ARLINGTON, Texas — The longest winning streak the Padres ever had against any team and the longest losing streak the Rangers ever had against any team ended emphatically.
After 11 games of almost total domination by the Padres dating to 2018, the Rangers scored a 7-0 rout on Tuesday night at Globe Life Field.
It had to end in some way at some time.
And despite the fact the Padres were shut out and have scored one run while losing the past two games, the most troubling aspect of the night was that Dylan Cease went back to being unpredictable.
The right-hander allowed five runs in the first three innings and another run before he was pulled with two outs in the fourth.
Cease (7-7, 4.24 ERA) had thrown seven scoreless innings in his previous start, his second time doing so this season and his sixth time going at least six innings while allowing zero or one run.
Tuesday was the third time in his past nine starts that he allowed four or more runs over the first three innings of a game.
This was arguably the worst of them, though he allowed one more run in the same number of innings against the Mets on June 16.
Nathaniel Lowe homered in the first inning to make it 2-0 and the third inning to make it 5-0. The Rangers scored on two doubles in the second inning and a double and a single in the fourth before Stephen Kolek replaced Cease.
The five extra-base hits he yielded were the most he had allowed in a game this season.
Cease also walked two batters, and his strike percentage (58.3) was his lowest of the season.
The Padres had outscored the Rangers 80-29 during the win streak against them. Eight of the victories had come at Globe Life Field, meaning Tuesday was the first time they had ever lost to the Rangers at the ballpark that opened in 2020.
The Padres had lost inside the ballpark in that span, falling to the Dodgers in the 2020 National League Division Series, as the final two rounds of the NL playoffs and the World Series were held here at the end of that COVID-altered season.
The Rangers, who lost six games in a row before winning Sunday, got seven scoreless innings from Nathan Eovaldi (5-3, 3.15) on Tuesday.
The Padres got one hit off Eovaldi, a single by Bryce Johnson in the third inning, and one more against Jonathan Hernández, a single by Donovan Solano in the eighth.