The San Diego Padres are heading to Milwaukee. Gavin Sheets ripped a pinch-hit, two-run homer on Wednesday night and the Padres' bullpen fired 5 2/3 scoreless innings to beat the Chicago Cubs 4-1, sweeping their NL wild-card series in front of the Petco Park faithful.
It was a fitting end to a dominant two days. In Game 1's 8-0 rout, Fernando Tatis Jr. homered on the first pitch from Matt Boyd, Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts also went deep, and Michael King carried a no-hitter into the seventh. Joe Musgrove even pitched the ninth, his first outing since the 2024 playoffs after two years of elbow rehab.
The Cubs, who led the majors with 850 regular-season runs, managed one run in the entire series. Pete Crow-Armstrong and Alex Bregman went a combined 0-for-15 with eight strikeouts. The Padres, winners of 18 of their last 21, open the NLDS on Saturday against the Brewers.
