Padres claw back to avoid sweep against Cubs

CHICAGO -- The San Diego Padres avoided the brooms, winning 8-7 against the Chicago Cubs on Sunday at Wrigley Field.

After Kyle Tucker connected on a two-run homer in the second inning to make it 7-3, the Padres didn’t back down from the deficit and kept chipping away throughout the game. 

Jackson Merrill kicked off the rally with a 404 FT two-run HR to center. An inning later, first baseman Luis Arraez cut the Cubs’ lead to one run after his single to right, bringing in Elías Díaz from second. 

During the eighth, Merrill walked and stole second base, setting up Gavin Sheets for an RBI single to tie the game at seven apiece. 

San Diego would earn their first lead since the opening inning on a throwing error to Cubs’ first baseman Justin Turner, trying to get Manny Machado out at first. Fernando Tatis Jr. would move to third, but after seeing the error, he hit the jets and cruised to home safely. 

After an unusual first inning where starting left handed pitcher Kyle Hart coughed up five runs with 39 pitches thrown in only ⅔ of the inning. 

As the team clawed back, relief pitcher Logan Gillaspie came in for Hart and tossed 63 pitches through four innings, giving up 2 earned runs with a strikeout. 

Through the first seven games against the Braves and Guardians, the Padres bullpen gave up only two runs. Entering their final game against the Cubs, they surrendered four runs, not including the two Gillaspie had.     

Rest assured, the Padres are still a threat

In an effort to keep up with the Los Angeles Dodgers (9-2) and the San Francisco Giants (8-1), the Padres (8-2) are half a game away from leading the NL West Division. An interesting note from this weekend is that both the Dodgers and Padres went 1-2 in their respective series.  

Before entering their three game set against the Cubs, the Padres were, at the time, one of two unbeaten MLB teams along with the Dodgers.

Even with losses on Friday and Saturday, the Padres should still be considered one of the best teams in baseball. They have a plethora of dangerous hitters throughout their lineup, having the third most hits (92) and eighth most runs (46), and have shown to have a well-rounded bullpen with a more than capable starting rotation, tied for the seventh most in strikeouts (90) and second fewest hits allowed (56).  

In addition to their strong pitching, San Diego is also an outstanding defensive team led by Machado at third base. In his 13th year in the big leagues, he manages to still pull off agile grabs and long, accurate throws from the corner. 

The Padres will continue their road trip, heading to Sacramento to take on the Athletics for a three game showdown. The Athletics (4-6) are coming off winning 2-of-3 against the Rockies over the weekend.   

The projected starting pitcher for San Diego will be opening day starting pitcher Michael King (1-0, 3.52 ERA), who is coming off an impressive performance in his last start, pitching five scoreless innings allowing only two hits and striking out 11 Guardian batters. 

The Padres are forecasted to face right-hander Luis Severino (0-1, 3.75 ERA) on the mound. 

Offensively, Merrill enters the triple header leading the Padres in batting average (.378), HRs (3), RBIs (10) and is tied for second in the league in hits (14) with teammate Tatis Jr., His impressive early statistics continues as all cross the major league as his batting average is tied for the fifth best and he is ranked tenth in OPS (1.091) and in SLG % (.676). 

Tatis Jr. also currently has the league’s eighth best batting average, batting .368. Him and Machado are currently tied for the third best in the MLB in stolen bases with five.

Similar to previous seasons where the Padres struggled to handle teams without a winning record, the team needs to show improvement against opponents like their next two series (Athletics, Rockies), if they want to still be considered a World Series contender.