SAN DIEGO -- Casey Mize’s fourth start as a member of the Padres ended prematurely due to an unfortunate misstep.
Mize suffered a right ankle sprain after he slipped walking down the dugout steps between the second and third innings of the Padres’ 7-5 win over the Twins on Saturday night. He attempted to continue pitching, but ultimately walked off the mound with a trainer after completing just 2 2/3 innings.
Mize’s ankle was swollen and he was limping slightly in the clubhouse after the game. Imaging was negative and he is day-to-day.
“I think my spike got caught on like the edge of the step, I guess, and then it kind of just made me slip a little bit,” Mize said. “I tried to catch myself, and I ended up rolling my ankle kind of on the bottom step there.”
Mize got his ankle taped after the slip and tried to continue pitching. He appeared to be favoring his foot while warming up prior to the third inning and was checked by manager Craig Stammen and head trainer Mark Rogow.
Mize stayed in the game and retired two batters before serving up a hard double to Ryan Jeffers. Stammen and Rogow returned to the mound after that at-bat, and Mize walked off alongside Rogow.
Mize’s final three fastballs against Jeffers were all 91 mph, more than two mph below his season average.
“It was kind of out of the corner of my eye,” Stammen said. “I wasn't watching him specifically, but I saw him go down, saw him turn the ankle, and then try to walk it off in the dugout, and it didn't look great.
“We had him underneath, taping it up and seeing if he could go. He wanted to try to go in that next inning and kind of talked us into it like, ‘Yeah, I feel good enough.’ The velocity was down and the movement on his pitches wasn't quite the same, and they were taking some good swings off him. So I just felt like it wasn't right for him to have to try to gut it out.”
Overall, Mize allowed four hits and four runs, walked one and struck out three.
He was replaced by left-hander Kyle Hart.
“I'm hoping it's day-to-day,” Mize said. “We just got done doing some treatment. Do a little bit more, see how tomorrow goes. Hoping that I'm fine and can make my next [start] and can get back out there.”
The Twins belted three home runs in the first nine batters against Mize, whose velocity was down across the board.
Luke Keaschall led off the game with a home run with a home run that traveled a Statcast-projected 396 feet into the left-field bleachers.
Brooks Lee and Kaelen Culpepper piled on with back-to-back homers in the second inning. Lee drove an outside fastball the other way over the left-field fence, and on the very next pitch, Culpepper launched an elevated fastball a projected 400 feet into the second deck in left field.
Mize’s velocity on his fastball, slider, sinker and slurve were all at least 1.5 mph below his season averages. His velocity on his splitter was nearly 1 mph below his season average.
Mize, whom the Padres acquired at the Trade Deadline with infielder Gage Workman for prospects Kash Mayfield and Jackson Wolf, has had two injured list stints already this season for a right adductor strain.
“I feel it, for sure,” Mize said. “We're treating it, you know, and we'll throw everything we can at it.”