The marathon is over and the starting gun is about to fire for the sprint to the finish of the 2025 MLB season.
The San Diego Padres will meet the Chicago Cubs in the best-of-three National League Wild
Card Series at Wrigley Field at 12:08 p.m. It is the first postseason meeting between the two clubs since 1984 when the Padres won the series and advanced to the World Series.
The Padres roared into this postseason finishing with a record of 8-4 in the final 12 games. San Diego outscored the New York Mets, Chicago White Sox, Milwaukee Brewers and Arizona Diamondbacks 61-44 combined. The bats came to life and the Friar Faithful watched as Fernando Tatis Jr., Jackson Merrill and Manny Machado, among others, launched home runs and punished mistakes.
The problem was those same fans also watched as Padres pitchers allowed home runs and first inning runs at a concerning pace. The most recent development was walks allowed by the San Diego pitching staff. That being said, the Padres still possess the best bullpen in the game and will surely lean on Adrian Morejon, Jermiah Estrada, Mason Miller and Robert Suarez to shorten games and preserve leads.
Theres a lot to like about how San Diego lines up with Chicago heading into play today. The Cubs have also battled through highs and lows, and their fans believe they may be poised to erase the memory of 1984. Site Manager for Bleed Cubbie Blue Al Yellon provided his perspective:
The Cubs have been an enigma this year.
Are they the team that roared out to a 59-39 start and at one point led the NL Central by 6.5 games?
Or are they the team that floundered around .500 for most of August and September, only nailing down home field for this Wild Card Series on the second-to-last day of the season?
Those are the questions Cubs fans have wondered about for much of 2025. It’s been much the same for Pete Crow-Armstrong and Seiya Suzuki, who hit for power in the first half and both appeared headed for 40-homer seasons, only to go into deep slumps and only get to 30 in the season’s final weekend. Same for Kyle Tucker, who had multiple injuries that forced him to miss almost 30 games, including most of September. He sure didn’t seem like a potential $400 million free agent for much of 2025.
Nico Hoerner has been the Cubs’ most consistent player all year, posting 6.1 bWAR, which is tied for fourth-best in the NL with Matt Olson. He should win another Gold Glove and get some downballot MVP votes.
The strength of the Cubs has been their starting pitching, but now potential NL Rookie of the Year Cade Horton will miss this series with a rib injury, pushing the Cubs to use lefties Matthew Boyd and Shōta Imanaga for the first two games. Both of those pitchers had strong first halves, but have been very susceptible to the long ball over the last couple of months. It’s possible manager Craig Counsell will use openers for both of them.
The Cubs have gotten excellent performances this year from castoff relievers Brad Keller, Caleb Thielbar and Drew Pomeranz. Those three will have to come up large in this series for the Cubs to win. Daniel Palencia, elevated to closer in May, had a great run for most of this year before missing a couple of weeks in September with a shoulder issue. He seems healthy, but it’s possible Keller or Andrew Kittredge might close games.
It’s interesting that these games will be played during the day at Wrigley Field (and the weather should be spectacularly good, with temps in the 70s), kind of old-school baseball and reminiscent of the two afternoon games played between the Cubs and Padres in the 1984 NLCS. For Cubs fans, we won’t re-live that series, only to say this: We owe you one.
Win or go home. That’s the task in front of the Padres and if they can get two wins at Wrigley, they will punch their ticket to the National League Division Series.
