Padres rally to beat Cubs on wild Sunday at Wrigley Field

Kevin Acee, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Apr 6, 2025

Published in Baseball

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CHICAGO — The San Diego Padres won more games in 2024 than in all but one of their previous 55 seasons.

They did so with 38 comeback victories, including 10 of them when trailing by three or more runs.

None was like what happened Sunday.

The Padres’ 8-7 victory was improbable enough — with their starting pitcher lasting two outs and the reliever they called up in the morning filling in for four innings, and the winning run scoring in the ninth on what should have been an inning-ending double play.

After trailing 7-3 after two innings, the Padres tied the game in the seventh on Gavin Sheets’ RBI single. They took the lead when, with runners on first and second, Manny Machado grounded a ball to shortstop Dansby Swanson, who threw to second for the force before Nico Hoerner’s relay to first was low and got past first baseman Justin Turner, allowing Fernando Tatis Jr. to score from second base.

Robert Suarez worked a scoreless ninth for the save. His final out: Turner, who struck out on 10 pitches.

That was long after one of the strangest starts to a game that could be imagined or concocted or hallucinated.

Before they actually achieved the comeback, the Padres were almost constantly on the verge of a comeback.

They failed to score after having runners at first and second with no outs in the third inning and a runner on third with no outs in the sixth. They went 2 for 13 with runners in scoring position before Sheets tied the game with a single in the eighth inning and finished 3 for 16.

But enough about how it turned out.

The teams scored eight runs in a 46-minute first inning, which featured seven walks, a hit batter, an umpires conference, two balks and all nine batters for both teams coming to the plate.

The Padres led 3-0 without hitting a ball out of the infield and with just three of their nine batters putting the ball in play in the first inning.

Two walks sandwiched around Luis Arraez’s bunt single loaded the bases at the start before Jackson Merrill struck out. Jake Cronenworth got the first RBI when he took a 94 mph fastball in the side. Xander Bogaerts then pounded a ball into the dirt that bounced high enough in the air that he had plenty of time to get down the line well before pitcher Ben Brown’s throw got to first base. A Sheets strikeout followed before Jason Heyward walked in another run. The inning ended on Elías Díaz’s groundout to second base.

Cubs starter Ben Brown threw 35 pitches in the inning, just 17 of them strikes.

The Padres’ Kyle Hart would throw one more strike in four more pitches, and his day was finished, as the lunacy was just getting started.

Hart walked the first two Cubs batters on 10 pitches, surrendered an RBI single to Kyle Tucker and a sacrifice fly by Turner before walking Swanson. A 10-pitch at-bat by Hoerner ended with him hitting a hard grounder to shortstop that went for a game-tying double when it bounced off Bogaerts’ glove and into center field.

With runners on second and third, Pete Crow-Armstrong laid down a bunt on a safety squeeze and got his second out by throwing home, where Díaz tagged out Swanson. Hart would not get another out, as his fourth ball to Matt Shaw was his last pitch.

That loaded the bases, brought in Logan Gillaspie and brought up No.9 hitter Carson Kelly, who lined out to shortstop — but not before Gillaspie stopped in the middle of his windup, the umpires conferred for a full three minutes and charged him with a balk, bringing in a run. Gillaspie did it again two pitches later, bringing in another run.

Tucker’s two-run homer in the second inning extended the Cubs’ lead to 7-3.

Merrill’s two-run homer in the fourth inning got the Padres to 7-5.

They got to within a run in the fifth when Díaz and Tatis drew one-out walks against reliever Caleb Thielbar and Arraez followed by grounding a single through the right side.

Gillaspie made it two outs into the fifth before being replaced by Adrián Morejón, who finished out that inning and the sixth.

Jeremiah Estrada worked the seventh and Jason Adam the eighth.

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