Chicago Cubs take NL Wild Card Game 1 Behind Seiya Suzuki and Bullpen

The Chicago Cubs took Game 1 of their NL Wild Card series against the San Diego Padres 3-1 on Tuesday afternoon. After a four-year playoff drought marked by a team rebuild, the Cubs won a pitchers’ duel during the afternoon shadow hours at Wrigley. Offseason acquisition Matthew Boyd pitched well, though not deep into the game, and the Chicago bullpen did the rest. Back-to-back home runs in the 5th inning off of San Diego starter Nick Pivetta gave the Cubs the lead, and they tacked on an insurance run in the eighth to seal the victory.

The Padres Strike First

The Padres struck first in the bottom of the second inning. Center Fielder Jackson Merrill led off the inning with a double off the end of his bat into right field. The next batter, Shortstop Xander Bogaerts, then hit a double of his own to deep center field and then took third on a Pete Crow-Armstrong throwing error. Boyd would recover, though, getting Ryan O’Hearn, Gavin Sheets, and Jake Cronenworth on two groundouts and a pop-up to the left side of the Cub infield.

Cubs Win With Longball and Small Ball

Right Fielder Seiya Suzuki stayed red-hot for Chicago, leading off the fifth inning with his sixth homer in his last five games. Catcher Carson Kelly followed that blast with a towering solo shot of his own. Pivetta shook off the two homers and struck out the next three batters. Pivetta gave up just those two runs over five innings, while striking out nine.

The Cubs were able to tack on one more run playing small ball in the eighth inning against former Cub Reliever Jeremiah Estrada. Estrada gave up a single to Shortstop Dansby Swanson to start the inning. After Matt Shaw bunted Swanson to second, Padres Manager Mike Shildt countered by intentionally walking lead-off hitter Michael Busch to reinstate the double play.

The move backfired, though, when Estrada uncorked a wild pitch that moved the runners to second and third. Clutch-hitting Nico Hoerner drove home Swanson with a sacrifice fly to shallow center field. Wandy Peralta then came in and struck out Ian Happ to kill the Chicago rally.

Chicago Cubs’ Bullpen Dominates

The Cubs’ bullpen has been up and down all season, but they were on point today. Boyd allowed just one run over 4.1 innings before Manager Craig Counsell pulled the lefty early to match up righty flamethrower Daniel Palencia against the top of the Padres’ lineup. Palencia threw 1.1 scoreless innings, striking out two. Chicago Relievers Drew Pomeranz, Andrew Kittredge, and Brad Keller each tossed scoreless innings to close things out.

Game 2

The two teams will be back at Wrigley tomorrow for Game 2 of their NL Wild Card series at 2:08 p.m. CST. The Padres will start righty Dylan Cease (8-12, 4.56 ERA, 215 Ks). The Cubs will counter with lefty Shota Imanaga (9-8, 3.73 ERA, 117 Ks). Game 3, if necessary, will be on Thursday in Chicago, starting at 2:08 p.m. CST again. The scheduled starters for that game are righty Yu Darvish (5-5, 5:38 ERA, 68 Ks) for San Diego and righty Jameson Taillon (11-7, 3:68 ERA, 98Ks) for Chicago.