Padres lose Casey Mize to ankle sprain, still come back to beat Twins

Jeff Sanders, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Aug 22, 2026

Published in Baseball

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SAN DIEGO — Casey Mize slipped down the dugout steps between the second and third inning Saturday night and ultimately exited his fourth start with his new team with a right ankle sprain.

Not even that could trip up the San Diego Padres.

A versatile and dynamic bullpen rallied around Mize’s early exit and a resurgent offense allowed the Padres to regain their footing in a 7-5 come-from-behind win over the Minnesota Twins in front of a sellout crowd of 41,484 on Saturday at Petco Park.

Jackson Merrill homered and drove in two runs and the Padres took advantage of Twins miscues — a catcher’s interference, an ill-advised throw to third base and a missed catch at third base — in a four-run seventh inning capped by Ty France’s go-ahead single.

Adrián Morejón and Mason Miller locked down the eighth and ninth innings, respectively, but right-hander Griffin Canning did the heavy lifting, following Kyle Hart (1 IP, 1 ER) into the game after Mize’s early exit and turning in three shutout innings for a win that buoyed their postseason chances.

The Phillies won their eighth straight game to maintain a two-game cushion as the NL’s second wild card, but the Padres now lead the Arizona Diamondbacks by two games as the final wild-card team.

Mize was hit hard from the start, allowing a leadoff homer to Luke Keaschall to open the game and two two-out homers to Brooks Lee and Kaelen Culpepper in the second inning.

After the second, Mize appeared to slip as he walked down the dugout steps. He threw warm-up pitches under the watch of Padres manager Craig Stammen and head athletic trainer Mark Rogow before the start of the third inning and was ultimately allowed to start the frame. But Mize’s fastball dipped from a 94.7 mph four-seamer in the first inning to an 88.4 sinker in the third — the slowest of his career — and he was pulled from the game after giving up a two-out double to Ryan Jeffers.

Mize was making his fourth start since the Padres gave up pitching prospect Kash Mayfield in a trade deadline deal to bolster a rotation that had been stretched thin throughout the year.

Nick Pivetta went down with a flexor strain in his fourth start of the season, Joe Musgrove is still working his way back from his October 2024 Tommy John surgery and the fill-ins — from Canning to Germán Márquez to Matt Waldron to Lucas Giolito to JP Sears — had been more miss than hit as the season wore on.

Padres baseball ops chief A.J. Preller addressed the gaping hole by acquiring both Mize and left-hander Robbie Ray ahead of the Aug. 3 trade deadline and both had a hand in the rotation turning in five straight quality starts, a run that came to an end with Mize’s exit on Saturday.

Right groin issues sent Mize to the 15-day injured list twice this season with the Detroit Tigers.

If Mize needs another stint on the shelf, Musgrove is the most logical fill-in as he threw a bullpen on Saturday, is slated for his fourth rehab start early next week and could slot into the rotation after that.

Musgrove had been trending toward rejoining the team on this homestand, but he tweaked his back while preparing to start again this week at Triple-A El Paso. That setback, along with the rotation’s recent roll, had allowed the Padres to entertain holding Musgrove back until rosters expand from 26 to 28 on Sept. 1.

In that scenario, Musgrove would have pushed Randy Vásquez to the bullpen.

Now Vásquez, who has a 2.91 ERA in 34 innings since returning from his ankle contusion, could retain his spot in the rotation if Mize is forced to miss time.

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