Well, here we go again — for the second straight season, the Cubs and Padres meet in a Wild Card Series. Last year, the Cubs won it in Wrigley Field. This year, they’ll have to do that in San Diego.
If the regular season results are any indication, they can do it. The Cubs took the season series from the Padres five games to one, winning two of three in Petco Park in April and sweeping them in Wrigley Field at the end of June/beginning of July.
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Here’s what happened in all six of those games.
April 27: Padres 9, Cubs 7
The Cubs fell behind 3-0 in the first inning, hut homers by Seiya Suzuki (in the second) and Moisés Ballesteros (a grand slam in the third) put the Cubs up 5-3 after three.
The Padres hit Matthew Boyd, Ben Brown, Phil Maton and Jacob Webb pretty hard, including a home run by Gavin Sheets off Webb, to take a 9-5 lead going to the ninth.
Mason Miller, the Padres’ supposedly unhittable closer, entered to finish up. The Cubs hit him. Matt Shaw, Dansby Swanson and Pete Crow-Armstrong singled to load the bases with nobody out. Nico Hoerner hit into a force play at second, scoring Shaw and sending Swanson to third. Dansby scored on a wild pitch, bringing Michael Busch to the plate as the tying run. But Miller got Busch to ground out and struck out Alex Bregman to end the game.
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Here’s the BCB recap of this game.
April 28: Cubs 8, Padres 3
The game went 2-2 into the sixth. Dansby Swanson had doubled in the two runs in the second.
The Cubs took a 4-2 lead in the sixth on a two-run double by Nico Hoerner. One of the runners who scored was Nicky Lopez. Yes, he played for the Cubs this year. That was the only run he scored as a member of the 2026 Cubs. The Padres closed to within one in the bottom of the inning off Edward Cabrera, who then departed the game having allowed three runs, striking out seven.
Then the Cubs blew the game open in the seventh. Seiya Suzuki led off with a walk and advanced to second on a groundout. Michael Busch was hit by a pitch and Carson Kelly hit into a force play, with Suzuki taking third. Alex Bregman singled in Kelly to make it 5-3 and then Pete Crow-Armstrong hit this three-run homer [VIDEO].
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Ryan Rolison finished up with two scoreless innings, just his third appearance as a Cub.
Here’s the BCB recap of this game.
April 29: Cubs 5, Padres 4
Miguel Amaya’s RBI single in the second gave the Cubs a 1-0 lead and that was extended to 3-0 on a Pete Crow-Armstrong two-run homer in the fourth.
But Miguel Andujar (solo) and Nick Castellanos (two-run) homered off Jameson Taillon in the fifth to tie the game 3-3.
Now that’s an interesting sentence. Not one of those players is on either team at this time. Andujar fractured his wrist and has been out since July (though has been on a rehab assignment and might return). Castellanos was released by the Padres in June. Taillon was released by the Cubs in July, caught on with the Blue Jays, then was injured and hasn’t pitched since early September.
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The Cubs took the lead back in the sixth. Michael Busch led off with a walk and was forced by Michael Conforto. Conforto went to third on a double by Matt Shaw and scored on a PCA groundout.
Shaw then homered in the eighth to make it 5-3. In the bottom of the eighth the Padres got that run back on a sac fly by Fernando Tatis Jr. off Ben Brown.
Brown remained in the game in the ninth. He struck out Xander Bogaerts and got Ty France on a ground ball.
Then the two managers started playing the platoon game we rarely see in modern baseball. Craig Stammen sent Gavin Sheets up to bat for Andujar. Craig Counsell brought in left-hander Hoby Milner, so Stammen countered with Ramon Laureano.
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Milner then struck out Ramon Laureano to end the game [VIDEO].
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Here’s the BCB recap of this game.
June 29: Cubs 3, Padres 2
The Padres took a 2-0 lead off Shōta Imanaga with single runs in the third and fourth, but the Cubs tied it up on single runs in the fourth (RBI single by Michael Conforto) and fifth (sac fly by Seiya Suzuki).
Imanaga threw well in this game, not allowing a home run and striking out four in 6.2 innings.
The game remained at 2-2 into the bottom of the ninth. Jason Adam, who had retired the Cubs 1-2-3 in the eighth on just 10 pitches, remained in the game to start the ninth. Dansby Swanson and Pete Crow-Armstrong singled off Adam, so Craig Stammen summoned Mason Miller.
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The Cubs hit him again. Alex Bregman singled to load the bases with nobody out. Unfortunately, Michael Busch then hit into a double play. He flied to short left and Swanson tried to score, but was thrown out at the plate [VIDEO].
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PCA and Bregman moved up a base each on that throw, and PCA scored the winning run on this walk-off blast by Seiya Suzuki [VIDEO].
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That ball didn’t miss being a three-run homer by much, but all the Cubs needed was a single, and they got it.
Here’s the BCB recap of this game.
June 30: Cubs 9, Padres 7
The Cubs got payback of sorts for the 9-7 Padres win in San Diego in April by defeating them by the same score at Wrigley Field two months later.
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Fernando Tatis Jr. led off the game with a home run off Matthew Boyd, but the Cubs got that run right back on an RBI single by Carson Kelly in the bottom of the inning.
Then the Cubs exploded for four in the second. With one out, Dansby Swanson homered. Then Kevin Alcántara singled and Pete Crow-Armstrong walked, and Alex Bregman smashed a three-run homer to make it 5-1 Cubs.
It became 5-3 in the third when Manny Machado hit a two-run homer off Boyd. Michael Busch homered off JP Sears in the fifth to make it 5-3, and after Ian Happ singled, the Padres brought in Ron Marinaccio. Swanson homered again, his second of the game, to make it 8-3. PCA added a homer in the sixth to put the Cubs up by six.
Easy peasy, right? Well, nothing’s been that way for the Cubs this year. Javier Assad threw a scoreless seventh, but then gave up four in the eighth, including a three-run homer by Gavin Sheets and a solo shot by Tatis.
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That was it for the Padres, though, and Tyler Ferguson and Ryan Rolison finished up.
Here’s the BCB recap of this game.
July 1: Cubs 23, Padres 3
This game began as a blowout and then turned into silly season.
Seiya Suzuki began the fun with a three-run homer in the first. Dansby Swanson homered in the second to make it 4-0, and after Miguel Amaya hit a two-run single in the third, Swanson homered again, a three-run job that made it 9-0.
The Padres scored a pair off Colin Rea in the fifth, but the Cubs increased their lead in the bottom of the inning. Michael Conforto homered with one out, and after Amaya walked and Swanson reached on an error, Pete Crow-Armstrong smacked a three-run homer to make it 13-2.
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If you’re counting, that’s five home runs for the Cubs, and they were far from being done. Conforto homered again in the sixth with Ian Happ on base to make it 15-2.
The Padres brought in backup catcher Rodolfo Durán to throw the bottom of the inning. He retired the Cubs in order and San Diego scored one in the eighth.
Durán remained in the game to “pitch” in the eighth and I put that in quotes because, well, some of those “pitches” were thrown at ridiculously slow spees, in particular this one, hit for a grand slam by Swanson:
Here’s Swanson’s slam [VIDEO].
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The Cubs scored eight in that inning and won 23-3. That was the most runs scored by any Cubs team since Aug. 18, 1995, when they scored 26 at Colorado, and the most at Wrigley Field since May 17, 1977, when they won 23-6 over… the Padres.
Here’s the BCB recap of this game.
The Cubs also tied the franchise record with eight home runs in that game, a record they broke less than two months later when they hit nine against the Brewers Aug. 31. In both cases multiple home runs were hit off position players, and I’ve already written something about that sort of thing, but that’s a topic for a different day.
Nevertheless, all those homers and runs count, and the Cubs thus outscored the Padres 55-28 in the six games. That’s not likely to be repeated in this Wild Card Series, but three Cubs did have monster seasons against the Padres.
Dansby Swanson: .647/.667/1.647 (11-for-18) with two doubles, five home runs, 13 RBI and eight runs in five games
Pete Crow-Armstrong: .364/.481/.909 (8-for-22) with four home runs, five walks, 10 RBI and eight runs in six games
Seiya Suzuki: .500/.520/.864 (11-for-22) with two doubles, two home runs and eight runs in six games
Overall the Cubs hit 18 home runs against the Padres this year and allowed nine.
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Lastly, the Cubs handled Padres closer Mason Miller pretty well. It’s a very small sample size — three games and 13 plate appearances — but the Cubs had five hits and a walk off Miller, and struck out just twice. That’s an encouraging sign, and I’d think this should be a close and competitive series.
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