CHICAGO -- After being carried by their pitching all season, the Padres offense couldn’t overcome an early pair of runs as the Chicago Cubs eliminated San Diego with a 3-1 win in game three of the NL Wild Card Series on Thursday evening at Wrigley Field.
Called upon to pitch the final seven innings, the Padres bullpen finally broke when Michael Busch hit a solo home run off Robert Suarez in the seventh inning, just the second run allowed by the unit over 15.1 innings for the series. While Chicago went just 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position, the Cubs held San Diego to 3-for-26 across the three games and 0-for-8 in game three.
"It was a good series, hard fought, tight, a lot of big moments. Basically didn't get it done. It was the wrap-up point," said manager Mike Shildt. "There's a lot of hurt guys in that clubhouse, but we left it all out on the field, and there's no regrets on anybody's part. Just disappointed."
Jackson Merrill hit a solo home run to lead off the ninth inning, adding to his two doubles in the series. Xander Bogaerts got rung up on a full count pitch that appeared to miss below the strike zone on the outside corner, a call that would likely be challenged when the ABS challenge is introduced next year.
But reliever Brad Keller plunked both Ryan O’Hearn and Bryce Johnson, to put the tying run on base. The two advanced on a ground out, then Freddy Fermin, who also had a pair of doubles and tied Bogaerts for a series high with four hits, flew out to end the season.
Merrill hit a two-out double in the fourth inning, one of two hits the Padres got off Jameson Taillon and their first runner in scoring position. San Diego had six hard-hit balls off the Chicago starter, but whiffed 11 times and struck out four times with three coming on off-speed offerings by the righty.
Starter Yu Darvish lasted an inning and four batters into the second, as the Cubs loaded the bases and scored their first run on Pete Crow-Armstrong’s first career postseason hit. Jeremiah Estrada walked Dansby Swanson to make it 2-0, but got a strikeout and double play to hold the damage.
Kyle Tucker began it by lining Darvish’s 1-1 fastball to right field, then Seiya Suzuki notched his third extra base hit of the series by pulling a cutter down the left field line. Carson Kelly got hit by a pitch, taking a sinker in the midsection before Crow-Armstrong chopped a single in front of Merrill in center field.
The one inning pitched by Darvish was the shortest of his 14 career postseason starts, getting pulled in the second inning for the third time in his career. He got yanked after 1 ⅔ innings in both game two and game seven of the 2017 World Series against the Houston Astros as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
"Darvish, he was able to work his way and get back, and then took him a while to get going again, but he's a guy with a lot of experience in the league, and today was pretty crisp in the first," Shildt said. "...the hit by pitch by Carson was a little bit of a red flag that maybe not as sharp, so we got Estrada up. Armstrong gets one in there, and that was it."
Estrada held the line through two innings, and aside from the inherited runner did not allow another, as he gave up a hit and a walk with two strikeouts. Michael King threw the fifth, allowing a lead off single before striking out three in a row. Wandy Peralta allowed two hits in the sixth, but got a double play and grounder to put up a zero.
Swanson continued to be a defensive difference-maker for the Cubs, leaping and getting a piece of a Luis Arraez liner then throwing him out when he let up in the fourth. Then in the sixth he again got Arraez, knocking down a grounder and spinning to throw him out. After Manny Machado walked, Swanson executed a six-three double play to end the inning.
"We talk in the modern game about the pitching, and we talk about the offense and who we're hitting for and all the things that are appropriate to talk about in our game, but the one thing that we don't talk about as much anymore is your defense, and this time of year, your defense -- we play great defense, but Dansby Swanson absolutely beat us with his glove this series," Shildt said.
Suarez worked through trouble in the sixth, getting a pair of strikeouts to strand the pair of one-out singles. But Busch led off the seventh with a solo home run to right center field on a fastball and Hoerner followed with a double to end his night.
Adrian Morejon was able to get through the inning on a sacrifice bunt, then Arraez threw Hoerner out at home on a fielder’s choice and Morejon ended it with a strikeout. David Morgan pitched the eighth, allowing a hit but getting a caught stealing by Fermin to go with two strikeouts.
The loss closes the first ever back-to-back 90 win seasons for the Padres, who lost in an NL Wild Card Series for the first time. San Diego has been in the postseason four of the past six seasons, going 4-4 in series over that stretch.
"Nobody is going to feel sorry for you in this game. And we've got a bunch of guys in that clubhouse that are hurting, but there's no regrets in that clubhouse for anybody," Shildt said.
"Our heads are high, and we know from day one that we laid it out there every day."
This story was updated at 6:12 p.m.