The Padres went into getaway day at Wrigley needing something to stop the slide. Instead, they got buried.
San Diego was blasted 23-3 by the Cubs on Sunday, a loss that turned into a full-scale rout before the game was even out of the third inning. Walker Buehler was hit hard from the start, allowing nine runs over his first three innings and putting the Padres in a 9-0 hole that never came close to being repaired.
Chicago kept the pressure on all afternoon, piling up eight home runs and 17 hits while the runs kept coming. Seiya Suzuki opened the barrage with a 426-foot, three-run shot to center, and Dansby Swanson added a solo homer in the second. Swanson struck again in the third with a three-run blast, effectively putting the game out of reach.
The Cubs weren’t done. They kept adding on through the final six innings and finished with 23 runs, while catcher Rodolfo Duran even took the mound in the eighth and gave up eight runs, adding a strange little twist to an already lopsided day.
San Diego did manage one long ball of its own, a solo homer from Sung-Mun Song in the fifth, but it barely dented the damage. Swanson finished with three homers, Michael Conforto added two, and the Padres’ usually reliable pitching identity was nowhere to be found.
Buehler lasted four innings before handing things off to Kyle Hart, who worked two more frames and allowed six additional runs, five earned. The loss completed a sweep in Chicago and stretched the Padres’ losing streak to five games as they head west for a four-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Swanson’s day also came with a notable statistical marker: he now has 26 RBIs in his last ten games. The source noted that Joe Dimaggio was the last player to do that for the New York Yankees in 1939.
Colin Rea got the win after throwing five innings and allowing two runs, while Jordan Wicks picked up his second save of the season by working the final three innings and giving up one run, thanks to an obscure wrinkle in the save rule.
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A.J. Preller Suddenly Holds The Key To Padres Deadline Pressure
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Alden Gonzalez pointed to the Padres struggles at the plate as the driving force, and the bigger question now is how far ownership is willing to go to support a push. With a new group in place, Preller may have more room to take on money than he has in past summers, which could open the door to a more aggressive pursuit of impact bats and maybe even a front-line arm if the market breaks the right way. [Read more 🡒]