The Chicago wind turned Wrigley Field into a launch pad last night, and the Cubs made the most of it in a 9-7 win over the San Diego Padres. Chicago went deep four times, San Diego answered with four homers of its own, and the game still ended with the Padres empty-handed after their late push came up just short.
Fernando Tatis Jr. got the party started early, blasting a 424-foot homer off Cubs starter Matthew Boyd to put San Diego on the board first. Chicago answered right away, tying the game at 1-1 on an RBI single from Carson Kelly.
The game then swung hard in the Cubs’ favor in the next inning. San Diego starter JP Sears was tagged for four more runs as Chicago kept hammering away. Dansby Swanson hit a solo homer, Alex Bregman followed with a three-run blast, and just like that the Cubs had built a 5-1 cushion.
Manny Machado tried to pull the Padres back in it with a two-run homer in the following inning, trimming the deficit to 5-3. But the Cubs weren’t done with the long ball. Michael Busch added a solo shot in the fifth, Swanson picked up another homer for two more runs, and Pete Crow-Armstrong joined the fun in the sixth with a solo homer that pushed Chicago out to 9-3.
San Diego wasn’t finished, either. The Padres put together a four-run rally in the eighth, with Gavin Sheets crushing a three-run homer and Tatis following with his second blast of the night, a solo shot. That cut the margin to 9-7 and put some real pressure on the Cubs, but Chicago’s bullpen closed it out from there.
Tyler Ferguson and Ryan Rolison helped settle things down, and Rolison earned his first save of the season as the Cubs held on. Sears finished with a rough outing that sent his ERA to 6.97, while Rod Marinaccio allowed two more runs in relief and saw his number climb to 4.93.
The defeat was San Diego’s fourth straight and left them just two games over .500, a line that continues to loom over their season. They’re also only a half-game ahead of the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NL West, with the Los Angeles Dodgers sitting atop the division by 12 games.
The Padres now get one more shot to avoid the sweep today, with Walker Buehler set to face Colin Rea for Chicago. After that, San Diego heads to Dodgers Stadium for a four-game series, making this final game in Chicago a useful chance to build some momentum before a pivotal weekend.
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