The Chicago Cubs were eliminated from the playoffs and will not advance to the NLDS, as they were swept by the San Diego Padres in the opening round of the postseason.
The top four hitters in Chicago’s lineup: Pete Crow-Armstrong, Alex Bregman, Michael Busch and Seiya Suzuki, combined to go 2-for-27 at the plate. The Cubs scored just one run in 18 innings of baseball as the Padres nearly shut out the highest-scoring offense in Major League Baseball.
Nico Hoerner was the bright spot offensively, going 4-for-8 across the two games.
The Padres opened the series with an 8-0 victory Tuesday, jumping on Cubs starter Matthew Boyd. Fernando Tatis Jr. launched a home run on the first pitch of the game, followed by Manny Machado’s homer later in the inning. Xander Bogaerts added another homer off Boyd in the fourth.
Boyd finished with four innings pitched, allowing four runs on five hits with four strikeouts. Michael King dominated the Cubs, carrying a no-hitter into the seventh inning before finishing with seven scoreless innings and eight strikeouts. Hoerner recorded Chicago’s first hit with an infield single in the seventh, but the Cubs could not generate any offense against the Padres’ pitching staff.
Facing elimination in Game 2, the Cubs started Kevin Gausman. San Diego built an early two-run lead, but Chicago got on the board in the fourth inning when Hoerner delivered an RBI single. The Cubs threatened to take control of the inning but left the bases loaded. With the tying run on base and two outs, Dansby Swanson swung at two pitches that were out of the zone before striking out to end the inning. The missed opportunity proved costly. Gavin Sheets, a former Chicago White Sox player, hit a two-run homer off Daniel Palencia in the fifth inning to give San Diego a 4-1 advantage.
The Padres’ bullpen picked up where King left off, allowing just two hits and striking out three over the final two innings to close out the sweep. Crow-Armstrong and Bregman combined to go 0-for-15 with eight strikeouts in the series.
Cubs manager Craig Counsell acknowledged the disappointment following the loss but said the team can use the experience as part of its development.
“We lost. There’s a response to it that we get to choose, and we’ve got to improve. Everybody can point at themselves and say we’ve got to get a little better,” Counsell said.
The Cubs now head into an offseason with plenty to evaluate. After a regular season with a major league-best 850 runs scored, they managed just one run in the Wild Card Series. The core of the roster remains in place, including Crow-Armstrong, Bregman, Hoerner, and several key pieces of the pitching staff.
Suzuki, Happ, Gausman, Clay Holmes, David Peterson and Tyrone Taylor have uncertain futures heading into the offseason. For a team that spent much of the season near the top of the National League, the final two games provided an abrupt ending. The Cubs will now turn their attention to the offseason and what changes could be made before another attempt at October baseball.
The NLDS is set to begin Saturday. The Atlanta Braves swept the Philadelphia Phillies in three games and will face the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday at 4 p.m. The Padres will travel to face the Milwaukee Brewers in a best-of-five NLDS beginning at 8:30 p.m. Both series will begin on Saturday, Oct. 3.
