Padres Found Their October Formula In Beatdown of Cubs

[Sam Caulder]

The Wild Card Round couldn’t have gone much better for the San Diego Padres. They followed up an 8-0 win in Game 1 with a 4-1 victory last night, and for the entirety of the series, they just looked in control. From the pitching staff to the offense, the Padres got contributions from just about everywhere.

Baseball is a team game, and these were a pair of team wins. So, here are a few of the things that led to San Diego’s success in the Wild Card Round, and what the Friars will need to continue doing if they’re going to take down the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLDS.

Padres Must Keep Capitalizing on Opportunities

For starters, the Padres did a really good job of capitalizing when they had opportunities. Across both games, San Diego went 5-for-11 with runners in scoring position. The Cubs, meanwhile, went just 2-for-15. That’s a pretty significant difference, and it was reflected on the scoreboard.

In Game 2 especially, the Padres were able to take advantage of some early opportunities, and Chicago never recovered. Xander Bogaerts drove in a run with an RBI single, and Ethan Salas followed with a sacrifice fly to give San Diego a 2-0 lead. Then, Gavin Sheets delivered the biggest blow of the night. His two-out, two-run homer in the fourth inning completely stole any momentum the Cubs had built and put the Padres firmly in control. 

In the postseason, these are the kinds of moments that can completely flip a game upside down. A team can dominate for six innings, fail to capitalize on a couple of opportunities, and suddenly find themselves trailing because the other side took advantage of their chances. The Padres avoided that in the Wild Card Round, and if they’re going to take down the Brewers, they’ll need to continue doing the same thing.

Padres' Pitching Takes Center Stage

It also helps when your pitching staff holds the best offense in baseball to one combined run over two games. The Cubs came into this series having scored more runs than any team in the league, with 850 on the season. For a Padres pitching staff that, primarily in the starting rotation, had some inconsistencies throughout the year, this was quite the statement.

Michael King was nothing short of brilliant in Game 1. He took a no-hitter into the seventh inning against one of the best lineups in baseball, allowing the Padres to cruise to an 8-0 victory while keeping their bullpen almost entirely out of the game. That turned out to be especially important heading into Game 2.

Nick Pivetta was never going to be someone San Diego could realistically expect to work deep into the game, so having a fresh bullpen behind him was going to be crucial. And that’s exactly what the Padres had. Their bullpen combined for 5 2/3 scoreless innings last night, backing up a strong start. That’s a pretty good formula for postseason baseball.

The Padres’ pitching staff deserves major credit for what it accomplished against the Cubs, and if the Friars are going to take down the No. 1 from Milwaukee, they're going to need more of the same.

Padres' Offensive Game Plan Must Stay Consistent Against Brewers

The last thing that really impressed me about the Padres was how aggressively selective their offense was. I don’t know if that’s actually a term, but if it’s not, it should be.

The Cubs’ starting pitchers were fairly efficient in this series. Matthew Boyd made it through four innings on just 58 pitches, while Kevin Gausman lasted 3 1/3 innings on 51 pitches. Based on those pitch counts, both starters were on track to potentially work fairly deep into their respective games. The Padres’ bats didn’t let them.

San Diego didn’t seem interested in simply running up the pitch count for the sake of running up the pitch count. When the Padres got a pitch they could hit, they were aggressive. And when they didn’t, they were willing to wait. That approach clearly worked.

They hit more home runs in the series (four) than they drew walks (three), and they essentially killed two birds with one stone. They got the Cubs’ starting pitchers out of the game earlier than Craig Counsell probably wanted, forcing the bullpen to cover a significant portion of both games. But they jumped on mistakes early in counts as well.

The Padres didn’t need to manufacture a ton of offense against the Cubs. They simply took advantage of the opportunities that were presented to them, and the result was a lineup that significantly outperformed the best offense in baseball during the regular season.

Now, the job is far from finished for the Padres. They’ll head to Milwaukee this weekend to kick off the NLDS against what was the best team in baseball this year. But they have the formula to pull off the upset, which might just earn them a date with the Dodgers in the NLCS.

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