Casey Mize ‘embarrassed’ by career-worst start in Padres debut

The new-look San Diego Padres revamped their starting rotation at the trade deadline by acquiring multiple pitchers.

President of baseball operations A.J. Preller had another busy trade deadline and succeeded in helping an ailing group.

One of Preller’s deadline acquisitions was Casey Mize of the Detroit Tigers. The right-hander was sporting a 2.70 ERA with 85 strikeouts across 86.2 innings pitched before he was traded to the Padres.

Mize made his Padres debut Wednesday against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field, and it was everything but spectacular as San Diego lost 10-4. It was a complete dud as Mize gave up a career-high eight earned runs on nine hits in 3.1 innings.

The eight runs allowed by Mize are the most by a pitcher in his Padres debut since Jhoulys Chacin allowed nine runs in 2017, which is tied for the franchise record.

Mize acknowledged the poor performance and expressed disappointment in himself.

“Not the first impression I wanted to make for my teammates and for the fans. Pretty tough time to have the worst start of my career. I just put us in a really tough spot, didn’t give us a chance to win. So, frustrated and embarrassed by that,” Mize said.

The Padres have arguably one of the biggest games of the 2026 season Thursday against the Diamondbacks. A loss would mean the Padres are three games behind Arizona, while a win would reduce the deficit to one game.

The matchup is also important because a Padres win would tie the season series with the Diamondbacks. There’s a lot on the line for San Diego today, and the Padres buying at the deadline made their plans for the remainder of the season increasingly clear.

The Padres are going for it in 2026, and they’ll need Mize to regroup as the squad chases a wild-card spot.

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