San Diego opened its National League Wild Card Series with the kind of October night Petco Park will remember: an 8-0 Game 1 win over the Cubs, three early home runs, Michael King carrying a no-hit bid into the seventh, and Joe Musgrove returning to a major league mound for the first time in nearly two years.
Key takeaways
- Fernando Tatis Jr. hit Matthew Boyd’s first pitch of the game for a center-field home run, and Manny Machado followed two batters later with another first-inning blast.
- King held Chicago without a hit until Nico Hoerner’s one-out infield single in the seventh inning.
- Xander Bogaerts homered in the fourth, while Jackson Merrill supplied a two-out, two-run single in the fifth.
- Musgrove, back after Tommy John surgery and several comeback setbacks, struck out Michael Conforto to escape a bases-loaded spot in relief.
- San Diego can clinch the series in Game 2 on Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET, 9 p.m. CT and 7 p.m. PT on Peacock and NBCSN.
King set the October tone
King brought the edge of an ace to the opening matchup, beginning with a marquee confrontation against Pete Crow-Armstrong, the leading National League MVP candidate. His first pitch was a sinker on the inner edge for a called strike. Then came a sweeping breaking ball, followed by a 97.6 mph fastball at the top of the zone that Crow-Armstrong could not catch up with.
That heater was King’s hardest recorded pitch in more than three years. He later credited the postseason rush, saying adrenaline can do plenty and adding that he hoped to feel it for the next five weeks.
The Cubs never found much room against him. King worked into the seventh with the no-hitter intact before Hoerner sent a soft grounder down the third-base line. Machado made a typically aggressive attempt, but had no realistic play and lost the ball during the transfer.
King said Hoerner was a good hitter who got to a good pitch, while noting that several other well-struck balls had found San Diego defenders positioned to handle them. He did not believe he had dominant no-hit stuff all night, though he acknowledged that a pitcher certainly notices a no-hitter once he reaches the seventh inning.
The bid was the longest by an individual postseason pitcher since Aníbal Sánchez threw 7 2/3 hitless innings for Washington in the 2019 NL Championship Series.
More importantly for San Diego, King worked with a lead from the first swing of the evening. Tatis drove Boyd’s opening offering over the center-field wall, and Machado immediately made the Cubs pay again. It marked the first time the Padres had hit two homers in the first inning of a playoff game.
“Our big players hit the home runs, then we kept adding,” manager Craig Stammen said, describing it as about as ideal a script as a club could want.
Musgrove’s return capped a roaring home field
Bogaerts added his homer in the fourth, Merrill widened the gap with his fifth-inning two-run hit, and the Padres turned a packed Petco Park into a full-throated party. Fans sang Blink-182 together during the middle of the eighth, then found one more reason to make noise when Musgrove began warming in the left-center bullpen.
Musgrove had not appeared in a game for nearly two years while working back from Tommy John surgery. His path back included multiple setbacks during the summer, making his placement on the Wild Card Series roster a surprise in itself.
Stammen had joked after the roster decision that October offers no gentle entry points. Yet Musgrove was given the closest thing to one, with San Diego ahead by eight runs. He still had to navigate trouble after loading the bases, and he finished the escape by striking out Conforto with a curveball that looked familiar to anyone who has watched Musgrove at his best.
Tatis called it a beautiful night of baseball for San Diego, while Machado pointed to King’s opening inning and the lineup’s quick response as the tone-setters. He said the Padres carried their season-long offensive approach into the game and fed off the energy inside Petco Park.
Cubs manager Craig Counsell also recognized the atmosphere, saying the crowd had ample reason to celebrate and that Chicago did nothing to quiet it.
The victory puts San Diego in a powerful historical position. Teams that win Game 1 in the best-of-three Wild Card Series have taken the round 21 times in 24 attempts, an 88 percent rate. No club has won the opener at home and then failed to move on.
The Padres earned home-field advantage with a scorching September, then used it to protect their top late-inning relievers for the remaining games if needed. One more victory would send San Diego to the NL Division Series against the Brewers. For one night, though, the immediate reward was simpler: King’s command, the stars’ early thunder, Musgrove’s long-awaited return, and an 8-0 October shutout.
