SEATTLE — A laugher turned into a nail-biter on Tuesday night, and the Padres had to claw back and hold on to beat the Mariners for the first time in five games this season.
There was a little bit of everything in their 7-6 victory. A little too much of some of it.
The Padres followed a five-run first inning by getting two hits over the next four innings, and the Mariners went ahead with a pair of three-run homers in the fifth.
The Padres responded with one run in the sixth and then leaned on the back end of their bullpen to do what it has far more often than not.
It had to be that way because starting pitcher Dylan Cease did what he has done far more often than not in 2025 — looking good until he did not.
And it was once again the fifth inning when he looked his worst.
Cease made it through three innings without allowing a baserunner for the first time this season, escaped a long and perilous fourth inning without allowing a run and then allowed three runs and recorded just one out in the fifth inning.
A groundout at the start of that inning was followed by a single by No.8 hitter J.P Crawford, a walk by Cole Young and Randy Arozarena’s home run to the bleachers in the second deck above right field.
A walk to Cal Raleigh ended Cease’s night, and when Jason Adam yielded a single to Julio Rodriguez and then a home run by Eugenio Suarez, Cease’s fifth-inning ERA had swelled to 10.62 for the season.
The lost five-run advantage was tied for the biggest blown lead of the season for the Padres. The first two happened in a span of seven games — May 28 against the Marlins and June 4 against the Giants.
They lost both those games.
The Padres were in position to not do so Tuesday because they scratched across two runs in the sixth inning and turned the game over to their bullpen.
Gavin Sheets led off the sixth with a double, moved to third on Ramón Laureano’s double and scored on Jake Cronenworth’s single. Laureano scored the go-ahead run on a successful safety squeeze bunt by Freddy Fermin.
Adrian Morejón struck out the three batters he faced in the sixth. Mason Miller struck out the first two batters in the seventh before a walk and a single and then ended the inning on a fielder’s choice. Jeremiah Estrada worked around a one-out single in the eighth. Robert Suarez finished off the game for his National League-leading 35th save.
Erasing the deficit could do nothing to alter the reality that Cease once again could not be excellent for long.
He has now allowed 13 runs over 12⅔ inning in his past three starts and has a 4.82 ERA in 27 starts this season.
At the start Tuesday, Cease had his most extended time looking like the pitcher he was in 2024 and that the Padres expected him to be again.
He looked good enough that it would have been a surprise the night imploded on him if not for the fact so many have.
Tuesday was the 17th start this season in which he has allowed multiple runs in at least one inning.
Cease made it through the first three innings of a game without allowing a baserunner three times last year, including when he went eight perfect innings before allowing two hits in the ninth against the Astros in September. He did not allow a hit in the first three innings of eight starts in 2024, including in his no-hitter against the Nationals in July.
Julio Rodriguez’s two-out single in the fourth inning ended any thought of that happening again. And Josh Naylor grounding the next pitch into center field for another single and Eugenio Suarez drawing a walk to load the bases began thoughts of how often Cease has had innings get away from him this season.
But as Morejón started stretching in the bullpen, Cease ended the inning by getting a groundout from Jorge Polanco.
Then came the Mariners’ fifth inning, which was even more explosive than the Padres’ first.
Fernando Tatis Jr. began the game by lining the third pitch from Castillo at 112 mph off the wall in center field for a double.
Two quick outs followed before Ryan O’Hearn walked before Castillo got within a strike of escaping.
That is when Xander Bogaerts turned on an 0-2 sinker in and off the plate and lined it softly into left field for the Padres’ first hit in 28 at-bats with runners in scoring position against the Mariners this season and the first RBI of the game.
Laureano’s four RBIs came after Gavin Sheets walked to load the bases.
His high fly ball to the Mariners’ bullpen beyond left field was Laureano’s sixth home run with the Padres and his first grand slam since 2019.