Dylan Cease sharp as Padres win series over Red Sox

Kevin Acee, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Aug 10, 2025

Published in Baseball

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

SAN DIEGO — The Padres welcomed back the real Dylan Cease and then leaned on their bullpen to beat an excellent team on Sunday.

They would like that to be a formula that works for a while.

A 6-2 victory over the Boston Red Sox, who hold the American League’s second wild-card spot and opened the series Friday night with their eighth victory in nine games, was the kind that suggests the Padres are up for a run well into October.

In winning their fourth consecutive series, the Padres moved to a season-high 14 games over .500 (66-52) and improved their standing in the National League wild-card race. They sit in the fifth of six spots, three games ahead of the Mets.

After they built a 5-0 lead, their 11th victory in 14 games had just a few tense moments.

Cease tired after six scoreless innings and left Jason Adam with two on and nobody out in the seventh.

Adam hit a batter to load the bases and then appeared to get a double-play grounder from Romy Gonzalez that would have scored a run but gotten two outs. But the hard shot by Gonzalez bounced off shortstop Xander Bogaerts’ glove and into shallow center field, and the Padres’ advantage was down to three runs.

A single re-loaded the bases before Adam struck out the next two batters.

Adrian Morejón came on for the left-on-left matchup against Red Sox leadoff batter Roman Anthony and struck him out with a 98 mph full-count fastball.

After the Padres added a run in the bottom of the seventh on singles by Fernando Tatis Jr. and Luis Arraez and fly-ball outs by Manny Machado and Ryan O’Hearn, Morejón began the eighth by walking Alex Bregman before getting an out.

With Jeremiah Estrada and Robvert Suarez unavailable due to their workload, Padres manager Mike Shildt went to rookie David Morgan, who struck out cleanup hitter Trevor Story and ended the inning by getting a groundout from Masataka Yoshida.

Morgan fiished off the game with a 1-2-3 ninth.

All that came after Cease delivered arguably his most dominant performance with what was certainly his most sustained sharpness.

Sunday was one of those days where Cease truly did have what it is often said he does — no-hit stuff.

The first two hits against him were a bloop single that fell between left fielder Ramón Laureano and shortstop Xander Bogaerts in the third and a dribbler to third base in the fifth.

The third was a line drive single to center field by Roman Anthony with one out in the sixth inning.

Two pitches later, Bregman grounded into an inning-ending double play.

It was with help from a double play that Cease faced the minimum through three innings.

Red Sox starter Brayan Bello was close to accomplishing the same thing before Freddy Fermin singled with two outs in the third and Bello missed on two 0-2 pitches.

First, he hit Tatis and then he left a 97 mph fastball in the heart of the strike zone that Arraez drove to the gap in left-center that brought home both runners.

Tatis was again involved when the Padres added to their lead in the fifth, as his single through the left side scored Jake Cronenworth from second base, where he had reached by hustling up a double on a flare down the line in shallow left field.

The Padres became just the third team this season to score more than three runs against Bello when Machado singled with one out, stole second with two outs and scored on a single by Bogaerts. Walks by Jackson Merrill and Laureano (against Bello) and Cronenworth (against reliever Chris Murphy) followed, and the Padres led 5-0.

____