Ramon Laureano injured as Padres fall to Brewers, fail to gain in standings

Kevin Acee, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Sep 24, 2025

Published in Baseball

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SAN DIEGO — Wednesday did not go as well as the day before.

The Padres lineup was fuller at the start than when they rested three regulars on Tuesday, but they lost a game and might have lost a key player.

It will not be known until later in the day if their 3-1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers meant they also conceded ground in the standings. But not gaining on the Los Angeles Dodgers or Chicago Cubs at this point is a fairly severe setback on its own.

The Padres, who had won four straight games and on Tuesday had benefited from Cubs and Dodgers losses, sit two games behind the Dodgers in the National League West and the Cubs in the race for the No.4 seed. Passing either team would mean a home wild-card series rather than heading to Chicago to face the Cubs.

Already assured of being a playoff participant, the biggest concern coming out of Wednesday was Ramón Laureano, who departed in the third inning with a fractured finger. Laureano will miss the wild-card round and could miss even more time.

Laureano, who has driven in a team-high 30 runs since being acquired at the trade deadline, shook his hand after a swing on the seventh pitch of what ended up a nine-pitch strikeout. He was later seen being examined by an athletic trainer in the dugout as Bryce Johnson took his place in right field.

Laureano was playing there in place of Fernando Tatis Jr., who stayed home for a third consecutive day with flu-like symptoms.

The Padres do not expect Tatis to miss the postseason, but he and Laureano even being considered questions this late is an unsettling circumstance.

The Padres are no clearer on their starting pitching situation for the wild-card series either.

Dylan Cease worked out of trouble repeatedly on Wednesday before allowing his only run in the fifth inning.

With the Cubs being the most likely opponent next week, the Padres are considering using Cease to start one of the games in the best-of-three wild-card series.

While Cease on Wednesday completed a disappointing regular season with a 4.55 ERA in 32 starts, he did reach 215 strikeouts, second most in the NL. And he has a 0.96 ERA in three starts against the Cubs since the start of last season. That includes his allowing them three runs (two earned) in 5 2/3 innings at Petco Park in April.

The Padres will use Thursday’s off day to alter the rotation, moving Yu Darvish up to start Friday’s series opener against the Diamondbacks and Michael King back a day to go Saturday. A strong outing by King and/or Darvish could compel the Padres to go with that duo after Nick Pivetta starts Game 1 on Tuesday.

Randy Vásquez is lined up to start the regular season finale Sunday, though whether that game matters could determine whether he pitches then or is held out so he is available to work out of the bullpen in the wild-card series.

The best (and only consistent) thing Cease has provided this season has been that he has pitched every time it was his turn and generally thrown a lot of pitches.

That is not as valuable in the postseason, when a starter is often pulled at the first sign of trouble.

But that also mutes to some extent the danger of his propensity to have a blow-up inning ruin an excellent start less of an issue, as the Padres will have a reliever at the ready.

After he left a runner in scoring position in each of the first four innings on Wednesday, the Brewers broke through against Cease in a fifth inning that was somewhat symbolic of the right-hander’s mercurial season.

After Cease got his seventh and eighth strikeouts to start the inning, Brice Turang lined a single to left field. Turang advanced to third base on a wild pitch that bounced in the dirt and then off catcher Freddy Fermín and nearly all the way to the Brewers’ dugout, and he scored when Andrew Vaughn lined the next pitch to the corner in left field for a double.

Cease got a popup to end the inning and his day.

The Padres did not threaten much at all before tying the game in the sixth when Brewers manager Pat Murphy got burned by sticking with right-hander Erick Fedde against Jackson Merrill.

The logic behind the decision was not difficult to see, as Merrill had struck out in his previous two at-bats and Fedde had taken over for starter Chad Patrick to start the fourth inning and retired the first eight batters he faced.

Fedde was ahead 1-2 against Merrill when he threw a cutter to the outer edge of the plate against the left-handed Merrill, who sent the pitch off the bottom balcony of the Western Metal Building.

After David Morgan, fresh off the injured list, worked a scoreless sixth inning, Adrian Morejón surrendered a run on a pair of singles in the seventh inning.

The Padres failed to score despite loading the bases with one out in the seventh, and a scoreless eighth inning by Kyle Hart was followed by Jeremiah Estrada surrendering a home run to Danny Jansen in the ninth.

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