DENVER \u2014 The Padres won\u2019t get very far next month without Manny Machado rounding back into form. The same goes for Dylan Cease.<\/p>\n
The two stars aligned Sunday.<\/p>\n
Machado\u2019s first-inning homer got the Padres started on a good, old-fashioned Coors Field laugher, Dylan Cease turned in his best start in nearly a month and an 8-1 win kept the Padres just a game behind the Dodgers in the NL West.<\/p>\n
Beyond the division, a Cubs loss shaved their deficit in the race for the NL\u2019s top wild-card spot to three games and a Mets loss improved the Padres\u2019 cushion against the current third wild-card team to two games.<\/p>\n
Machado had plenty of help.<\/p>\n
Jackson Merrill hit his first homer since returning from the injured list during a three-hit game and Gavin Sheets and Ram\u00f3n Laureano added tape-measure shots as the Padres out-hit the Rockies 15-6 in clinching their first series since taking two of three from the Dodgers last month at Petco Park.<\/p>\n
Lauerano\u2019s solo shot in the fifth traveled 438 feet, his furthest homer in more than a year and almost as far as Sheets\u2019 career-best 451-foot blast in the fourth.<\/p>\n
And yet that was a foot shy of the 452-foot homer to left-center that Machado hit in the first inning after Luis Arraez\u2019s one-out walk, the furthest homer yet for a Padre this season.<\/p>\n
Machado also walked in a run and doubled in showing signs of life after the worst month of his career as a Padre (.590 OPS in August) and carrying a .333 OPS into Sunday\u2019s finale.<\/p>\n
The early-and-often runs allowed Cease to largely cruise through five-plus innings of one-run ball. He struck out five to pushing his season total to 195 in his quest for a fifth straight 200-punchout season.<\/p>\n
Cease allowed four hits and two walks, with the two free passes coming in the fifth and to start the sixth inning.<\/p>\n
Left-hander Adri\u00e1n Morej\u00f3n got double plays to get out of the sixth and seventh innings to ensure Cease earned a victory with his best start since a quality start in a win on Aug. 10.<\/p>\n
Originally Published: September 7, 2025 at 3:15 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER \u2014 The Padres won\u2019t get very far next month without Manny Machado rounding back into form. The…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":208719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1370,1266,3549,1306,7264,62,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-208718","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-san-diego-padres","15":"tag-sandiego","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-top-stories-sdut","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115165460223892605","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}