SITE NOTE: With all of us focused on this game, there won’t be additional threads to discuss the other three Wild Card games being played today. Feel free to discuss those here (and for the night games, in the recap).
Tuesday notes…
- ABOUT THOSE VISITORS FROM SAN DIEGO: The Cubs have won the first game in 52 of their 86 regular-season series at home against the Padres, including a 3-1 victory in their home opener on April 4 of this year. They have won the first two games, as they hope to do today and tomorrow, in 32 series, including this year. In all second games, they are 52-34, the same as in first game. In third games, they are 45-35. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
- UNDER SUNLIGHT: In post-season day games at Wrigley vs. National League opponents, the Cubs are 4-4. They beat the Padres twice in the 1984 Championship Series. They lost to the Braves in the 2003 Division Series, beat the Cardinals in the 2015 DS, won and lost vs. the Nationals in the 2017 NLDS and lost to the Marlins twice in the 2020 Wild Card Series. The Cubs were 15-9, a 625 winning percentage, in sunlight at home on weekdays this year. They won their only day game at home on Tuesday, 6-4 over the Brewers in the opener of a split doubleheader on Aug. 19. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
- A FEW HOME RUN NOTES: In their last five games, the Cubs hit 14 homers (2, 3, 4, 4 and 1), tying for their second most this season in any five-game span. They had hit 14 April 29-May 3, June 19-23 and June 21-25. They hit 16 from June 17-22. When the Cubs hit even one home run, regardless of how many their opponent hit, they were 72-34, a winning percentage of .679. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
- POSTSEASON EXPERIENCE: The following 2025 Cubs have played in postseason series before 2025 (number of postseason years): Matthew Boyd (2), Willi Castro (1), Aaron Civale (2), Ian Happ (3), Andrew Kittredge (2), Reese McGuire (1), Drew Pomeranz (4), Michael Soroka (1), Dansby Swanson (4), Jameson Taillon (1), Caleb Thielbar (2), Kyle Tucker (6) and Justin Turner (9).
Cubs lineup:
Padres lineup:
Matthew Boyd, LHP vs. Nick Pivetta, RHP
You all know of Matthew Boyd’s troubles recently.
Here’s hoping he channels what he did against the Padres April 5 at Wrigley Field — six shutout innings, allowing
five hits and striking out five. He also had a nice game against them April 16 in San Diego — two runs in 5.1 innings.
Yes, that was a long time ago. But Boyd has thrown very well at Wrigley Field this year: 15 starts, 2.51 ERA, 0.903 WHIP. Channel that and today’s game should be a good one for the Cubs.
Nick Pivetta has had the best year of his career in his first year in San Diego.
He was Boyd’s opponent in both of those earlier starts. In the game at Wrigley, the Cubs had six hits and three runs off him in three innings, including a home run by Dansby Swanson. Pivetta had similar home/road splits to Boyd; he was better at home. But this one’s on the road for Pivetta, and he allowed a lot more long balls (13 in 78.2 innings) away from San Diego.
Get your hitting shoes on, Cubs batters.
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Today’s game is on ABC. Check local listings for the ABC affiliate in your area. In Chicago that’s WLS-ABC7. Announcers: Kevin Brown, Jessica Mendoza, Ben McDonald and Jesse Rogers.
All Wild Card series are available in the U.S. on MLB.TV with authentication to a participating Pay TV provider.
Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Padres site Gaslamp Ball. If you do go there to interact with Cardinals fans, please be respectful, abide by their individual site rules and serve as a good representation of Cub fans in general and BCB in particular.
The 2025 Game Thread procedure will be identical to last year’s.
You’ll find the game preview posted separately on the front page two hours before game time (90 minutes for some early day games following night games).
At the same time, a StoryStream containing the preview will also post on the front page, titled “Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of week/date) game threads.” It will contain every post related to that particular game, including the First Pitch Thread and the overflow thread, as well as the recap when it’s published. The recap will also live on the front page as a separate post.
You will also be able to find the preview, First Pitch Thread and the overflow thread in the box marked “Chicago Cubs Game Threads” at the bottom of the front page (you can also find them in this section link). The StoryStream for each game can also be found in that section.
The First Pitch thread will post at five minutes before game time, then an overflow thread at 90 minutes after the scheduled game time.
Discuss amongst yourselves.
