The Padres have to love what team-oriented Dylan Cease and his resilient right arm have done for them this year.
Some pitchers make “business decisions” leading up to highly lucrative late-stage arbitration and free agency.
They use the injured list to gain extra rest or ask to skip a few starts, reducing the risk of severe injury that could cost them huge sums of money. Their agent might pressure the team to restrain the pitcher’s mounting workload.
Cease has done the opposite.
He has shouldered an extraordinary load.
He made 33 starts this season, a total unsured in the big leagues. He threw more pitches than all but two pitchers and finished 10th in innings pitched.
Not done there, he started on short rest Wednesday against the Dodgers in Game 4 of the Division Series.
It didn’t go as planned. The Dodgers scored three runs off Cease in 1 2/3 innings and 38 pitches on the way to an 8-0 win at Petco Park, setting up a decisive fifth game on Friday in Los Angeles.
Whatever fatigue Cease was experiencing just four nights after throwing 3 2/3 innings and 82 pitches in Game 1, it didn’t erode his velocity.
His fastball averaged 97.7 miles per hour, slightly above his average over the season.
Inaccuracy, which is often associated with fatigue, caught up with Cease.
Mookie Betts hunted a full-count fastball and hit it for a home run. Betts had seen Cease misfire with his 2-2 slider. He was ready for the 99.1-mph heat.
When Cease threw a fat sweeper, Shohei Ohtani raked it for a run-scoring single in his second at-bat, atoning for his grounding out on Cease’s fat fastball in the first inning.
Cease allowed hard singles to Teoscar Hernández and Kike Hernández, and a lineout to Will Smith.
It’s hard to overstate what Cease has contributed since A.J. Preller obtained him from the White Sox in a trade one week before the season. By soaking up so many starts and innings, he refreshed the bullpen several times and helped keep the team in good playoff position by the time fellow starters Joe Musgrove and Yu Darvish returned to the rotation.
In neither of his playoff starts against the Dodgers did Cease look pleased with his control or his delivery. He shook his head a few times, appearing irked.
This offseason, Cease will command a large raise via arbitration on his $8 million salary after finishing among MLB leaders in workload stats and posting a 3.47 ERA and a fielding independent ERA of 3.10 that ranked sixth in the big leagues.
Cease can become a free agent after the 2025 season.
Small ball
Tommy Edman, the La Jolla Country Day graduate who was traded to the Dodgers this summer, once again hurt his former hometown team with an excellent bunt.
The analytically driven Dodgers don’t do much bunting. Edman came up with the St. Louis Cardinals.
In Game 1, Edman’s smart push-bunt contributed to a go-ahead, three-run surge that led to L.A.’s 7-5 victory. Wednesday, he pulled a perfect bunt to bring in L.A.’s sixth run.
Earlier in the game, No. 9 hitter Chris Taylor — not exhibiting Edman’s good form — failed on two safety squeeze-bunt tries before striking out.
Inflection point
For the first time this postseason, the long-term outlook for the Padres’ starting pitching rotation raises more questions than answers.
If Darvish and the Padres can win Friday’s elimination game, they’ll have only one off-day before opening the best-of-seven National League Championship Series against the Mets.
Michael King would be available to pitch on regular rest. But multiple starting pitchers, such as Martín Pérez and Randy Vásquez, who have yet to pitch this postseason, could be needed.
Going the limit
The Padres have gone to the final game of a five- or seven-game postseason series just once before. It was a memorable one.
Forty years ago, the Padres beat the Cubs in five games to advance to their first-ever World Series.
Alan Wiggins reached base three times, Tony Gwynn had two hits and two RBIs and Goose Gossage closed out the 6-3 victory with two scoreless innings.
