By JAY COHEN AP Baseball Writer
CHICAGO (AP) — Manny Machado hit a two-run homer, Mason Miller dominated again and the San Diego Padres beat the Chicago Cubs 3-0 on Wednesday, sending their NL Wild Card Series to a decisive third game.
Jackson Merrill hit an early sacrifice fly as San Diego avoided elimination after losing 3-1 on Tuesday. Dylan Cease struck out five in 3 2/3 innings before handing the ball to his team’s hard-throwing bullpen.
“That’s what postseason is about, man,” Machado said. “It’s a beautiful thing to be playing here in front of these crowds and with what’s at stake.”
The finale of the best-of-three series is back at Wrigley Field on Thursday.
The playoff-tested Padres are looking for a repeat of 2020, when they dropped Game 1 in the special pandemic wild-card round before advancing with two straight victories against St. Louis. Machado also homered in Game 2 of that series.
“There’s still a lot at stake just like there was today,” Machado said. “Our backs are still up against the wall, so go out there and try and play our best baseball for the next 27 outs.”
Chicago finished with four hits. The franchise is making its first appearance in the playoffs in five years, and it hasn’t advanced since it eliminated Washington in a 2017 NL Division Series.
“I think the first two games is really what you expected in this series, and I think tomorrow will be a lot of the same,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. I think we’re made for that. We’re going to have to produce more offense tomorrow; there’s no question. We didn’t do enough offensively today.”
San Diego jumped in front on Merrill’s flyball to right off Andrew Kittredge in the first, driving in Fernando Tatis Jr. Kittredge started for Chicago as an opener, and the right-hander was replaced by left-hander Shota Imanaga in the second.
The Cubs threatened in the fourth, putting runners on first and second with two down. Adrian Morejon then retired Pete Crow-Armstrong on a bouncer to first.
“Adrian came in and was just outstanding, really fantastic,” San Diego manager Mike Shildt said.
The Padres added two more runs on Machado’s 404-foot drive to left off Imanaga in the fifth. Tatis reached on a leadoff walk and advanced on a sacrifice ahead of Machado’s 12th career playoff homer.
“That splitter was meant for down in the zone and just hung a little bit,” Imanaga said through a translator, “and for me it was like, why did that happen and something I’m going to think about, make those adjustments that I need to.”
The three runs were more than enough for San Diego’s bullpen, with Miller and Robert Suarez combining for 14 pitches of over 100 mph.
Morejon pitched 2 1/3 perfect innings before Miller showed off his electric stuff while striking out five consecutive batters. The 6-foot-5 right-hander reached 104.5 mph on a called third strike to Carson Kelly in the seventh that was the fastest pitch in the postseason since Statcast started tracking in 2008.
Miller, who was acquired in a trade with the Athletics on July 31, struck out the side in the seventh in his postseason debut on Tuesday. The eight straight Ks tied the postseason record set by Josh Hader in 2022.
Miller was pulled from Game 2 after he hit Michael Busch with a slider with two outs in the eighth. Suarez retired Nico Hoerner on a liner to right before working a one-hit ninth for the save.
“You’ve got to get pitches to hit,” Counsell said. “If players of this talent don’t give you pitches to hit, it’s tough to get hits. They did a pretty darned good job of that today.”
Up next
Yu Darvish gets the ball for San Diego on Thursday, and Jameson Taillon starts for Chicago.
Darvish played for the Cubs for three seasons before he was traded to the Padres in December 2020. The right-hander said he enjoys pitching at Wrigley.
“Yeah, this place did me good,” he said through a translator. “The organization, the fans did me good, too.”
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