The Astros couldn’t have played any better into the Padres hands.
On a night when every Padre high leverage reliever was off the shelf, the last thing the Astros wanted to do was make a lot of quick outs and let the Padre ace starter to go deep into the game. Were the Astros hitters that bad tonight? Or Dylan Cease that good?
Cease had Astros hitters eating out of his hand. Through five innings he had a perfect game requiring only 61 pitches.
Meanwhile, Framber Valdez struggled successfully to keep the Padres off the board.