SAN DIEGO – Before the month of October has even arrived, the Cubs are faced with an early playoff elimination.
Game 1 of their best-of-three series against the Padres on Tuesday night went all kinds of wrong, with lefty starter Matthew Boyd serving up three homers, the highest scoring lineup in baseball held to just three hits and even an all-time great defense struggling, at points.
An 8-0 defeat was not what a team with World Series aspirations had in mind. It’s not what anyone expected to see.
And it’s something that could help end this postseason run before it even gets going.
“We didn’t do anything right today,” third baseman Alex Bregman said. “We’ve got to execute better in all phases of the game.
“You flush it, turn the page. You’ve got to this time of year. I’ve got all the confidence in the world this group can bounce back tomorrow.”
The Cubs spent the summer describing their ability to reset after the emotional highs and lows of wins and losses. They spent the last week, with more challenges thrown their way, talking about all they’ve weathered this season.
They’ve got one chance Wednesday to prove that resilience is the defining feature they believe it to be and keep their season going another night.
“It’s what we’re made of. We’re able to do that,” Boyd said. “We’ve got a lot of fight in this clubhouse. We’ll come out here, we’ll leave this one behind and be ready to do a job tomorrow. … We believe in our group, and we’re never out of it.”
“This one leaves a little sour taste in your mouth,” catcher Carson Kelly said, “but I have this saying: We shower well. Once you go take a shower, it’s over, and you move to the next day. That’s what we’re going to do.”
The Cubs could arrive at Petco Park with that perfect mindset, but it’ll need to carry over into the game. If they look like they did Tuesday, the only place they’ll be advancing is the couch.
Tuesday was all sorts of ugly, with the hot-hitting Padres bashing Boyd early, superstars Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado homering off him in the first inning. Xander Bogaerts added to the barrage a few innings later.
The bullpen didn’t exactly shine, either, giving up four runs of their own, though two came on rare defensive mistakes, with Kelly letting a passed ball get between his legs and making a throwing error on a stolen-base try that allowed Tatis to score.
Meanwhile, the Cubs were hitless after six innings, mustering only one knock – an infield single – off Padres starter Michael King before loading the bases with two more hits in the ninth. The team’s two biggest offensive stars, center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong and Bregman, combined to strike out six times in eight trips to the plate.
None of it looked championship-caliber in the least, especially when compared to a scorching Padres team that seemingly did everything right and had their home fans going crazy.
It leaves the Cubs with some fixes to make in a hurry. In the no-margin-for-error world of playoff baseball, it’s make those fixes or call it a season.
“You’ve got no choice but to [turn the page],” Bregman said. “Then you come the next day and you compete your tail off and lay it all out there.”
“Luckily, we’re living tomorrow,” Boyd said. “We’ll come back punching tomorrow.”