Dylan Cease closing in on the playoffs with the Padres after escaping from the lowly White Sox

SAN DIEGO (AP) — If there really are baseball gods, they certainly smiled on Dylan Cease when he was traded from the lowly Chicago White Sox to the San Diego Padres during spring training.

The gravity of escaping the South Side for Southern California was never more apparent than late Sunday afternoon at Petco Park.

In the visiting clubhouse, Cease's old teammates somberly packed for the flight home after tying the modern-era record of 120 losses.

Down the hall, the vibes were flowing after a comeback win in front of another raucous sellout crowd brought Cease and the Padres to the cusp of a postseason berth.

“We're fighting for the playoffs and beyond. I love this team so I'm just happy to be here,” Cease said.

With their magic number down to one, Cease and the Padres could be celebrating a postseason berth as early as Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium, when they open a huge three-game series against their biggest rivals.

The Padres, who have 90 wins for the first time since 2010, own a three-game lead over Arizona for the NL's first wild card. But they also have a shot at winning the NL West for the first time since 2006. They trail Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers by three games, with six to go. The Padres hold the tiebreaker against the Dodgers with a 7-3 head-to-head record.

Cease (14-11, 3.42 ERA) will start Wednesday night.

Clinching a playoff spot will be the latest memorable moment for Cease this season. After being obtained on March 13 for four players, he had to scramble to find his passport and pack so he could join the Padres in Seoul, South Korea, where they played a season-opening, two-game series against the Dodgers.

On July 25, he threw his first career no-hitter in a 3-0 win at Washington to join Joe Musgrove as the only Padres pitchers to achieve the feat. They are more than just no-no bros. Cease wasn't sleeping well in his apartment in a noisy downtown neighborhood so Musgrove invited him to stay in his guest house in an outlying neighborhood.

“It's as much fun as I've ever had playing baseball," said Cease, who also called the Padres the most well-rounded team he's ever been on. "I think we're all feeling optimistic. The resilience on this team has been amazing to watch. It's just in general very fun to be part of.”

Cease reached the playoffs with the White Sox in 2020 and 2021. But they went 81-81 in 2022 before losing 101 games last year.

“It’s much more pleasant to win. And I know that sounds obvious, but you know, it is definitely taxing to lose that much," Cease said. "It just seeps into everything. So to be on a team where we’re playing well and in contention, we all have a lot of energy every game. It's great. It really is. I’m very fortunate to be here.”

The Padres are at close to full strength heading toward October and would love to win their first World Series title to honor Peter Seidler, the owner who died Nov. 14 at age 63.

Yu Darvish and Musgrove are back in the rotation after long layoffs. Slugger Manny Machado has bounced back from a slow start following offseason elbow surgery. Fernando Tatis Jr. and his swagger are back after a two-month injury layoff. Center fielder Jackson Merrill is making a strong push for NL Rookie of the Year.

Cease has been one of the few constants all season. The 28-year-old right-hander leads the squad with 32 starts, 184 1/3 innings pitched and 220 strikeouts.

"That was a nice jolt for the club going into Korea, knowing we added another No. 1," manager Mike Shildt said.

With Darvish missing three months and Musgrove two months, the Padres had a guy in Cease "that you know you can count on every fifth day to give you a quality start,” Shildt said. “He's meant a ton to us He's done a tremendous job for us.”

Cease's no-hitter wasn't a surprise. He came within one out of a no-no while with Chicago in 2022 against Minnesota before it was broken up by Luis Arraez, who is now his Padres teammate.

“It’s nice to have someone else in the club, and I’m glad it’s him,” Musgrove said.

Cease said Musgrove, who grew up in suburban El Cajon, is "kind of like the mayor here so to get to do that and being the only two, it’s really cool and special.”

In his last start, Cease took a one-hitter into the ninth in a 4-0 win against AL East-leading Houston on Wednesday. He called that the third-best start of his career, after his no-hitter and the near no-hitter.

In his only postseason start, he lasted just 1 2/3 innings in a 12-6 win against Houston in the 2021 AL Division Series.

“I didn't control the adrenaline," he said. “Definitely I didn't capitalize on that moment as well as I would have liked to. It's a next level of intensity and pressure and all that. I'm glad I experienced that then and hopefully that helps me out.”

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Bernie Wilson, The Associated Press