Stop me if you’ve heard this one before:
Dylan Cease put runners on base with lack of command, those runners ended up scoring, and the Padres offense couldn’t bail him out against an American League team on the road.
OK, it’s not your typical setup to a joke but the punchline is something the Friar Faithful have had to deal with all too often this year: the Padres lost. This time it was 4-3 to the White Sox, a team destined for 100 losses, to open a three-game series in Chicago.
Cease’s night got off to a rough start, allowing a two-run homer to Miguel Vargas in the 1st inning to put the Sox up 2-0. San Diego chipped away as Luis Arraez singled home Jake Cronenworth in the 3rd inning and Ryan O’Hearn singled to bring in Ramon Laureano in the 4th. In the bottom of that inning, however, Cease’s command disappeared.
He walked Vargas and hit Mike Tauchman and Edgar Quero with fastballs to load the bases with one out. We’ve seen several times this year, when Cease starts issuing free passes he overcorrects and starts getting far too much of the strike zone. It happened again in this game. Cease gave up RBI singles to Curtis Mead and Will Robertson to put the White Sox up 4-2.
The Padres got within one when Gavin Sheets brought home Laureano with an RBI groundout in the 6th inning but after that San Diego managed just one more baserunner and he was erased on a double play. The loss pulls the Mets just 3.0 games back of the Friars for the 5th National League Wild Card spot and also extends a couple of odd 2025 trends.
It drops the Padres to a head-scratching 18-28 record against the American League and 36-43 on the road. They get another chance to improve on both of those marks on Saturday evening with Yu Darvish on the mound against Yoendrys Gomez.