The Cubs are headed back to the postseason, but they’ll have to start it on the road after the San Diego Padres locked up the top National League Wild Card spot with a 10-7 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday night.
That result sealed Chicago into the No. 5 seed and sent Craig Counsell’s club west for a rematch with San Diego in the Wild Card round. It’s a familiar setup, and not exactly the one the Cubs wanted after putting themselves in position to chase home-field advantage.
Chicago’s stumble left the door open. The Cubs dropped two of three to the Miami Marlins at Wrigley Field, then lost both games of Friday’s doubleheader against the Red Sox. That sequence left them with only a sliver of hope, and the Padres closed it off.
There is still a silver lining: the Cubs are back in the playoffs for the second straight year. But losing the top Wild Card seed stings, especially after what happened last October. Wrigley was a major factor in the Cubs’ do-or-die Game 3 win over San Diego in last year’s Wild Card round, and they won’t have that edge this time.
Even so, Chicago has handled the Padres well this season. The Cubs took five of six meetings, including a sweep in their most recent series.
The catch is timing. Those teams haven’t seen each other since early July, and the Padres have been one of baseball’s hottest clubs in the second half.
The Cubs, by contrast, have not.
Before the postseason begins, though, there’s one more regular-season game to get through - and it has turned into a strange one. The Cubs and Red Sox were moved to Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays, because of the nor’easter hammering the Boston area. With the game no longer affecting where either team plays next week, the result is mostly about getting to Tuesday without any unnecessary damage.
That should lead to a lot of unusual lineup choices and plenty of midgame shuffling. The bigger question is how both teams handle the pitching side, since neither wants to waste meaningful innings from its rotation or bullpen.
For the Cubs, that could mean Javier Assad gets the ball and is asked to work deep after throwing 2.1 innings on September 25. Colin Rea is another possibility, given his reputation for soaking up innings.
Whatever the exact setup, Counsell’s main job is clear: keep everybody healthy and get to Wild Card play intact. The finale may not be much of a spectacle, but the games that matter are coming fast.
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