The San Diego Padres delivered a powerful knockout punch in Game 1 of their NL Wild Card series against the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, sweeping aside their opposition with an 8-0 thrashing at Petco Park to make it the biggest shutout victory in the Padres' postseason history.
This victory gives San Diego a 1-0 edge in their best-of-three series, where the Padres now need only one more win to move on.
Tatis Jr. set the stage right from the get-go, hitting a 405-foot home run on the very first pitch of the match to center field, becoming the first player to hit a leadoff home run in the Padres' postseason history. The initial surge of momentum completely unbalanced the Cubs pitcher Matthew Boyd, who could not find any rhythm throughout the entire game and allowed three home runs.
Whereas the Padres offense put up a lot of run support, it was the story of the game when it comes to right-hander Michael King, who had a no-hit pitch going until the seventh before he finally gave up his first hits of the game.
King would earn the win with no runs allowed with just three hits off him in the process, an effort that was described by Yahoo Sports as the right-hander being in vintage form. Joe Musgrove took over for the final frame in relief and managed to escape a bases-loaded situation in the ninth and sealed the shutout with the game well out of reach already.
Photo: @AP Photo/Gregory Bull
A shutout for a Chicago team that finished the regular season with the best offense in Major League Baseball could be described as the definition of a shocking turn of events in terms of the timing.
San Diego scored in the third with Manny Machado doubling in Fernando Tatis Jr. before the next inning saw the Cubs give up a home run to Xander Bogaerts.
The fifth inning saw Jackson Merrill deliver a two-run single to make it 6-0 before a wild pitch.
on the seventh attempt, only for Tatis to score a further run in a later part of the game, which brought the final score to 8-0.
The Cubs got into their best scoring position in the last inning as they managed to get men on all bases with one out against Musgrove, but the veteran pitcher got his team out of trouble as he popped up the next batter and struck him out to save the Padres' shutout.
Photo: @AP Photo/Gregory Bull
This lopsided loss could not have been any more of a departure from how these two teams had performed in their regular season series in which Chicago had managed to beat the Padres in five out of six games, including an epic 23-3 victory back on July 1, which featured three homers and eight RBIs by Dansby Swanson.
Now that San Diego holds the upper hand in the series by a score of 1-0, the Cubs enter Game 2 of the series with a must-win game on Wednesday.
For San Diego, it is an opportunity to win the series and move on, while the Cubs have to come up with a much better offensive showing in order to prolong the series with a win in Game 3.
