NEW YORK — After two foggy and rainy nights, the Bronx was graced with spring on Wednesday, and a brilliant evening of baseball ensued at Yankee Stadium.
“It was a great game”, Yankees manager Aaron Boone said afterward. “It really was. … Just a really well-played game by two quality teams.”
It did not end well for the Padres, who lost a late lead and lost the game, 4-3 in 10 innings, though they did get their first top-notch Dylan Cease start of the season and appear to have not lost him despite a midgame scare.
Cease’s no-hit bid ended with one out in the seventh inning, and his night ended two batters later when he experienced cramping in his right arm.
“It was just a forearm cramp,” said Cease, who pitched into the seventh inning for the first time in 2025. “It basically made my hand close tight for a couple seconds. I don’t think it’s anything too serious. I honestly was gonna throw some more pitches and see. But I think the smart thing was to do what we did there.”
He said after the game he was not experiencing any pain, ed all the tests the athletic trainers istered “with flying colors” and expects to make his next start.
That at least did not add to the hurt of another tough loss, which came on the heels of the Padres losing a seventh-inning lead Tuesday.
The two losses came after the Padres won the series opener to run a winning streak to six games. All three games here featured the winning team coming back in the final three innings.
“That was a series, you know,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “That was two really good clubs going at each other. And we got the first one and (were) right there at the end yesterday, and they broke it open. We punched, they punched, we punched, they punched. And they got the final one in in this game at least. Good series, good baseball, two good teams.”
The Yankees’ decisive blows Wednesday were two runs to tie the game in the eighth inning off Jason Adam and a walk-off sacrifice fly in the 10th off Jeremiah Estrada.
Those runs came after the Padres scored twice in the top of the eighth to go ahead 3-1.
Adam, who replaced Cease and finished off the seventh with a striekout, walked the first batter in the eighth inning before yielding a two-run homer to Trent Grisham.
“It was just a bad pitch,” Adam said of a changeup on the inner edge but almost knee high. “I think if I execute there, I like my chances obviously. I tried to bury it. I think I climbed it a little bit, so it took some of the depth away, and then put it in a bad spot. He had seen the good one, so that one looked extra fat. Did a good job hitting it. … Honestly, my bigger regret on the night (was) the walk. If I get the first guy out, and then if do the same thing to Grisham, we’re still up one, so. So walks suck, especially when you don’t execute after.”
All that came after Yankees starter Max Fried and Cease dominated for the better part of seven innings.
Fried allowed five hits, including Jackson Merrill’s solo homer in the fourth. Cody Bellinger’s solo homer with one out in the seventh was the first hit off Cease and tied the game.
“That’s a really good lineup over there,” said Fried, who finished seven innings. “You’ve got to be on your ‘A’ game, especially going against Cease. When he’s throwing the way he is, you’ve just got to try to match him.”
The Padres went up 3-1 in the top of the eighth on walks by Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado off reliever Ian Hamilton and Merrill’s RBI single and Xander Bogaerts’ sacrifice fly off Yankees closer Luke Weaver.
After the four-run eighth, Weaver and Padres closer Robert Suarez worked a scoreless ninth.
That forced the Padres to extra innings for just the second time this season, where they failed to score and lost for the second time.
Facing Devin Williams, against whom they scored four runs in the eighth inning in Monday’s 4-3 victory, the Padres could not get a runner home who reached third with one out in the 10th inning. A strikeout by Bogaerts left the bases loaded. Williams also struck out Tatis and Machado.
The Yankees made quick work of the bottom half of the inning Oswaldo Cabrera’s sacrifice bunt moved automatic runner Jasson Dominguez from second to third, and J.C. Escarra lofted a sacrifice fly to deep left field.
The loss prevented the Padres’ first-ever series win at Yankee Stadium.
“It was a battle, which makes it extra disappointing,” Adam said.“I mean, our guys went out there and battled all night against a really good pitcher. They deserve to win that game, so it makes it sting a little bit more.”
