Looking through the MLB scoreboard on Friday night, nothing really stands out much about a 7-0 scoreline for a game between the San Diego Padres and Colorado Rockies.
The two teams were beginning a three-game series at Petco Park on Friday, with Joe Musgrove taking the mound for San Diego and Chad Kuhl opposing him for Colorado.
It seems that every Musgrove start in recent memory does have a bit of buzz, knowing he was the first pitcher in franchise history to throw a no-hitter last season, but that only becomes news into the seventh inning.
Instead, Musgrove and Kuhl made a game within a game on back of the rubber, playing tic-tac-toe.
While Musgrove had the advantage on the mound on Friday, tossing six shutout innings, neither ended up the victor in tic-tac-toe as the two tied.
Kuhl could have not only used the win there, but the win in the game, getting pulled after just 4.1 innings, giving up five earned runs, eight hits and walking five.
A quick note on Musgrove: after completing the sixth inning, he's lowered his season ERA to 1.50, which is currently the best in MLB.
As for the Padres' offense, through the sixth inning, all nine hitters reached base, seven of the nine recorded a hit and six recorded an RBI.
Jake Cronenworth was the lone hitter with multiple RBIs up until that point with two. He's currently batting .385 with an OPS over 1.300 in his last seven games, raising his season average up to .227.
San Diego and Colorado will play two more this weekend in San Diego, so there might be more tic-tac-toe games to come.
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