Padres pitch, slug way to NL Wild Card Series sweep over Cubs; Brewers next

The Padres have extended the most successful era in franchise history.

And just as there is no contesting that assessment of this decade, their National League Wild Card Series victory over the Cubs was not close.

The Padres finished off a two-game sweep on Wednesday at Petco Park with a 4-1 victory.

That was far more tense than the previous night’s 8-0 win, but in the end the Padres outhit the visitors 21-8 and led for all but one of the 18 innings they played.

The Padres’ next step in their latest quest for their first championship is the NL Division Series, which they have reached for the third time in five years.

They will travel to play the Brewers, owners of the best record in the major leagues (103-59) during the regular season. The best-of-five series begins Saturday at 5:30 p.m. PT.

The Padres swept the Brewers in August in San Diego after losing two of three in Milwaukee in May.

The sweep of the Cubs completed the Padres’ fifth postseason series win since 2020. That is two more than Padres teams won in the organization’s first 51 years of existence.

The Padres led Game 1 from the time leadoff batter Fernando Tatis Jr. hit the first pitch he saw over the wall and through Michael King’s six hitless innings and to Joe Musgrove’s triumphant return to get the final three outs.

For that victory to be remembered as one of the best in Padres history, another win had to follow.

Toward that end on Wednesday, the Padres turned a 2-1 lead over to their bullpen with one out in the fourth inning and let their collective MVP do what it did almost without fail throughout the season.

They had taken a 2-0 lead in the second inning and turned to their first reliever, Bradgley Rodriguez, after starter Nick Pivetta allowed a run and got into trouble.

Rodriguez stranded two runners in the fourth, and the Padres were ahead 4-1 when he took the mound again thanks to a two-run, pinch-hit homer by Gavin Sheets.

Rodriguez got through the fifth inning, and Jason Adam worked the sixth before Adrian Morejón took over to start the seventh and took down the next two innings. Mason Miller worked around a one-out double to secure the save.

It wasn’t far from how the Padres figured most playoff victories would go for them.

All they were looking for from Pivetta was a start like he had given them four times this month, when he had a 1.45 ERA over 18⅔ innings and the Padres went 4-0. He had twice gone five innings, allowing one run once and zero the other time. In the worst of the four, he allowed two runs in four innings. In his start Thursday in Los Angeles, in the game that clinched a playoff spot for the Padres, he shut out the Dodgers for 4⅔ innings.

He could not quite get to that level Wednesday.

Pivetta began his night the same way King had begun his Tuesday — striking out Pete Crow-Armstrong and Alex Bregman and getting Michael Busch on a hard groundout to first base.

Cubs starter Kevin Gausman, however, was far more effective in the first inning than Matthew Boyd had been a night earlier, when Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado homered to put the Padres ahead 2-0.

That margin had to wait until the second inning on Wednesday.

That is when Ty France got things started with a double lined just inside the bag and down the left field line. Jackson Merrill followed with a dribbler to third base so slow he was able to beat out a throw from third baseman Matt Shaw.

A pitch after Merrill stole second base, Xander Bogaerts grounded a ball through the right side to bring in France and moved Merrill to third. And rookie Ethan Salas then lined the first pitch he saw to center field for a sacrifice fly in his first postseason plate appearance.

As the Cubs did in the bottom of the second, the Padres had a reliever warming up in the top of the third.

That is because Pivetta quickly got in trouble, walking Matt Shaw and yielding a single to Carson Kelly.

But after falling behind 3-0 to Dansby Swanson, Pivetta finished the inning in eight pitches — striking out Swanson, getting Crow-Armstrong to pop up and Bregman to hit a fly ball to center field.

After Merrill caught the third out, Pivetta hopped off the mound and let out a yell as he stalked back to the dugout.

The moment matched the mood.

It had been the first time since the first inning of Game 1 that the Cubs had the go-ahead run at the plate.

They got more chances in the fourth when Seiya Suzuki singled and Ian Happ walked.

That got Rodriguez up and throwing for a second straight inning.

And the Cubs scored for the first time in the series when Nico Hoerner grounded a single into center field.

This time, Pivetta walked off the field with his head hung, as Padres manager Craig Stammen made the move to Rodriguez.

The rookie right-hander threw five fastballs and stranded both runners with just the tiniest of speed bumps when — between a three-pitch strikeout of Shaw and a fly ball out by Swanson — he grazed Kelly with a pitch to load the bases.

Gausman, pitching a week after injuring his left (non-throwing) shoulder diving to tag out a runner, ended up getting into the fourth inning before being lifted following Bogaerts’ one-out double.

Right-hander Daniel Palencia struck out Salas before Sheets turned on a knee-high 101 mph fastball and sent it screaming into the seats beyond right field.