The San Diego Padres were banking on Yu Darvish’s vast postseason experience to get them off to a good start in their winner-take-all National League Wild Card series against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Alas, his stuff didn’t match his resume and the Friars offense pulled another disappearing act in a 3-1 loss to the Cubs, bringing another Padres season to a disappointing end.
After working a quick 1st inning Darvish started the 2nd allowing two hits, plunked Carson Kelly with a pitch, and gave up an RBI single to Pete Crow-Armstrong to make it 1-0 Cubs. With the bases loaded and nobody out manager Mike Shildt pulled Darvish and went to Jeremiah Estrada, who walked Dansby Swanson to bring in a run before striking out Matt Shaw and getting Michael Busch to ground into a double play, limiting the damage about as well as can be expected.
Estrada also tossed a scoreless 2nd inning, followed by shutout frames from Michael King, and Wandy Peralta to at least preserve the chance of a comeback.
None of that mattered because the Padres offense never got going. They mounted a legitimate rally in the 5th inning when Gavin Sheets doubled and Freddy Fermin doubled with two outs, putting the tying run at 2nd base for Fernando Tatis Jr., who had already struck out twice on six pitches without so much as making contact. Tatis Jr. flew out lazily to right field to end the inning.
Part of their lack of offensive production can be attributed to Chicago’s middle infield. Shortstop Dansby Swanson and 2nd baseman Nico Hoerner both made unreal defensive plays to rob multiple Padres of what looked like surefire base hits. Chicago added on due to a curious decision from Shildt.
He only let King, a starter used to handling extended outings, one inning (he struck out the side) and allowed Robert Suarez, a closer who’s used to tackling one inning, an extended outing. Suarez handled a scoreless 6th and went back out for the 7th, only to give up a leadoff homer to Michael Busch and a double off the wall to Hoerner before being pulled in favor of Adrian Morejon, who pitched for the 3rd straight day and didn’t allow any more runs to score.
Jackson Merrill kept the Friars from a shutout with a solo homer in the 9th off Brad Keller, who then proceeded to hit Ryan O’Hearn and Bryce Johnson, forcing Cubs manager Craig Counsell to go get Andrew Kittredge, who threw the 1st inning in Game 2, to get the final two outs of Game 3. Jake Cronenworth grounded out to shortstop, moving the tying run into scoring position with two outs for Freddy Fermin, one of the only Friars to do anything offensively with a single and a double in the game.
This time they got him. Fermin flew out to centerfield and that was that. The Cubs move on to the National League Division Series against the Brewers while the Padres embark on a long off-season with plenty of questions to answer about their roster.