The San Diego Padres were held hitless by four Chicago Cubs relievers over 4 2/3 innings as the Padres dropped Game 1 of the National League Wild Card Series 3-1 at Wrigley Field, Tuesday.
San Diego scored
a run in the top of the second inning off Chicago Cubs starter Matthew Boyd, who lasted 4 1/3 innings. The Padres recorded four hits against Boyd, but failed to score any additional runs despite having a runner on third base with less than two outs in the second and fourth innings. The Chicago bullpen took over for Boyd and faced the minimum through the remainder of the contest.
Jackson Merrill led off the top of the second inning with a double and was followed by Xander Bogaerts, who doubled to left-center field to put the Padres ahead 1-0. Bogaerts advanced to third on an error and was stranded there, thanks in part to a good sliding defensive play by Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson on a ball off the bat of Ryan O’Hearn.
Swanson prevented a run again in the top of the fourth inning, and again he took an RBI away from O’Hearn. With one out and runners on the corners, O’Hearn hit a flare just beyond the infield in shallow left-center field and Swanson made an over the shoulder catch for the second out of the inning. Gavin Sheets followed with a flyout and again, San Diego stranded a runner at third base.
Nick Pivetta was dominant through four innings, but ran into trouble in the bottom of the fifth inning. Seiya Suzuki led off the inning with a solo home run to left-center field and Carson Kelly followed with another solo home run to left to give the Cubs a 2-1 lead. Pivetta bounced back and struck out the next three batters to end the inning. He finished the day with five complete innings, allowing two runs on three hits with no walks and nine strikeouts.
Adrian Morejon took the mound in the bottom of the sixth inning and allowed back-to-back singles. He then induced a groundball to Machado at third base, who threw to Jake Cronenworth at second base and he threw to Luis Arraez at first base to complete the double play. Morejon then got Kyle Tucker to pop out to center field to end the frame.
Mason Miller handled the seventh inning and struck out all three batters he faced. Jeremiah Estrada came on for the eighth inning and allowed a run after a leadoff single to Swanson, a sacrifice bunt by Matt Shaw, an intentional walk to Michael Busch and a wild pitch. Chicago had runners at second and third and Nico Hoerner hit a flyball to center field that was caught by Merrill for the second out of the inning, but allowed Swanson to tag and score to take a 3-1 lead. Estrada was replaced by Wandy Peralta, who got Ian Happ to strikeout with a runner on second to end the inning.
San Diego will try to keep its season alive with a win over Chicago in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series, Wednesday at 12:08 p.m.
