The Padres are one win from securing a date with The Miz, while the Cubs are one loss from vacation.
Backed by a raucous crowd of 47,084 screaming San Diegans, the Friars blew out Chicago on Tuesday night, securing an 8–0 win to take a 1–0 lead in their wild-card series. The Padres had the air of a team that could win a pennant in this one, while the Cubs looked bewildered for most of the night.
After the game, Padres manager Craig Stammen was asked if the game could have gone any better for his squad, and his reply was simple: “No, probably not.”
Here are three takeaways from Tuesday night’s bludgeoning.
Tatis Starts With a Bang—Again
Back in 2024, Fernando Tatis Jr. homered on the first pitch he saw in the wild-card series, sending Petco Park into a frenzy. Well, two years later he did it again.
Back in 2024, he ambushed a 93 mph fastball from Braves starter AJ Smith-Shawver. On Tuesday night, it was an 83 mph changeup from Matthew Boyd. He’s making a habit of this.
Tatis sparked the Padres to the perfect start, getting the boisterous San Diego crowd into it early and the team never looked back. He added a moment of brilliance in the seventh inning that electrified an already buzzing crowd. After reaching on an infield single, he stole second base, and the throw from Carson Kelly skipped away from Dansby Swanson. Tatis sprinted to third, then ran through a stop sign and beat Ian Happ’s throw to the plate.
It’s not surprising that the 27-year-old superstar was the man to get things going. He’s been doing that consistently for the Friars since the All-Star break.
In the season’s second half, Tatis slashed .307/.385/.610 with 20 home runs, 48 RBIs and 15 stolen bases. His .996 OPS ranked second in baseball among qualified hitters, while his 172 wRC+ was third. It’s no coincidence that after the Padres limped to a 48–48 record in the first half, they went 43–23 after the break. Tatis drives the bus for this team. Few players in baseball can impact the game the way he can, and when he’s hot, San Diego usually wins.
Tatis’s playoff numbers remain absurd. After Tuesday night he carries a career postseason OPS of 1.178 with seven home runs, 13 RBIs, three stolen bases and 10 walks against 14 strikeouts. He was made for this time of year.
Cubs’ Mighty Offense Goes Quiet
Chicago entered the postseason with a battered starting rotation and a questionable-at-best bullpen. The offense has been the star on the North Side all season but it disappeared Tuesday night.
After the Padres hung four runs on Boyd, the Cubs needed to generate runs to get back into it. They utterly failed, and that failure was led by the top five hitters in the lineup. The combination of Pete Crow-Armstrong, Alex Bregman, Michael Busch, Seiya Suzuki and Ian Happ didn’t muster a hit until the ninth inning when the game was far out of reach. In the end, that group went 1-for-16 with four walks and seven strikeouts.
Crow-Armstrong was 0-for-3 with three strikeouts and a walk, while Bregman was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. It was a rough night for the team’s stars.
After the game, Cubs manager Craig Counsell credited Padres starter Michael King for much of his team’s struggles. “We didn’t have a lot of good contact,” He said. “Nico hit a ball hard, Ian hit a ball hard. Other than that, we didn’t square many balls up, and that’s a sign of a pitcher making a lot of good pitches and controlling counts.”
This Cubs team has won thanks to its offense and led MLB in runs (850). For the lineup to go quiet in the biggest game of the season was an insurmountable obstacle. The pitching staff didn’t hold up its end of the deal, but Crow-Armstrong and Co. need to show up in this series, or Chicago has no chance.
Michael King Pitches Like an Ace
Michael King got paid like an ace—or at least a steady playoff starter—this offseason, signing a three-year, $75 million contract, as A.J. Preller made a big bet on him. King proved the Padres’ president of baseball operations right on Tuesday night, flirting with a no-hitter bid for most of the night.
The 31-year-old righty opened the game by striking out soon-to-be NL MVP Pete Crow-Armstrong on three pitches. The final pitch of that at-bat was a 97.6 mph fastball PCA tipped into the catcher’s glove. It was the fastest pitch he’d thrown since 2023, when he was with the Yankees.
King proceeded to carve up the Cubs over seven innings, holding them hitless for 6 1/3 innings. The only hit was an infield tapper from Nico Hoerner that came off the bat at 67.4 mph. He finished the night with seven shutout innings, and allowed just the one hit, walked three and struck out eight on 97 pitches.
When he’s pitching like this, San Diego has the kind of ace who can carry a team through a tough matchup. Luckily for the Padres, that wasn’t the case Tuesday night.
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