Dylan Cease sharp, offense on point as Padres win series over Red Sox

The Padres continued to welcome back the real Dylan Cease and leaned on their bullpen to beat an excellent team.

They would love for that to be a formula that works for a while.

And if the hitters could set the tone the way they did Sunday, that would be fine too.

“I thought it was very relentless and as consistent of an offensive game as we’ve had in a while,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said.

A 6-2 victory over the Red Sox, who hold the American League’s second wild-card spot, was the kind that suggests the Padres are up for a run well into October.

“We’re playing good baseball, and I think there’s even more in the tank for all of us,” reliever Jason Adam said. “I’m excited for this stretch run here. We’re in a great spot.”

In winning their fourth consecutive series, the Padres moved to a season-high 14 games over .500 (66-52) and improved their standing in the National League wild-card race. They sit in the fifth of six playoff spots, three games ahead of the Mets.

After they built a 5-0 lead, their 11th victory in 14 games had just a few tense moments.

Cease tired after six scoreless innings and turned the game over to Adam with two on and nobody out in the seventh.

Adam hit a batter to load the bases and then appeared to get a double-play grounder from Romy Gonzalez that would have scored a run but gotten two outs. But the hard shot by Gonzalez bounced off shortstop Xander Bogaerts’ glove and into shallow center field, and the Padres’ advantage was down to three runs.

A single re-loaded the bases before Adam struck out the next two batters.

Adrian Morejón came on for the left-on-left matchup against Red Sox leadoff batter Roman Anthony and struck him out with a 98 mph full-count fastball.

After the Padres added a run in the bottom of the seventh on singles by Fernando Tatis Jr. and Luis Arraez and fly ball outs by Manny Machado and Ryan O’Hearn, Morejón began the eighth by walking Alex Bregman before getting an out.

With Jeremiah Estrada and Robert Suarez unavailable due to their workload, Padres manager Mike Shildt went to rookie David Morgan, who struck out cleanup hitter Trevor Story and ended the inning by getting a groundout from Masataka Yoshida.

Morgan fiished off the game with a 1-2-3 ninth.

All that came after Cease delivered arguably his most dominant performance with what was certainly his most sustained sharpness.

“He’s a dog, and that’s what he’s capable of doing,” Tatis said.

Sunday was an encore and an improvement on the five scoreless innings Cease (5-10, 4.52) threw a week earier. He allowed four hits, walked two and struck out seven Sunday while winning a second consecutive game after having gone 0-4 with a 5.81 ERA over his previous six starts.

“It seems like Dylan from last year,” Jake Cronenworth said. “… I think it’s not if, it’s when it’s gonna happen, and it seems like it’s happening.”

Sunday was one of those days where Cease truly did have what it is often said he does.

“No-hit stuff,” Shildt said.

The first two hits against Cease were a bloop single that fell between left fielder Ramón Laureano and shortstop Bogaerts in the third and a dribbler to third base in the fifth.

The third was a line drive single to center field by Roman Anthony with one out in the sixth inning. Two pitches later, Bregman grounded into an inning-ending double play.

With help from a double play, Cease faced the minimum through three innings.

Red Sox starter Brayan Bello, who had a 2.44 ERA over his previous 11 starts, was close to accomplishing the same thing before Freddy Fermin singled with two outs in the third and Bello missed on two 0-2 pitches.

First, he hit Tatis and then he left a 97 mph fastball in the heart of the strike zone that Arraez drove to the gap in left-center that brought home both runners.

Tatis was again involved when the Padres added to their lead in the fifth, as his single through the left side scored Cronenworth from second base, where he had reached by hustling up a double on a flare down the line in shallow left field.

The Padres became just the third team this season to score more than three runs against Bello when Machado singled with one out, stole second with two outs and scored on a single by Bogaerts. Walks by Jackson Merrill and Laureano (against Bello) and Cronenworth (against reliever Chris Murphy) followed, and the Padres led 5-0.

It was the ninth time in their past 13 games that they scored at least five runs, a threshold they reached five times in the previous 24 games.

With a 5-4 victory on Saturday and Sunday’s victory, the Padres were also feeling good about bouncing back after getting routed 10-2 on Friday, which was the eighth victory in nine games for the Red Sox.

“It’s a really good team,” Cronenworth said. “For us to come out and battle the way we did for these last 18 innings was awesome.”