NLDS Game 4 becomes bullpen game for Padres, too

SAN DIEGO — When the Padres approached Dylan Cease on Monday with the idea of starting Game 4 of the National League Division Series on short rest, Cease made it clear he was all for it. He had a request though.

“I’ve told them,” Cease said on Tuesday night, “I want to just treat it like it’s a normal start.”

His preference, evidently, was not the Padres’ preference. Cease lasted all of 10 batters in San Diego’s 8-0 loss to the Dodgers on Wednesday night at Petco Park. Following the quick hook, the Padres’ relief corps unraveled, and San Diego came out on the wrong end of a battle between the two bullpens.

The 47,773 fans at Petco Park — a ballpark attendance record — arrived ready for another Game 4 party in the Gaslamp. In 2022, San Diego eliminated L.A. in the NLDS by winning Games 2, 3 and 4. But if the Padres are going to slay the dragon this time, they’ll have to do it the hard way.

They’re headed north on Interstate 5 for a decisive Game 5 on Friday night at Dodger Stadium. Yu Darvish gets the ball.

“I mean, listen, I’m already excited for Friday,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “How fun is that going to be? Missed opportunity, chance to close it out — [we] didn’t. Move on. Play Game 5. Winner take it.”

Before that, the Padres will have Thursday to rest and reset their bullpen. They’ll also have the day to ruminate on the pitching decisions that got them here.

Cease had never made a start on three days’ rest in his career. He allowed a solo home run to Mookie Betts in the top of the first inning — Betts’ second first-inning homer in as many games. But otherwise, Cease worked through the frame unscathed, his velocity touching 99-100 mph.

“I liked how the ball was coming out of my hand,” Cease said. “I really didn’t feel like I shot myself in the foot too much, which I feel like I had been doing. I felt good out there.”

But in the second, Cease ran into serious trouble. Toward the bottom of the batting order, Gavin Lux walked, Kiké Hernández singled and Chris Taylor struck out, which brought Shohei Ohtani to the plate with two outs.

By then, reliever Bryan Hoeing was getting loose. Notably, Adrian Morejon — nor any other Padres lefty — was not. The Padres were prepared to lift Cease in the second inning. But they gave him a chance to escape trouble by facing Ohtani — rather than use one of those lefties.

The decision backfired. Ohtani laced an RBI single through the right side, and the Dodgers led 2-0.

“Wanted to see where the Ohtani at-bat went,” Shildt said. “He found a hole. There’s always a way to think, ‘I could have done this, could have done that.’ But, no, I felt good about it.

“Plus, we got a righty going with Hoeing, who’s more of a ground-ball guy. We like to have a lefty to go with Ohtani. We had a guy [Cease] throwing 100, and [Ohtani] put a swing on him.”

Cease’s day was done, but the Dodgers’ offense wasn’t. Betts singled off Hoeing. Will Smith launched a two-run blast an inning later.

For the first time all month, Petco Park grew quiet. The Padres’ offense, so adept at mounting comebacks this season, never gave that home crowd reason to come back to life.

“We couldn’t piece anything together,” shortstop Xander Bogaerts said. “That’s something a little unusual with our offense and the capabilities that we have. Some nights, you have nights like this. It’s not the best [time] in the playoffs. But we have one more game, and we’re definitely looking forward to that.”

In some ways, the pitches that most affected the Game 4 outcome weren’t thrown by Cease or Hoeing — or anyone else who took the mound in brown pinstripes Wednesday night. They were thrown precisely one week ago.

Facing the Braves in Game 2 of the NL Wild Card Series on Oct. 2, Joe Musgrove felt something in his right elbow in the top of the fourth inning. He threw two more curveballs — the two slowest curveballs of his career — and it was clear his night was finished. His season, it turned out, was finished, too.

The Padres punched their ticket to the NLDS that night. But that task always loomed a bit larger without Musgrove on hand to start Game 4. With victories in Games 2 and 3, the Padres bought themselves some cushion. A loss in Game 4 wouldn’t be debilitating.

But it made for a bus ride they didn’t plan to take, with a hostile reception awaiting them on Friday.