Homers continue to haunt Cease in loss to Rangers

ARLINGTON -- This season, no Padres pitcher has carried the workload more than Dylan Cease, who has made more starts, logged more innings and thrown more pitches than anyone else on the staff. But as much as he has been on the mound, perhaps some bad habits have begun to climb the hill with him.

Right now, Cease’s chief vulnerability is the home run ball. Including Tuesday’s 7-0 loss to the Rangers at Globe Life Field, a notable number of Cease’s offerings over the past 10 starts became souvenirs for fans in the outfield seats.

Cease has allowed 11 homers during that stretch, counting two in just 3 2/3 innings Tuesday, both by Nathaniel Lowe. That translates to an abnormally high rate of 1.88 home runs per nine innings over that span. None of the other 70 MLB starting pitchers who entered Tuesday with qualifying innings pitched had allowed a higher HR/9 rate than Cease has in his past 10 starts.

All that contrasts to Cease’s first eight starts of the season, in which he surrendered only two homers in 49 1/3 innings -- a 0.36 HR/9 rate. That’s better than all but one qualifying starting MLB pitcher’s current HR/9 rate this season.

So what changed? Cease believes his pitch execution can improve, but he doesn’t feel like the stuff itself has deteriorated.

“It's not necessarily the pitches, it's just how they're being used and how they're not being used,” Cease said. “So if I’m falling behind, I'm not putting it in the right spot, then it's really giving them a chance.”

Manager Mike Shildt said he hasn’t spotted any specific troublesome tendencies, either.

“I’m not seeing anything -- and I don’t think he is -- that’s necessarily really alarming,” Shildt said. “Some [pitches] are finding some of the same spots and guys are putting some swings on it.”

Cease’s location Tuesday was iffy -- he floated a 71.3 mph changeup nearly chin-high to Lowe in the first inning, but the Rangers lefty pounced on it. In the third, down 3-0, Cease again gave Lowe a pitch to flog, this time a 96.5 mph four-seam fastball.

“I yanked the heater and I left the changeup up,” Cease said. “He just put good wood on it. ... I didn’t execute well, I really didn’t get anything going, didn’t give us a chance. So not a good night.”

Shildt seemed to concur. A couple of missed pitches, a couple of homers. For a guy who throws 100 pitches in a game more often than almost any of his peers, a couple of pitches were his downfall Tuesday.

“He put some good swings on him,” Shildt said of Lowe. “It looked like some balls were in the middle of the plate, and it just wasn’t [Cease’s] night. Dylan’s going to be fine.”

Aside from the obvious -- the homers and the short length of Tuesday’s start -- one of the more frustrating aspects of Cease’s evening was that it reversed some positive momentum he gained when he threw seven scoreless one-hit innings against the Nationals last week.

“In general, I like where I'm at,” Cease said. “I feel like I've been trending in the right direction. I just didn’t get it done today, unfortunately. ... I really don't feel discouraged, I just feel like I had a bad game."