Cease pitches into the 9th and Machado hits 2 of Padres' 4 homers in a 4-0 win vs Astros

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Dylan Cease pitched brilliantly into the ninth inning and Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Donovan Solano hit consecutive homers in the eighth for the San Diego Padres, who beat the AL West-leading Houston Astros 4-0 on Wednesday.

Machado homered twice for the Padres, who won two of three against the Astros and stayed 2 1/2 games ahead of the Diamondbacks and Mets for the first NL wild card. Houston came in with a five-game division lead over Seattle, which hosted the New York Yankees later.

Cease (14-11), who threw his first career no-hitter on July 25 at Washington, took a one-hitter into the ninth before Mauricio Dubón beat out an infield single to shortstop. Cease struck out Jake Meyers but then shortstop Xander Bogaerts booted Jose Altuve's grounder for an error that allowed Dubón to take third, and that was it for the right-hander after 103 pitches.

Cease retired the first 15 Astros batters before allowing a single to right field by Jason Heyward to open the sixth. Cease then retired the side.

Cease said it was probably the third-best start of his career, following his no-hitter and his near no-hitter against Minnesota in 2022 with the Chicago White Sox. That one was broken up with two outs in the ninth by Luis Arraez, who is now his Padres teammate.

“I remember looking up through six or seven and the pitch count was reasonable and I went up to Rueben (Niebla, the pitching coach), and said, ‘Hey, I’m going to get through the eighth and ninth today,'” Cease said. “He said, ‘Hey, just take it one at a time,’ and I said, ‘OK.’ When you get through six with a low pitch count, it's very easy to dream about going further.”

Cease struck out five and walked none. Tanner Scott got two outs for his 21st save, completing the two-hitter.

“Just attacking the strike zone, mixing it up and relying on my defense, really," Cease said.

Padres manager Mike Shildt called Cease “dominant. He was outstanding. Controlled counts, just a ton of life with everything. The ball was jumping. ... He was in control the whole way."

“Dylan Cease is a special talent,” Shildt added.

Machado, who has 29 homers, lined a leadoff shot to left-center against Framber Valdez in the sixth.

Tatis, who struck out in his first three at-bats, hit reliever Kaleb Ort's first pitch into the first row in left-center leading off the eighth. It was his 19th. Machado followed with a shot deep into the seats in left and Solano hit a liner to left, his seventh. That was it for Ort, who threw just nine pitches.

“That was awesome,” Cease said. “Talk about kind of getting some breathing room right there, it was pretty amazing.”

The Padres are closing in on their third playoff berth since 2020. Their 37-17 record since the All-Star break is the best in the majors.

“We beat a really good club out there,” Machado said. “It's fun. We're playing really good baseball. We beat a really good ballclub that we're probably going to be facing later on, so to go out there and play like we did and have Cease throw like he did, it was a good day.”

Of course, if the Astros and Padres meet again, it will be in the World Series.

“We've been playing postseason baseball for the last month,” Machado said. "Every game counts, man. I mean, it’s fun, man. ... It's a little taste of it. This is not over.

“We've always understood what the goal is all year and nothing's changed. We're going to continue to think that way."

Playing in front of three loud sellout crowds at Petco Park provided an atmosphere that was “playoff-caliber, that's for sure," Shildt said. "All three games were nip-and-tuck.”

Valdez (14-7) went seven innings, allowing one run and five hits while striking out six and walking two.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Padres: Arraez got the day off to rest his sore left knee, which he jammed into home plate while being thrown out on Monday night. Arraez started at DH on Tuesday night.

UP NEXT

Astros: LHP Yusei Kikuchi (9-9, 4.29 ERA) is scheduled to start Thursday night in the opener of a four-game home series against the Los Angeles Angels, who will go with LHP José Suarez (1-2, 6.80).

Padres: RHP Joe Musgrove (6-5, 4.23 ERA) is scheduled to start Friday night's home series opener against the 117-loss Chicago White Sox, who are set to go with LHP Garrett Crochet (6-12, 3.78).

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Houston Astros relief pitcher Kaleb Ort looks on as San Diego Padres' Donovan Solano rounds the bases after giving up his third home run in three consecutive batters to Solano during the eighth inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

San Diego Padres catcher Elias Diaz, second from left, pats starting pitcher Dylan Cease on the chest as Cease exits and third baseman Manny Machado looks on, right, during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Houston Astros Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

San Diego Padres starting pitcher Dylan Cease is greeted in the dugout after exiting during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Houston Astros Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

San Diego Padres' Manny Machado, right, celebrates with teammate Donovan Solano after hitting a home run during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Houston Astros Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

San Diego Padres' Manny Machado, right, celebrates with third base coach Tim Leiper after hitting a home run during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Houston Astros Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

San Diego Padres' Manny Machado celebrates after hitting a home run during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Houston Astros Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

San Diego Padres' Manny Machado tosses his bat after hitting a home run during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Houston Astros Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

San Diego Padres starting pitcher Dylan Cease works against a Houston Astros batter during the first inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

San Diego Padres starting pitcher Dylan Cease adjusts his hat as he works against a Houston Astros batter during the first inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

NEW YORK (AP) — Reviving a campaign pledge, President Donald Trump wants a one-year, 10% cap on credit card interest rates, a move that could save Americans tens of billions of dollars but drew immediate opposition from an industry that has been in his corner.

Trump was not clear in his social media post Friday night whether a cap might take effect through executive action or legislation, though one Republican senator said he had spoken with the president and would work on a bill with his “full support.” Trump said he hoped it would be in place Jan. 20, one year after he took office.

Strong opposition is certain from Wall Street in addition to the credit card companies, which donated heavily to his 2024 campaign and have supported Trump's second-term agenda. Banks are making the argument that such a plan would most hurt poor people, at a time of economic concern, by curtailing or eliminating credit lines, driving them to high-cost alternatives like payday loans or pawnshops.

“We will no longer let the American Public be ripped off by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Researchers who studied Trump’s campaign pledge after it was first announced found that Americans would save roughly $100 billion in interest a year if credit card rates were capped at 10%. The same researchers found that while the credit card industry would take a major hit, it would still be profitable, although credit card rewards and other perks might be scaled back.

About 195 million people in the United States had credit cards in 2024 and were assessed $160 billion in interest charges, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says. Americans are now carrying more credit card debt than ever, to the tune of about $1.23 trillion, according to figures from the New York Federal Reserve for the third quarter last year.

Further, Americans are paying, on average, between 19.65% and 21.5% in interest on credit cards according to the Federal Reserve and other industry tracking sources. That has come down in the past year as the central bank lowered benchmark rates, but is near the highs since federal regulators started tracking credit card rates in the mid-1990s. That’s significantly higher than a decade ago, when the average credit card interest rate was roughly 12%.

The Republican administration has proved particularly friendly until now to the credit card industry.

Capital One got little resistance from the White House when it finalized its purchase and merger with Discover Financial in early 2025, a deal that created the nation’s largest credit card company. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is largely tasked with going after credit card companies for alleged wrongdoing, has been largely nonfunctional since Trump took office.

In a joint statement, the banking industry was opposed to Trump's proposal.

“If enacted, this cap would only drive consumers toward less regulated, more costly alternatives," the American Bankers Association and allied groups said.

Bank lobbyists have long argued that lowering interest rates on their credit card products would require the banks to lend less to high-risk borrowers. When Congress enacted a cap on the fee that stores pay large banks when customers use a debit card, banks responded by removing all rewards and perks from those cards. Debit card rewards only recently have trickled back into consumers' hands. For example, United Airlines now has a debit card that gives miles with purchases.

The U.S. already places interest rate caps on some financial products and for some demographics. The Military Lending Act makes it illegal to charge active-duty service members more than 36% for any financial product. The national regulator for credit unions has capped interest rates on credit union credit cards at 18%.

Credit card companies earn three streams of revenue from their products: fees charged to merchants, fees charged to customers and the interest charged on balances. The argument from some researchers and left-leaning policymakers is that the banks earn enough revenue from merchants to keep them profitable if interest rates were capped.

"A 10% credit card interest cap would save Americans $100 billion a year without causing massive account closures, as banks claim. That’s because the few large banks that dominate the credit card market are making absolutely massive profits on customers at all income levels," said Brian Shearer, director of competition and regulatory policy at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, who wrote the research on the industry's impact of Trump's proposal last year.

There are some historic examples that interest rate caps do cut off the less creditworthy to financial products because banks are not able to price risk correctly. Arkansas has a strictly enforced interest rate cap of 17% and evidence points to the poor and less creditworthy being cut out of consumer credit markets in the state. Shearer's research showed that an interest rate cap of 10% would likely result in banks lending less to those with credit scores below 600.

The White House did not respond to questions about how the president seeks to cap the rate or whether he has spoken with credit card companies about the idea.

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., who said he talked with Trump on Friday night, said the effort is meant to “lower costs for American families and to reign in greedy credit card companies who have been ripping off hardworking Americans for too long."

Legislation in both the House and the Senate would do what Trump is seeking.

Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., released a plan in February that would immediately cap interest rates at 10% for five years, hoping to use Trump’s campaign promise to build momentum for their measure.

Hours before Trump's post, Sanders said that the president, rather than working to cap interest rates, had taken steps to deregulate big banks that allowed them to charge much higher credit card fees.

Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., have proposed similar legislation. Ocasio-Cortez is a frequent political target of Trump, while Luna is a close ally of the president.

Seung Min Kim reported from West Palm Beach, Fla.

President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, Friday, Jan. 9, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

FILE - Visa and Mastercard credit cards are shown in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Feb. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)