Citizens Bank Park- Philadelphia, PA

Hours after taking game one of the doubleheader, San Diego’s offense was outmatched on the mound, and Cease got hit hard. A pair of homers for Philadelphia— and seven more balls off the bat at 95+ MPH— made it tough on San Diego’s defense.

Multiple lineup changes took place on both lineup cards in this one. For Philadelphia, Bryce Harper— who missed nearly all of June with a wrist injury— was out of the lineup entirely. Catcher J.T. Realmuto was also relieved of his duties, as Rafael Marchán took care of the catching duties. Meanwhile, the recently-named 2025 All-Star Manny Machado got the game off defensively, and Martin Maldonado did the catching for Dylan Cease.

Coming off a rough outing in Cincinnati, Dylan Cease made start No. 18 of his pivotal contract year. He faced Philadelphia’s Christopher Sanchez, a tall left-hander enjoying a strong year on the mound. Sanchez earned an All-Star nod in 2024 and is in a strong position to head back to the Midsummer Classic this year.

Dylan Cease’s outing was an accurate reflection of his statistical trends on the year. He began the game with three scoreless innings, allowing just two hits and no walks. However, this season, Cease has struggled with the second time through the order, and that was the case once more. Alec Bohm led off with a single, and not far after, Max Kepler leaned back on a middle-middle slider for a towering homer to right. Just one inning later, Brandon Marsh got himself a favorable breaking ball and sent it 418 feet to center field.

Big day for DAWGS pic.twitter.com/wmeSI0dyAa

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) July 2, 2025

Facing the Padres’ offense, Sanchez certainly held the upper hand. San Diego ranks 24th in OPS against lefties and ninth in ground ball rate. Sanchez— a left-handed ground ball pitcher— was not by any means a good matchup for the Padres. In the first three innings, Sanchez induced seven groundouts, a strikeout, and a warning-track flyout. The flyout came at the hands of the Padres’ best hitter against left-handers, Manny Machado.

After retiring the first nine in order, San Diego found an early opportunity thanks to a defensive miscue. After Fernando Tatis Jr. bounced an infield single to third, he took off for second before the next pitch. Sanchez stepped off and threw over to first baseman Otto Kemp, who fired off target to Trea Turner. Tatis Jr. popped up and took third, giving Jackson Merrill an early RBI chance. In a 2-0 count, Merrill grounded a single to right to plate Tatis Jr. for the first run of the game.

Before Cease could escape the fifth inning, Trea Turner essentially created a run with his legs. On a slow roller to third, Turner was able to beat Iglesias throw to first for an infield hit. Moments later, Kyle Schwarber popped a ball into deep foul territory that was impressively snagged by Iglesias just in front of the screen. Turner wisely tagged up with Iglesias, hitting the deck, and moved into scoring position. So, when Nick Castellanos poked a single to right, Turner scored the fourth Phillies run standing up.

Christopher Sanchez finished off a seven-inning gem, allowing just a single unearned run. He recorded 14 of his 21 outs via the ground ball and racked up four strikeouts in the process.

Crismas in July pic.twitter.com/YbSSOZBsLZ

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) July 3, 2025

Yuki Matsui entered in the seventh inning and retired the first two batters he faced. However, he walked Kyle Schwarber and prompted the MLB debut of Eduarniel Núñez, who arrived from El Paso yesterday. Quickly, Núñez surrendered a RBI triple to Alec Bohm on his fifth pitch, and walked the next batter. Fortunately, he was able to retire Max Kepler to end the frame and keep the deficit in grand slam range.

¡Bienvenido al Show, Eduarniel Núñez! pic.twitter.com/Bqm0djQI8p

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) July 3, 2025

With Sanchez finally gone, the Padres put up a fight against the setup man Orion Kerkering. Jake Cronenworth and Fernando Tatis Jr. both singled, as Trenton Brooks just missed out on a single of his own. Brooks shot a liner the other way towards third, but Alec Bohm snagged it sharply out of the air. Well-placed fastballs from Kerkering earned him a pair of strikeouts against Merrill and Machado to end the inning.

Former Padre Matt Strahm came on to seal the victory and secure the series for the Phillies. After winning two straight sets against Kansas City and Washington, San Diego dropped two against Cincinnati and Philadelphia.

Following the loss, Mike Shildt praised his team for playing hard, specifically noting the defensive contributions of Tatis Jr. in right field. “The guys played their tails off tonight, man”, he stated, acknowledging that the stellar pitching of Sanchez was a challenge that his squad was aware of.

As for Dylan Cease’s outing, Shildt described his performance as “crisp.” Admitting that he missed spots against Kepler and Marsh, he claimed that “he had Dylan Cease kind of stuff tonight.”

After the two-city road trip, San Diego will have the day off before returning home to host the Texas Rangers on Independence Day. Due to the holiday, San Diego will play a rare day game on a Friday, with first pitch set for 3:40 PM.

Willy Warren

A 17-year-old San Diego native, Willy Warren is a baseball fan at heart who created High Leverage Baseball, a combination of around-the-league statistical analysis and breakdowns on X, and daily newsletters on the TikTok platform. Willy passionately studies Journalism at San Dieguito Academy, and is working to become billingual in Spanish to assist in communicating with Latin-born players and coaches.