CHICAGO — As Fernando Tatis Jr.’s arms flew in the air watching a ball fly deep into the left-field bleachers, a simultaneous euphoria came from the Padres’ dugout. They were watching a no-doubt home run off the bat of Manny Machado, but more importantly, they were seeing their season live on for another day.
On Wednesday in Chicago with their season on the line, the San Diego Padres showed in their Game 2 wild-card win over the Cubs that they’re built to survive in October.
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“Nothing’s going to be easy at this point in the season,” Machado said after the Padres’ 3-0 victory. “You got the best of the best playing right now. … This is why we’re here.”
But to get to a winner-take-all Game 3 on Thursday, the Padres needed a big hit from their offense, something they weren’t able to muster in their Game 1 loss to the Cubs.
[Get more San Diego news: Padres team feed]
The Cubs went into Wednesday with a plan to combat the top of the Padres’ lineup, notably Tatis and Machado — or so they thought — choosing to start reliever Andrew Kittredge as an opener. Kittredge ended up surrendering singles to Tatis and Luis Arraez and then allowing a run on a Jackson Merrill sacrifice fly before he gave way to Shota Imanaga in the second inning.
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From there, Chicago’s strategy seemed to be going as planned until San Diego made things happen in the fifth inning. Tatis worked a walk and moved to second on an Arraez sacrifice bunt, leaving first base open.
Instead of pitching around the superstar third baseman, Chicago elected to have Imanaga face Machado. And Machado, who carries a career .846 OPS with 99 home runs against left-handed pitching, made the Cubs pay.
“He’s Manny Machado,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said afterward. “He’s heading in a great direction in his career. I liked his swings all the way toward the end of the season. He was starting to get his groove.”
Cubs manager Craig Counsell admitted postgame that his team’s plan backfired: “The results suggest that we should have done something different,” he said. “I thought [Imanaga] was pitching well. I thought he was throwing the ball really well, and unfortunately, he made a mistake.”
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As for the Padres’ third baseman, he was more than happy to swing the bat.
“I don’t put a manager’s cap on,” he said of the Cubs’ decision. “I mean, I’m 0-for-6 at that point, so yeah, I’m not thinking about that. I’m just trying to get to Imanaga.”
With his blast, Machado staked his team to a 3-0 lead, but there was still plenty of game left and a whole lot of outs to cover. But what makes the Padres so dangerous, particularly in a short series, is that once they’re ahead, they can turn to three of the best relievers in baseball to shorten games and lock down victories.
In recent years, Padres president of baseball operations AJ Preller has built his bullpens with an eye toward October. Two seasons in a row, he has put together the best relief corps in the game; this year, his big move was acquiring closer Mason Miller from the Athletics at the deadline. For Shildt, being able to turn to Miller, Adrían Moréjon and Robert Suárez to cover the last 16 outs at this time of year is a massive advantage.
“I think we played with an edge, for sure,” Padres starter Dylan Cease, who tossed 3 2/3 scoreless innings before handing things over to the bullpen, said postgame. “We played with energy. At the end of the day, we played really clean baseball, and that’s what it takes to win at this time of year.”
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Moréjon followed Cease and cruised through the Cubs’ lineup to finish the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. It was his longest outing of the season. Then came Miller, who, after striking out the side in Game 1, absolutely dominated Chicago’s hitters in Game 2. The Padres’ fireballer was filthy and utterly unhittable, striking out the first five batters he faced and hitting 104.5 mph as he struck out Carson Kelly in the seventh inning. That pitch from Miller was the fastest postseason pitch since pitch tracking began in 2008 and the fourth-fastest pitch thrown in the regular season or postseason in that span.
Finally, the ball went to Suárez, who closed the door on the Cubs by getting the final out of the eighth inning before returning in the ninth. There, after a single from Kyle Tucker, Suárez induced a 6-4-3 double play to end the game and extend San Diego’s season.
“Back-against-the-wall scenario … Dylan deserves a lot of credit for getting us to where he got to,” Shildt said. “Then Adrian came in and was just outstanding, really fantastic. … Miller picked up right off [Seiya] Suzuki, and he was fantastic to grab that seventh clean inning, and we were starting to figure it out.”
Now everything hinges on Thursday’s Game 3, with the season on the line for both clubs. This Cubs team is relatively new to the postseason, whereas the Padres have plenty of playoff experience to lean on. For good and for bad, they have been here before.
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And after leaning on the leader of their team and their star-studded bullpen to get them to a winner-take-all Game 3, the Padres are fully aware that they’re just one game away from a trip to the NLDS … or heading home for the winter.
“It’s do or die, same thing as today. All hands are on deck, whoever it is,” Machado said. “We’ve done it all year. I don’t think it’s going to be anything different. We’ve got to win to advance.”
This news was originally published on this post .
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