San Diego’s Saturday night matchup with Minnesota took a sharp turn when Casey Mize was forced out after spraining his right ankle, ending his start with two outs in the third inning.
The right-hander seemed to get hurt when he slipped on the dugout steps after the second inning and came down awkwardly on his right foot. Padres manager Craig Stammen and a team athletic trainer checked on him before the third. Mize threw a few extra warmup pitches and stayed in the game, but the first pitch of the inning told part of the story: an 88.4 mph sinker, the slowest fastball of his career.
He got the first two outs of the frame, then Ryan Jeffers doubled to left. At that point, Stammen and the trainer went back out, and Mize was pulled. Kyle Hart came on in relief.
By the time Mize’s night was over, he had allowed four hits and four earned runs in 2 2/3 innings. He walked one, struck out none and gave up three solo home runs.
Luke Keaschall started the damage with a homer, then Brooks Lee and rookie Kaelen Culpepper went back-to-back with two outs in the second inning. Hart later gave up an RBI single to Kody Clemens, pushing Minnesota ahead 4-1.
The injury interrupted what had been a better stretch for Mize. Over his previous two starts, he had allowed only two runs in 12 innings.
His Aug. 5 San Diego debut had gone in the opposite direction, with eight runs surrendered in 3 1/3 innings.
Acquired from the Detroit Tigers on Aug. 3, Mize came into the night with 20 starts, a 3.44 ERA, 95 strikeouts and 26 walks in 104 2/3 innings. But in four outings with the Padres, his ERA sat at 7.00.
Mize had also already missed time this season with a right adductor strain and later inflammation in the same area.
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