point, issued just one three-ball count and didn't even throw a ball out of the strike zone in the third inning. He finished with 10 strikeouts, tying the career-high he set in 2013 while still with the Astros, the team that made him a first-rounder in 2008.
Then the fork in the road arrived.
His ERA sitting a 5.59 at the end of his third year in the majors, Lyles was traded to Colorado that December. He was in the bullpen when he finished 2016 with a 5.83 ERA and was out of the Rockies' plans altogether when they cut Lyles, sporting a 7.75 ERA, loose last August.
Lyles quickly signed a minor league deal with the Padres and posted a 9.39 ERA in five September starts.
After returning on a major league deal this offseason, Lyles took over Bryan Mitchell's rotation spot last week with five innings of one-run ball.
