- Michael King held the Cubs to one hit and struck out eight across seven innings before the bullpen closed out the 8-0 shutout.
- Fernando Tatis Jr. homered on the game’s opening pitch, and Chicago, which led the majors with 850 runs, finished with three hits.
- Nick Pivetta, back since Sept. 7 from a right elbow flexor strain, starts Game 2 against Kevin Gausman on Wednesday.
- The Padres would open the Division Series against the top-seeded Milwaukee Brewers, not the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have a bye.
SAN DIEGO – The San Diego Padres are one win from the Division Series after routing the Chicago Cubs 8-0 in Tuesday’s National League Wild Card Series opener at Petco Park, where Michael King kept Chicago hitless until the seventh inning and three San Diego homers came off Matthew Boyd’s changeup. Wild Card Game 2 is Wednesday.
King Holds Chicago Hitless Through Six
King struck out eight, five of them against Pete Crow-Armstrong, the presumptive National League MVP, and Alex Bregman. Nico Hoerner’s seventh-inning single down the third-base line was the only hit off King, who carried a 3.21 ERA over 185 innings into the game.
Tatis drove Boyd’s opening changeup 405 feet to center, and Manny Machado went deep on the same pitch type two batters later. Xander Bogaerts added a solo shot in the fourth.
Boyd, who took the loss, allowed four runs on five hits in four innings, and all three homers came off his changeup, the first time he has given up that many off the pitch in a game. No pair of Padres had ever gone deep in the same first inning of a playoff game before Tatis and Machado did, according to MLB.com’s recap.
Cubs Go 0-For-20 Before Their First Hit
Chicago went 0-for-20 before Hoerner’s single and finished with three hits, the other two against Joe Musgrove in the ninth. Musgrove, in his first appearance since the 2024 postseason after Tommy John surgery, worked around a bases-loaded jam to finish the shutout.
One three-hit night is a single data point on the majors’ highest-scoring lineup, and Chicago took five of six from San Diego during the regular season, according to MLB.com’s series preview.
Pivetta And Gausman Meet In Game 2
Wednesday’s Game 2 starts at 7 p.m. PT, and a Chicago win pushes the series to a Thursday Game 3, also at Petco Park. Pivetta returned Sept. 7 after five months out with a right elbow flexor strain and has allowed three earned runs in 18 2/3 innings over four starts since, with 18 strikeouts. His season line over eight starts is 3-2 with a 2.86 ERA, 1.01 WHIP and 42 strikeouts in 34 2/3 innings, including a six-run start in March.
Gausman is 9-12 with a 4.51 ERA and 1.27 WHIP over 32 starts between Toronto and Chicago. The Cubs have him lined up for Game 2 after his shoulder left the choice open through the weekend. He had soreness in his non-throwing shoulder after a diving tag in his final regular-season start, the preview noted.
| Game 2 Starter | 2026 Record | 2026 ERA | Innings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nick Pivetta, San Diego Padres | 3-2 | 2.86 | 34 2/3 |
| Kevin Gausman, Chicago Cubs | 9-12 | 4.51 | 177 2/3 |
Pivetta’s ERA sits 1.65 runs below Gausman’s, but it covers 34 2/3 innings, too few for an ERA to settle, while Gausman’s spans 177 2/3. Pivetta’s 42 strikeouts, about 10.9 per nine innings, are the steadier part of his line because strikeout rate settles far faster than ERA.
California has not legalized in-state sports wagering, so offshore operators remain the only California sportsbooks posting lines on the series. Tribal casinos, cardrooms, horse racing and the lottery make up the rest of gambling in California, and none of them book baseball.
Brewers, Not The Dodgers, Await The Winner
The Padres are the No. 4 seed at 91-71 and the Cubs the No. 5 seed at 89-73. The Dodgers won the National League West at 100-62, nine games ahead of San Diego, and joined the Brewers, who went 103-59, in skipping the Wild Card round.
The winner of this series plays Milwaukee in the Division Series, while the Dodgers face the winner of the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies series, so the two California teams cannot meet before the League Championship Series. Game 1 of the Division Series is Saturday, Oct. 3.