SAN DIEGO — The Chicago Cubs must quickly move past an all-around ugly showing to extend their season.
Their postseason turned into a nightmare almost immediately Tuesday night, as they were held to three hits in an 8-0 loss to the San Diego Padres in Game 1 of a National League wild-card series at Petco Park.
“You never want to play from behind,” manager Craig Counsell said. “It means you’ve got to score, and we didn’t score. There’s nothing more than that really.”
Matthew Boyd typically doesn’t go to his changeup to open a game. The veteran left-hander’s second-most-used pitch helps counter his fastball, especially to right-handed hitters. Boyd hadn’t thrown a first-pitch changeup to begin a start in 56 games — dating to Game 3 of the 2024 American League Championship Series with the Cleveland Guardians — before he delivered one to Fernando Tatís Jr. in the bottom of the first inning Tuesday.
Tatís seemed ready for it, crushing a 405-foot home run to set off a frenzy among the 47,084 fans. Two batters later, Manny Machado didn’t miss an 0-1 changeup, going deep for a 2-0 Padres lead.
Tatís and Machado teamed up again in the third when Machado’s double off the right-center-field wall scored Tatís, who had walked.
Boyd said he knew Tatís would swing at his first pitch in the first inning.
“The numbers say he’s going to swing through it, anticipating a swing,” Boyd said. “I just wanted it to be more away, more down than it was. And that’s really what it comes down to. I needed to execute it better.”
The Padres completed a trifecta against Boyd when Xander Bogaerts homered off another changeup in the fourth to put the Cubs in a four-run hole.
Boyd surrendered six home runs off his changeup (in 546 thrown) in the regular season. He had suppressed the long ball in September, not allowing a home run in five starts spanning 29 2/3 innings.
As for whether he felt the Padres kept looking for his changeup, Boyd acknowledged that possibility.
“I’m sure they were,” he said. “It’s a pitch that’s good for me. It’s a pitch that I use a lot, and at this point of the year, there’s no secrets on anybody. You’ve just got to be sharper with it. It means they’re looking for it, doesn’t mean you can’t throw (it).
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“We had a lot of success with the fastball. That speaks to what they were looking for off me. They’re looking soft, and it doesn’t mean you can’t throw the changeup. I needed to be better with it.”
While the Padres kept ambushing Boyd’s changeup, the Cubs went 6 1/3 innings before managing a hit off Michael King on Nico Hoerner’s infield single down the third-base line. They didn’t tally another until Seiya Suzuki’s one-out single in the ninth.
The early four-run deficit felt even bigger with King cruising. The Cubs had a chance to cut into the lead in the second and third with a runner in scoring position in each inning but failed to come through. They didn’t put a runner past second base after Pete Crow-Armstrong swiped second in the third inning.
King struck out Crow-Armstrong and Alex Bregman in five of their six plate appearances. He got Bregman to strike out twice on his nasty sweeper.
“He was ripping it,” Bregman said. “I just didn’t make an adjustment in my at-bats against him. Didn’t really expect that (pitch), so I’ll have to make some adjustments a little quicker.”
The Padres kept tacking on against the Cubs bullpen. Jackson Merrill’s bases-loaded, two-run single off lefty Ryan Rolison, followed by catcher Carson Kelly’s passed ball, resulted in a three-run fifth.
The lack of crispness extended to the defensive side when Kelly’s throw to shortstop Dansby Swanson on Tatís’ steal in the seventh skipped into left field. The throwing error allowed Tatís to score from second, easily beating Ian Happ’s throw home.
The Cubs didn’t have many options to start Game 1 when they settled on Boyd, who finished with four runs allowed on five hits and one walk and struck out four.
Right-hander Kevin Gausman appeared lined up to get the ball Tuesday, but a freak injury to his left shoulder on a diving tag in his final regular-season start Sept. 23 seemingly thwarted that plan. His shoulder didn’t feel great in the ensuing days, but his pregame bullpen session Tuesday went well enough that Gausman will start Game 2 on Wednesday.
Clay Holmes and David Peterson starting Friday’s doubleheader in Boston meant Wednesday was the earliest either would be available on normal rest.
The Cubs found ways to survive last postseason, winning three elimination games before their journey ultimately concluded in the decisive Game 5 of the NL Division Series against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Just as it did a year ago, this group must find a way to extend its season Wednesday.
“All phases of the game did not go well,” Bregman said. “So you flush it, turn the page. You’ve got to this time of year, and I’ve got all the confidence in the world this group can bounce back tomorrow.
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“You’ve got no choice but to, and then you come to the next day and you compete your tail off and lay it all out there.”