Petco Park- San Diego, California

On Monday, the Padres entered the 9th inning with a 4-2 lead and a 98% chance of winning the game against the Angels.

When the dust settled, Robert Suarez blew his first game of the 2025 season, and the Padres were down 8-4 after a Taylor Ward grand slam off Alex Jacob.

The Padres’ loss was a punch in the stomach, but a good team moves on from bad nights at the ballpark. The Padres certainly consider themselves a good team, if not great. “Winners find a way to win games,” manager Mike Shildt would go on to say after the game on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Dylan Cease toed the rubber for the Padres against Los Angeles and Jose Soriano.

On the second pitch of the game, Zach Neto put the Angels up 1-0 with a home run just over the outstretched jump of Jason Heyward in left field.  Cease responded by striking out Yoan Moncada and Jorge Soler after the homer to end the inning. After three innings, Cease had racked up six strikeouts on the night as his slider was showing tremendous movement.

Soriano was limiting the Padres with his power sinker. Soriano topped out at 98 mph on the night and was working both sides of the plate. In the first inning, Jackson Merrill sent a fly ball deep into the warning track, but the 103-mph drive fell short. The game was 1-0, Los Angeles, after four complete innings.

In the bottom of the 5th inning, some sloppy defensive plays hurt the Angels as two errors accounted for two unearned runs. The Padres took a 2-1 lead into the top of the 6th with Dylan Cease on cruise control.

Cease worked around a one-out hit by Nolan Schanuel (his second hit of the game) and Yoan Moncada in the 6th inning, by getting Jorge Soler to ground into an inning-ending double play. With two out in the 7th, Cease walked Luis Renigfo on a 3-2 slider. Mike Shildt came out of the dugout and removed Cease in favor of Jeremiah Estrada. Jo Adell jumped on the first pitch he saw and doubled into the left field gap to tie the game. With Adell as second, pinch-hitter Matthew Lugo homered on a hanging slider to put the Halos up 4-2 in a matter of minutes.

The game’s momentum completely flipped. Cease cruised through six-plus innings, striking out 10 batters and only issuing one walk, which ultimately doomed his night.”Dylan was fantastic. The slider was really good. The two-out walk led to some damage in the 7th, but he was outstanding,” Shildt said after the game.

Jose Soriano worked into the 7th inning for the Angels. He gave up a one-out hit to Xander Bogaerts, and Ron Washington went to the mound to seemingly make a pitching change. The veteran skipper elected to leave Soriano in the game, and Soriano responded by getting a weak flyball off the bat of Jake Cronenworth. The veteran pitcher proceeded to walk Jason Heyward to put runners on first and second.

Elias Diaz pinch hit for Martin Maldonado and swung at three straight sliders to end the inning. Soriano threw a season-high 107 pitches in the game, walking three batters and allowing four runs. Both runs scored off the pitcher were unearned on the night, and his ERA dropped to 3.46 on the season.

In the 8th, Fernando Tatis Jr. worked a leadoff walk with the Padres down two runs. Manny Machado walked with one out to put runners on first and second base. Jackson Merrill strolled to the plate with an opportunity to do some damage in front of Petco Park’s sellout (17th of the season) crowd. Merrill struck out on three off-speed pitches by Ryan Zeferjahn.

Gavin Sheets blooped a ball in front of Taylor Ward to make the game 4-3. With Machado on third base, a wild pitch tied the game at four as the crowd at Petco Park became re-energized. “This guy is a very, very good base runner,” Mike Shildt said after the game. As the intensity in the air increased, the Angels looked defeated as a team. After a walk to Xander Bogaerts, the Angels went to the pen with two outs and two runners on base.

There goes that Manny. pic.twitter.com/H2NzKijOAV

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) May 14, 2025

Hector Neris came out of the pen and walked Jake Cronenworth to load the bases. Jason Heyward is struggling. His struggles continued on Tuesday as he struck out on a pitch clearly out of the strike zone. The left fielder went 0-for-3 on the night with two strikeouts.

The game was tied at four after eight innings. The Padres looked to lean on their bullpen to secure the win. Jason Adam threw a scoreless 9th for the Padres on six pitches, setting the table for San Diego to walk it off in the bottom of the inning.

Kenley Jansen was summoned from the Angels’ bullpen to pitch for Los Angeles in the 9th. He walked Elias Diaz to begin the inning. On a 2-2 pitch, Fernando Tatis Jr. sent the home crowd happy with a 109.2 mph blast deep into the left centerfield bullpen area for a 6-4 Padres win. The walk-off homer is Tatis’ 11th homer of the season and the first of his career. “(Diaz) He got on base, and I was just trying to do something for the team,” Tatis said after the game. “We are going to bounce back… we are never out of it.”

FERNANDO TATIS JR. WALKS IT OFF! pic.twitter.com/cjQHQcHPJ2

— MLB (@MLB) May 14, 2025

Up next for San Diego is Wednesday’s third game of the three-game series.

The first pitch is scheduled for 6:40 p.m.

Randy Vasquez (2-3, 3.76 ERA vs. Kyle Hendricks (1-4, 5.30 ERA)

James Clark

James was born and raised in America’s Finest City. He is a passionate baseball fan with even more passion towards his hometown Padres. James has written about the Padres and their prospects for over a decade. He also writes about San Diego State as well as other local sports. James is the Editor-In-Chief of EastVillageTimes.com. Always striving to bring you the highest quality in San Diego Sports News. Original content, with original ideas, that’s our motto. Enjoy.