PHOENIX — The Padres on Wednesday night had a chance to get into playoff position, and they had one of the pitchers they acquired to help get them there on the mound.
It did not work out.
Casey Mize’s Padres debut was a step backward for his new team.
The Diamondbacks pounded Mize and won 10-4, gaining a game on the Padres instead of dropping into a tie with them for the final National League wild-card spot.
“Not the first impression I wanted to make for my teammates and for the fans,” Mize said.
It was one start. Mize has numerous chances to redeem himself.
But the first impression was rough.
The right-hander, acquired from the Tigers on Monday, allowed more hits (nine) than in any of his previous 16 starts this season and was charged with more runs (eight) than in any of the previous 103 starts in his six major league seasons.
“Pretty tough time to have the worst start of my career,” Mize said. “Kind of just put us in a really tough spot and didn’t give us a chance to win. So, frustrated and embarrassed by that.”
He wasn’t the only one in brown who had a bad night.
Before scoring four runs in the ninth inning, the Padres’ offense flailed against Diamondbacks left-hander Mitch Bratt, who allowed one hit in seven innings while making it beyond five innings for the first time in any of his six major league starts or 13 starts in Triple-A in 2026.
“I think it was a little bit of everything,” said Ty France, who had the Padres’ lone hit against Bratt. “The fastball played up. He did a good job kind of just putting it where he wanted to today. Thought his slider slider played well, and landed the curveball when he wanted to. …. He pitched a hell of f game.”
The Padres got the leadoff runner on base in four consecutive innings and advanced only one of those men into scoring position when Jake Cronenworth stole second base.
Mize escaped trouble with no outs in the first and trouble with two outs in the second before allowing multiple runs in each of the next two innings.
He did not survive the second of those, walking off the mound after surrendering five consecutive hits and walking in a run that gave the Diamondbacks a 5-0 lead.
All three of the runners Mize left on base scored when Kyle Hart yielded a sacrifice fly and two-run double before finishing the fourth inning and working through the sixth. The Diamondbacks scored their final two runs off Griffin Canning in the eighth inning.
The Padres will hope for much better from Robbie Ray, the left-hander they got in a trade with the Giants, when he makes his first start for them Friday at Petco Park against the Astros.
They expect far more of Mize as well. He brought a 2.70 ERA into Wednesday’s game and had held the Royals to one run over six innings in his previous start.
That was July 25, because the Tigers scratched him from his scheduled start Friday as protection against potential injury before they traded him.
The rust from 11 days away from competition seemed to show right away, though he wasn’t leaning on that reasoning.
“I’m not going to make any excuses,” he said. “I need to pitch better. We need to win. So, like I said, pretty frustrating for me. But gonna put in a good week’s work, and hope to be better next time.”
Mize began the night with a walk, a single and a fly ball to the wall that moved both runners up before a strikeout and a groundout ended the first inning. Two quick outs in the second inning were followed by two singles before Mize escaped again.
But a leadoff walk, stolen base, groundout and sacrifice fly made it 1-0, and Tim Tawa’s home run made it 2-0 before the third inning was finished.
Mize’s main issue seemed to be locating his breaking pitches, which kept getting hit fairly hard, though the Diamondbacks made good on some good pitches as well.
“Just spraying,” Mize said. “Couldn’t really get a ton of count leverage. I sat here and told you guys that’s what I’ve done well this year yesterday, and then today couldn’t do that whatsoever. So pretty unlike myself, but it seems like I just couldn’t execute a plan.”
Bratt, meanwhile, was throwing fastballs below 90 mph and looping breaking pitches that mostly had the Padres confounded.
They went down in order in the first before getting one baserunner each of the next four innings. All of those baserunners reached before an out was made.
France’s single in the second inning was followed by three outs in 11 pitches.
The Padres’ only real chance to score came in the third when Cronenworth walked and, after Jase Bowen struck out, stole second on Bratt’s first pitch to Fernando Tatis Jr. But Tatis hit a fly ball out to right field, and Luis Rengifo struck out.
Walks by Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts to start the next two innings were all they would get until Tatis’ home run leading off the ninth inning against Kevin Ginkel, who would load the bases and then give up a three-run double to Gage Workman, the utility player who joined the Padres in the same trade as Mize.
After Ginkel got the second out, closer Paul Sewald finished the game by getting Cronenworth to line out to left field.
There was not much else to point to, so that was what Stammen focused on going into the final game of this important series.
“Our team is a bounce-back team,” he said. “Whether it goes well for us tomorrow or not, we’ll continue to bounce back, continue to show up with the right attitude, the right energy and give the right effort. I think what we did in the ninth inning, scoring four runs, that’s momentum we can carry into the next day. It shows that we don’t quit, don’t give up, no matter what the score is.”