Padres’ Dylan Cease Hopes Dominance vs Dodgers is Sign of Things to Come

A common killer for the Padres recently has been their reliance on the bullpen. After the Padres' extra innings 8-7 loss to the Dodgers on Monday, Padres manager Mike Shildt was open when talking about the lack of help from the rotation.

"We're piecing it together and competing at the same time," Shildt said. "But we're going to need some depth out of some starters" Shildt told reporters for MLB.com.

After that loss, the Padres knew they needed a change in the pitching rotation — that is where Dylan Cease came in.

Cease was able to put together his best performance of the season, striking out 11 Dodgers and only allowing three hits, which included singles from Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman. Cease pitched seven scoreless innings, providing the bullpen a much-needed reprieve.

Cease spoke on the importance of his outing, hoping it's a sign of things to come.

“It means a lot,” he said. “But I really don’t want to lose focus. The job is nowhere near done. There’s a lot of starts left, and I really just want to build off of it and keep it going."

Teammate Manny Machado also spoke on Cease's impact on the team's win.

“That’s Cease, man — he came out there dealing,” Machado said. “He threw the ball really well. We really needed that from him. … It’s going to be huge for us moving forward.”

While the Padres pitcher seems to be making great strides, it has not always been smooth sailing for him. His season has been mediocre at best. Cease has been trying to find his place in the pitching rotation and spoke on those struggles.

“It’s been frustrating,” Cease said. “It’s not fun not contributing. I’m really just continuing to work. There’s still a lot of season left. Hopefully, I can really make a big impact."

"I really just want to beat everyone I pitch against, to be honest," he added. "It didn’t end well for me last year. But that was last year, and I kind of just flushed it and went into this start, decided to be aggressive and committed to it.”

With starting pitchers Yu Darvish and Michael King still on the injured list, the Padres need Cease to act as the de facto ace in this rotation.

On Tuesday, he took a major step in the right direction.

For more Padres news head to: Padres on SI