NEW YORK — After two foggy and rainy nights, the Bronx was graced with spring and a brilliant baseball game ensued at Yankee Stadium.
It did not end brilliantly for the Padres, who lost a late lead.
The Yankees came back to beat the Padres 4-3 on Wednesday, tying the game with two runs in the eighth inning and walking it off in the 10th.
A game that began with both starting pitchers dominating for the better part of seven innings saw five runs scored in the final three innings.
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 Jackson Merrill’s RBI single and Xander Bogaerts’ sacrifice fly off Yankees closer Luke Weaver.
Trent Grisham’s two-run homer off Jason Adam in the eighth inning tied the game.
Weaver and Padres closer Robert Suarez worked a scoreless ninth, forcing the Padres to extra innings for just the second time this season.
They are 0-2.
Facing Devin Williams, against whom they scored four runs in the eighth inning on Monday, the Padres could not get a runner home in the 10th despite having Brandon Lockridge on third base with one out.
And the Yankees made quick work of the bottom half of the inning. Oswaldo Cabrera’s sacrifice bunt off Jeremiah Estrada moved automatic runner Jasson Dominguez from second to third, then J.C. Escarra lofted a sacrifice fly to deep left field.
Padres starting pitcher Dylan Cease departed the game in the seventh inning shortly after allowing his first hit.
The home run Merrill hit off Max Fried in the fourth inning had the Padres up 1-0 as the bottom of the seventh inning began.
Cease’s no-hit bid ended and the game was tied when Cody Bellinger hit a solo homer to the second deck beyond right field with one out.
Cease’s night ended a short while later. He followed Bellinger’s homer with a strikeout of Anthony Volpe and had just gotten ahead 1-2 against the next batter when he appeared to clench and then shake his right hand.
That brought catcher Martín Maldonado to the mound, with manager Mike Shildt and pitching coach Ruben Niebla jogging out from one end of the dugout and athletic trainer Mark Rogow from the other.
Cease appeared to tell Rogow his forearm cramped, and it was clear from the time he arrived at the mound that Shildt was not going to allow Cease to throw another pitch.
Cease walked off with Rogow, and Adam jogged in from the bullpen. Cease said postgame that he passed tests with “flying colors,” feels fine and expects to make his next start.
After an extended warm-up, Adam ended the inning by completing a strikeout of Jasson Dominguez in two pitches.
Staked with a two-run lead, Adam would not get another out before the Yankees tried the game.
Adam walked Oswaldo Cabrera to start the bottom of the eight, and pinch-hitter Trent Grisham followed with a towering home run to right field.
It was the second night in a row the bullpen let go of a late-game lead after not having done so in the season’s first 34 games.
Originally Published: May 7, 2025 at 7:15 PM PDT