The Cubs Owned San Diego All Year — Then the Padres Absolutely Embarrassed Them When It Mattered

So much for the regular season.

The Chicago Cubs came into this Wild Card Series having gone 5-1 against the San Diego Padres during the regular season. They knocked San Diego out of the playoffs in this exact round a year ago. They finished the season with the highest-scoring offense in baseball and had Pete Crow-Armstrong putting together an MVP-caliber year. On paper, there were plenty of reasons to believe Chicago could walk into Petco Park and do it to the Padres again.

Instead, San Diego basically punched them in the mouth Tuesday night and never let them back up.

Two games. Two Padres wins. A 12-1 combined score. And now San Diego is heading to Milwaukee for the NLDS while the Cubs are heading home wondering how one of the best offenses in baseball completely disappeared the second October arrived.

Game 1 wasn't even competitive.

Fernando Tatis Jr. stepped into the box in the bottom of the first inning and immediately launched a home run. Manny Machado followed him with another one, and just like that Petco Park was going insane before Chicago really had a chance to settle into the game. Xander Bogaerts eventually joined the home run party as well, Jackson Merrill drove in a pair, and by the time the night was over the Padres had put eight runs on the board.

Meanwhile, Michael King was doing something even more impressive on the other side.

King completely shut down a Cubs lineup that spent the entire regular season scoring runs. He carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning, ultimately allowing just one hit over seven scoreless innings while striking out eight. Chicago finished the entire night with three hits. The Padres won 8-0, their largest postseason shutout in franchise history, and suddenly the team that had dominated San Diego all year was one loss away from elimination.

Then Wednesday night somehow made Chicago's offensive performance look even worse.

Game 2 was at least competitive early. San Diego grabbed a 2-0 lead in the second inning behind Xander Bogaerts and Jackson Merrill, but Chicago finally showed a little life in the fourth and cut the deficit to 2-1. For a brief moment, it looked like maybe we were finally going to get the tight, stressful playoff game everyone expected from these two teams.

Then Gavin Sheets happened.

And this might be my favorite part of the entire series.

Sheets spent most of September in a walking boot dealing with a plantar plate tear in his left foot. He wasn't even really an option defensively. The Padres basically kept him around hoping there might be one moment where they could send him to the plate and get one big swing.

Well, they got it.

Sheets came off the bench in the bottom of the fourth and got a 100.8 mph fastball from Daniel Palencia. He absolutely crushed it into the right-field seats for a pinch-hit two-run homer, Petco Park exploded, and a 2-1 game suddenly became 4-1.

That was basically it.

Because once San Diego had the lead, good luck.

The Padres bullpen absolutely suffocated Chicago the rest of the night. Bradgley Rodriguez, Jason Adam, Adrian Morejon and Mason Miller combined to cover the final 5 2/3 innings without allowing a run. Chicago managed only two hits against the bullpen, Miller slammed the door in the ninth, and the Padres officially completed the sweep.

The numbers for Chicago are pretty brutal.

The Cubs scored one run in two games. They collected only eight hits in the entire series. Pete Crow-Armstrong and Alex Bregman, two guys Chicago desperately needed in the middle of this lineup, combined to go 0-for-15 with eight strikeouts. This was a Cubs team built to score runs, and for 18 innings San Diego's pitching staff made them look completely lost.

That's what makes San Diego so interesting moving forward.

We know about Tatis. We know about Machado. We know about Bogaerts and Merrill. There is enough star power in this lineup to win games in October. But when you combine that offense with what San Diego can throw at you from the mound, this starts looking like a team nobody is going to want to deal with.

Michael King gave them seven scoreless innings in Game 1. Nick Pivetta didn't have his best night in Game 2, so the Padres simply handed the baseball to their bullpen and watched four relievers erase Chicago for the rest of the game. That's a pretty nice luxury to have in a short postseason series.

And now they get the Milwaukee Brewers.

Milwaukee had the best record in baseball, so nobody is pretending this gets easier. The Brewers earned the No. 1 seed for a reason, and San Diego will have to go on the road this time with Game 1 Saturday night in Milwaukee.

But I wouldn't be thrilled about seeing the Padres coming into town right now.

San Diego was one of the hottest teams in baseball down the stretch, and they just dismantled a Cubs team that had owned them during the regular season. They have stars throughout the lineup, their starting pitching can dominate a game, and their bullpen gives them the ability to turn a lead after four or five innings into what feels like a six-inning save.

That's a dangerous combination in October.

And after Chicago ended San Diego's season last October, I'm sure this one felt a little better than your normal Wild Card sweep.

The Cubs won five of six when the games counted in the regular-season standings.

The Padres won two of two when the games counted toward a World Series.

I'll take the second one.

San Diego gets its revenge, Chicago's big offense disappears, and the Padres are moving on.

See you Saturday, Milwaukee.