Dylan Cease injury: Padres ‘not overly concerned’ after star leaves start vs. Yankees with cramp

San Diego Padres right-hander Dylan Cease took a no-hitter into the seventh inning on Wednesday night in an eventual loss against the New York Yankees (box score) before departing with an apparent injury. Cease could be seen on the broadcast shaking his throwing arm, but after the game manager Mike Shildt said the training staff wasn’t too worried about what they diagnosed as a cramp.

“Training staff’s not overly concerned, little bit of cramp,” Shildt said, adding that Cease wanted to continue pitching.  

Cease delivered 6 ⅓ no-hit innings before surrendering a game-tying home run to Cody Bellinger. He remained in the game, striking out Anthony Volpe and working himself into a 1-2 count before exiting midway through an at-bat against Jasson Domínguez. The Padres subsequently inserted reliever Jason Adam to close out the seventh and preserve the tie.

Cease’s final line on the night saw him surrender just the one run on the one hit. Otherwise, he struck out nine of the 24 batters he faced while issuing only two walks on 89 pitches. 

An impending free agent, Cease came into Wednesday’s contest sporting a 5.61 ERA (74 ERA+) and a 2.60 strikeout-to-walk ratio over the course of his first seven starts. CBS Sports wrote more about Cease’s struggles earlier this week. Here’s part of our analysis:

Cease has a few notable happenings going on underneath the hood. He’s lowered his arm angle, causing his four-seamer to feature more armside movement — usually, the pitch is more vertically orientated. Cease’s sweeper is lacking the same depth it showed last season, and he’s clearly struggling to locate his curveball where he wants it, causing him to throw just 45.8% of the offering for strikes (as opposed to more than 56% in each of the last two years).

The Padres came into Wednesday night’s game with a 23-12 record on the year, putting them a half game back of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West. The Padres are already without starters Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove, and Matt Waldron, among others, suggesting they can hardly afford to lose another arm to the shelf.