Padres rout Cubs 8-0 in Wild Card
AP, SAN DIEGO, California
Fernando Tatis Jr on Tuesday night hit the first leadoff homer in Padres playoff history on the Cubs’ first pitch, Michael King took a no-hitter into the seventh inning and San Diego rolled to an 8-0 victory over Chicago in their National League Wild Card Series opener.
Manny Machado also homered in the first inning and added an RBI double in the third during an emphatic opening statement by the 91-win Padres. Xander Bogaerts also homered off Cubs starter Matthew Boyd and Jackson Merrill added a two-run single later.
San Diego provided more than enough support for King, who struck out eight over seven stellar innings while throttling the majors’ highest-scoring team. King set the tone by striking out probable National League Most Valuable Player Pete Crow-Armstrong with the first three pitches.
The San Diego Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr, right, celebrates with teammate Manny Machado after scoring off a steal and an error during the seventh inning of Game 1 of their National League Wild Card playoff series against the Chicago Cubs in San Diego, California, on Tuesday.
Photo: AP
“It gives me confidence knowing the team has confidence in me to pitch in these games,” King said. “But then when you have our superstars showing out like that in the bottom of the first, it makes it a lot easier.”
Nico Hoerner got the Cubs’ only hit off King with a one-out infield single in the seventh, but King racked up two more strikeouts to earn the last of several standing ovations from the raucous sellout crowd watching his third career playoff start.
“The crowd was awesome,” Chicago manager Craig Counsell said. “They had a lot to cheer about tonight, and we didn’t give them anything to be quiet about.”
The series winner faces the MLB-best Milwaukee Brewers in the best-of-five division series.
In New York, Cam Schlittler pitched another playoff gem against the Red Sox, while Ben Rice also burned their hometown team with a late grand slam and six RBIs as the Yankees opened their American League Wild Card Series rematch by romping to a 9-0 victory.
With the Yankees minus star slugger Aaron Judge because of a calf injury, Rice homered twice, doubled and had four hits to power the offense. Schlittler, a clear frontrunner for the American League Cy Young Award, struck out 10 in a dominant performance reminiscent of the one that ended Boston’s season last year.
Rice and Schlittler were both raised among Red Sox fans in Massachusetts and went to college in New England before getting plucked by the Yankees out of Boston’s backyard in baseball’s amateur draft.
“Pretty remarkable,” New York manager Aaron Boone said. “Obviously that’s been a storyline for a couple of years now. For them to go out and have that kind of night together to start this post-season, pretty amazing and kind of hard to grasp a little bit, frankly, but I’m certainly glad we have those two.”
Earlier in the other American League Wild Card matchup, Colson Montgomery hit a solo homer and Sam Antonacci drove in two runs to lead the visiting Chicago White Sox over the Houston Astros 6-3.
The White Sox, in the post-season for the first time since 2021, made a remarkable turnaround this year to become the only team in major league history to follow consecutive 100-loss seasons with a playoff berth. They had lost 100 games three straight seasons, including 121 defeats in 2024, setting the record for most losses since 1899.
“We came here to win the series and the first part of that is getting this first win, which is great,” manager Will Venable said.
In Atlanta, Austin Riley hit a three-run homer off All-Star closer Jhoan Duran in the eighth inning as the Braves rallied past the Philadelphia Phillies 5-3 in the opener of their best-of-three National League Wild Card Series.
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