Cease, Padres ready to 'move on to the next one'

NEW YORK -- The natural ebbs and flows of the 162-game slate sometimes feel strongest in the summer months, when the days are longer and the impact of each result stays with you each night. And the Padres, on the heels of pulling off their first sweep of the year in the previous series, find themselves with their sights set ahead after a rough stretch at Citi Field.

San Diego’s 11-6 loss to the Mets on Sunday punctuated one of the club’s toughest series of the year, suffering the sweep in three games. It marked the first time that the Padres were swept by New York in nearly 18 years (Aug. 8-10, 2006, at Shea Stadium).

“We were in it for pretty much the whole game,” starter Dylan Cease said. “We almost made that comeback, we’ve done that all year. It’s definitely not an effort thing. It’s just sometimes how baseball plays, and we’ve got to keep preparing and keep fighting.”

The afternoon started off encouragingly enough, as third baseman Manny Machado broke through with his first hit of the series -- an RBI single he earned after lacing a cutter up the middle -- giving the Padres their first lead of the series.

But their early advantage dissipated immediately in the bottom half of the first inning. Cease tried to sneak a third consecutive fastball past Francisco Lindor that the switch-hitter turned on and crushed into the second deck in right field. Then, after the next two batters reached on a single and a free pass, Pete Alonso hit the first pitch he saw from Cease for a three-run blast. It was the first time in his career that Cease had allowed four runs in the first four batters of the game.

“You want to give the team a chance to win,” Cease said. “When you let up more than a couple runs early, you put the team in a tough deficit. So it’s disappointing.”

Cease’s issues stemmed from execution, plain and simple. When Cease would miss with either of his primary pitches, the ball would end up over the heart of the plate, or as non-competitive pitches that didn’t entice Mets batters. He was chased after 3 2/3 innings, allowing seven runs on seven hits, while striking out five hitters and giving up three walks.

“It’s one of those I don’t really have an answer for right now,” Cease said. “I’m going to spend the next couple of days working through and coming up with a plan. It was just poor execution in general. So whatever it is, you gotta figure it out, just move on to the next one.”

With relievers Yuki Matsui and Stephen Kolek putting together a combined 3 1/3 scoreless innings in the middle frames, the Padres did threaten to claw back. After a pair of doubles from Luis Campusano and Luis Arraez in the fifth (Campusano did not score on Arraez’s double), Jurickson Profar’s RBI groundout gave San Diego its second run of the afternoon.

Frustrations boiled over in the sixth inning, when Machado struck out looking on a low sinker and then was ejected by home-plate umpire Adam Beck after slamming his bat and arguing while walking back to the dugout. Manager Mike Shildt came out to defend his star third baseman and was subsequently ejected as well.

“I don’t know if there was carryover, necessarily,” Shildt said. “There’s frustration relative to that we haven’t had the results we want at the end of the day on the scoreboard. That can add up as well. … But bottom line is we got to be better.”

All weekend, the Padres have pointed to their “never-give-up” attitude as their north star. And that mindset appeared again in the eighth inning, as they scratched across four runs against the Mets’ bullpen, making the score 7-6. The bottom half of the lineup came up clutch: Jackson Merrill drew a bases-loaded walk, David Peralta legged out an RBI fielder’s choice, Ha-Seong Kim crushed an RBI double and Campusano nearly tied the game with a 107 mph line drive that ended up as a sacrifice fly.

If it wasn’t for the inability to produce a shutdown inning -- Jeremiah Estrada was tagged for four runs in the eighth in a rare blip -- the Padres believed they were on the precipice of pulling off a comeback. That’s a belief that remains, and they will try to carry it forward as they finish off this road trip in Philadelphia.

“I can tell you that the awareness, preparation, professionalism and communication in the dugout with a bunch of seasoned pros has been really, really good,” Shildt said. “... Whether we lose a game or a couple games in a row, it’s going to be our issue. We just got to continue to figure out a way to execute and play at a consistent basis.”