The Chicago Cubs rebounded to take the game and their National League Wild Card Series against the San Diego Padres
The Chicago Cubs rebounded to take the game and their National League Wild Card Series against the San Diego Padres with a 3-1 home win on Thursday, Oct. 2 with aid from a controversial called strike three. Chicago did an excellent job of limiting the Padres’ talented offense, but this season will turn into another question of what could have been for San Diego, still without a World Series title in their 57 year history.
Underwhelming stars, feel-good stories, and plenty of drama: here are the winners and losers as the Cubs advanced to a Division Series duel on the shores of Lake Michigan with their NL Central rival Milwaukee Brewers.
Winner: Jameson Taillon
Jameson Taillon has been through just about everything you can think of since going to the Pittsburgh Pirates with the second overall pick of the 2010 MLB Draft. The first of two career Tommy John surgeries and a sports hernia pushed his big league debut back to 2016, an inauspicious beginning for a highly-touted pick, then Taillon was diagnosed with testicular cancer the following season, returning to the mound just five weeks after surgery.
Taillon’s ability to overcome everything life has thrown at him makes him an easy player to root for, and must make the best game of his postseason career, four scoreless innings against San Diego’s talented lineup in an elimination game, feel that much sweeter.
Winner: Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) Challenge System
Home plate umpire D.J. Reyburn rang Xander Bogaerts up on a 3-2 fastball well below the zone in the top of the ninth inning as San Diego tried to overcome a 3-1 deficit and keep their season alive. That counted as the first out of the inning. The Padres went on to put two runners aboard, but a groundball and a fly ball ended their season instead of knocking in runs with the bases loaded.
Major League Baseball will end more than a century and a half of umpires’ reign of terror as the sole judge of balls and strikes when they implement the Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System (ABS) during the 2026 regular season. The change will allow teams to challenge suspected incorrect calls, and the Padres’ loss served as yet another example of why even the most traditional baseball fans are ready for that change.
Loser: Yu Darvish
Padres pitcher Yu Darvish has had more than his fair share of postseason blowups, most notably during the 2017 World Series while with the Dodgers. Though largely a dependable playoff arm since that lowlight close to a decade ago, Darvish saw some of his old struggles surface again in a must-win Game 3, tagged for two runs before recording the first out of the second inning and ultimately getting the hook.
That put San Diego on their heels and, while the Padres bullpen filled in admirably, their offense never managed to recover from the early deficit.
Loser Fernando Tatís Jr.
Padres superstar Fernando Tatís Jr. had a postseason to forget, going 1-for-12 with a single and a walk from the leadoff spot. San Diego scored just five runs during their three game series with the Cubs; Tatís, for his part, went 0-for-2 with runners in scoring position, though he did manage to score a pair of runs.
The nature of a best-of-three series will put any cold spell under the microscope, but the simple fact is that the Padres needed more from their franchise cornerstone. Instead, they’re heading home empty-handed.
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