in to watch Cease work his way through what ended up a 3-0 victory.

Cease ended up walking three batters, didn’t feel entirely sharp his first two innings and had trouble corralling certain sliders all game.

“I wouldn’t say I was pinpoint today,” he said. “But it was obviously good enough.”

In the end, when right fielder Bryce Johnson caught CJ Abrams’ line drive for the final out, Cease raised his arms and was immediately embraced by catcher Luis Campusano as the Padres’ infielders and outfielders sprinted toward the pair and players streamed from the dugout and bullpen.

Cease was one out from a no-hitter while pitching for the White Sox on Sept. 3, 2022, before the Twins’ Luis Arraez — now his Padres teammate — ended the bid with a single.

Cease had allowed just one hit in seven scoreless innings in his last start and one hit in six scoreless innings in the start before that. On Thursday, he became the first pitcher since 1938 to throw at least 20 scoreless innings and allow fewer than three hits over a span of three starts.

Cease’s dominance has become so normal that catcher Luis Campusano was unaware the Nationals did not have a hit until he checked the box score in the sixth inning.

“I was like ‘Oh, OK. Let’s just keep it going,’ ” Campusano said. “… He’s been in the zone. His stuff has been working. He’s been attacking hitters. Nothing changed.”

One of the four times this season Cease had gone at least seven innings while allowing one hit was June 26 against the Nationals. That hit came on a flared single to center field by Nick Senzel, who was released earlier this month.

Despite walking Lane Thomas twice, Cease had faced the minimum number of batters through four innings. Thomas was caught stealing in the first inning and eliminated by an inning-ending double play in the fourth.

Juan Yepez almost dropped in a single to start the fifth inning on a ball skied to shallow center field that second baseman Xander Bogaerts raced back to try to catch, only to have the ball pop up out of his glove and into that of center fielder Jackson Merrill for the first out.

Cease went on to strike out James Wood and get Keibert Ruiz on a groundout. And with that, Cease had gone nine innings without allowing a hit going back to the start of the fourth inning Saturday in Cleveland.

Then he was through the sixth in 13 pitches and, after walking Abrams to start the seventh, got through that with two groundouts and a fly ball to left field.

As he walked off the field, having thrown 94 pitches, Cease motioned toward the dugout several times with a thumbs up and a shake of his head in the affirmative. When he arrived, manager Mike Shildt told him, “I think that’s good today.”

Cease pushed back: “I just said, ‘I feel really good right now. Next inning, if I’m kind of erratic or use up too many pitches, pull me then but give me a shot, at least.’”

Musgrove, who was standing nearby, offered input, saying: “I said, ‘He’s not even at 100 pitches yet. Let him go.’”