CLEVELAND — Jake Cronenworth beat a ball into the dirt in front of the plate that bounced all the way over first baseman Nathaniel Lowe and into right field.

Fernando Tatis Jr., who had begun the game by drawing a walk, raced to third base on Cronenworth’s single.

Manny Machado came to the plate and grounded into a double play that got Tatis home.

That sequence in the first inning was the totality of the Padres’ substantive offensive highlights in a 6-1 loss to the Guardians on Saturday.

That was how good one of the Padres’ former minor leaguers, sent away during A.J. Preller’s first bender of a trade deadline, was in his six innings and how baffled the Padres were by his mixed-up mix of pitches.

“He can run through a lineup when he’s on like that, and he did tonight,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “And that was probably a Padres revenge tour for him.”

Cantillo shrugged at the suggestion.

“No,” he said of there being any added significance in facing the Padres. “… Just cool to see some familiar faces.”

There were not many of them, and the Padres would be fine to not see Cantillo again after he allowed four baserunners in his six innings and threw two-thirds of his 87 pitches for strikes.

“Threw a lot of strikes,” Cronenworth said. “… He pounded the zone.”

The end of the Padres’ six-game winning streak also dropped them back into a three-way tie for the two National League wild-card spots, as the Diamondbacks and Phillies won on Saturday.

Wandy Peralta and Kyle Hart, the two left-handed relievers the Padres used at the start of the game, surrendered a run apiece in the respective innings, leaving the Padres down 2-1 when Randy Vásquez took over in the third inning. Vásquez went on to allow four runs in his five innings, two in the fifth and two in the seventh.

But this loss could be, for a rare time in recent weeks, laid at the feet of the offense, which entered the game as the hottest group in the major leagues since the All-Star break and was cooled by an arctic blast.

Machado’s double-play grounder began a run of seven straight batters retired that was stopped when Tatis walked with two outs in the third inning. Luis Campusano was the only other Padres batter to reach base in Cantillo’s six innings. Ty France, who was hit by a Colin Holderman pitch in the seventh, was the Padres’ only baserunner against three Guardians relievers.

Cantillo, sent to the Guardians at the 2020 trade deadline as part of the massive trade for pitcher Mike Clevinger, was the second straight pitcher to confound the Padres. He just did it all night, where they eventually figured out Gavin Williams in Friday’s 7-5 victory.

Cantillo used his fastball far less and his curveball far more than usual, using that pitch with his change-up to record seven strikeouts as he navigated six innings for the first time in nine starts.

The Padres entered the series batting .291 against fastballs over their previous 40 games.

“He definitely kept us off-balance the entire night with the off-speed pitches — with the curveballs and change-ups, a little cutter, not many fastballs,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “Seems to be a theme the last two nights with the Guardians.”

Williams had blamed his significantly decreased fastball usage Friday on his inability to command this sinker and four-seamer. Cantillo said his using his four-seamer about 40% less than his season average was no Padres specific.

“No,” he said. “… They’ve got good hitters over there, but for the most part we try to stay with our plan.”

©2026 The San Diego Union-Tribune. Visit sandiegouniontribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.