The pitching staff’s scoreless streak wasn’t going to go on and on and on. The Padres are not going to win every home game this season, either.
That’s what logic says.
But there’s something else powering Mike Shildt’s team these days.
“Every night they bring it,” the Padres’ second-year manager said. “They’re hungry. The preparation has been really good. The execution has been equal. Everybody’s on board, not giving anything away in competition and ready to take everything.”
Really.
Everything.
A freshly-shaven Dylan Cease buckled, the Chicago Cubs halted the staff’s scoreless streak at 37 innings … and the Padres still battled back for a 10-4 win on Monday to remain perfect at home in front of a crowd 47,078, the third-largest in Petco Park history.
It had quite a lot to cheer, from Fernando Tatis Jr.’s first multi-homer game of the season, to nine runs over the final three innings, to an 11-0 home record that’s propped up baseball’s best team to start 2025. That’s tied for the fifth-longest streak at home to ever start a season. The 1907 New York Giants hold the record with 15 straight wins.
“The crowd on your side is totally huge,” Tatis said after the Padres improved to 14-3 to match the 1998 NL pennant-winner for the best start in franchise history. “It feeds us. It’s great momentum for us. Everybody can see it and feel it. Everybody that is here.
“Happy to play in front of San Diego fans.”
Clearly.
Tatis’ third home run in four days since his shoulder scare plated Monday’s run. It would have been much cleaner to say his second blast of the game bookended the comeback, but Luis Arraez followed Tatis’ eighth-inning homer with the three-time batting champ’s second home run of the year and Jose Iglesias added an RBI groundout to cap the Padres’ third-straight multi-run inning.
In between all that, the Padres nickeled and dimed their way to their second win over the NL Central-leading Cubs in four meetings.
Infield singles from Iglesias and Jason Heyward tied the game at 3-3 in the sixth, a wild-pitch with the bases loaded gave the Padres a lead in the seventh and Gavin Sheets’ two-run single added insurance.
“They’re a machine right now,” Cease said. “I’s impressive to watch. They’re very resilient, and it just feels like we’re always one guy away from scoring three or four runs. It’s really impressive.”
Jason Adam replaced Adrián Morejón in the eighth and coughed up a run to snap the bullpen’s scoreless streak at 10 innings, but Elias Díaz walked to lead off the bottom of the inning and Tatis logged his third triple-digit exit velocity of the game.
First, Tatis sent a 100-mph lineout to third. Then he sent a 108-mph homer over the wall in left off Cubs starter Jameson Taillon (5⅔ IP, 2 ER). The two-run homer off reliever Eli Morgan to left center in the eighth went out on a 111-mph line, providing more and more confidence in the surgically repaired shoulder that forced him from last Tuesday’s game in Sacramento.
“Feels good,” Tatis said with a smile. “In the right place and keep working. Like I’ve said, the training staff is doing a great job and I’m happy I’m on the field.”
Following three straight shutouts of the Rockies, Cease ran the team’s scoreless streak to 37 innings — three shy of the 1984 team record — before Manny Machado cracked the door open in the fourth inning by booting Justin Turner’s leadoff grounder.
Michael Busch followed with a home run to right to immediately erase the advantage provided on Tatis’ solo homer half-inning earlier. Two more doubles that inning, one from Nico Hoerner and one from Pete Crow-Armstrong, pushed the Cubs’ lead to 3-0.
Cease stranded two runners in the fifth inning and exited an inning later after Hoerner’s third hit of the game, a single with two outs in the sixth.
He was coming off a career-high nine runs allowed in his last start against the A’s in Sacramento. Two days later, he showed up in the Padres’ clubhouse at Petco Park looking to flush that start along with every single whisker from the mountain-man growth he carried into the season.
So Monday’s start was certainly better.
Cease struck out six and was charged with three runs — two earned — on seven hits and a walk over 5⅔ innings after Alek Jacob stranded an inherited runner in the sixth.
“I’m very happy I gave us a chance to win,” Cease said after throwing 63 of his 96 pitches for strikes. “I still think there’s a lot of room for improvement, but it was definitely an improvement from the last one.”
The game-tying rally a half-inning after Cease’s exit began with Machado’s one-out walk. Then Sheets’ high fly ball fell in front of left fielder Ian Happ for a single, Xander Bogaerts walked to load the bases and Iglesias’ swinging bunt plated a run and kept the bases loaded.
Heyward followed with a single off shortstop Dansby Swanson’s glove as he attempted a diving stop behind second base, tying the game at 3-3.
The Padres weren’t done.
Tatis walked to lead off the seventh, Arraez doubled down the first-base line and an intentional walk of Machado loaded the bases for Sheets.
That brought the sold-out crowd to a fever pitch as it chanted “Holy Sheets! Holy Sheets!” but a wild pitch somewhat robbed him of a moment as Tatis scampered home.
Sheets still came through with a two-run single to push his RBI total to 10.
“We just keep showing where we’re capable of as a team, as a lineup, as a defense, and I’m just happy for the boys,” Tatis said. “Everybody’s on track, everybody’s moving the line. It’s really good baseball.”
Originally Published: April 14, 2025 at 9:51 PM PDT
