San Diego Padres starting pitcher Michael King carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning while Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado hit first-inning home runs, powering an 8-0 victory over the Chicago Cubs in Game 1 of their National League Wild Card Series on Tuesday night at Petco Park.
First-Inning Power Surge Sets the Tone at Petco Park
The Padres wasted no time erasing the offensive struggles that plagued their previous postseason meeting with Chicago. San Diego brought an aggressive approach against Cubs starter Matthew Boyd.
Just three pitches into the home half of the first inning, Fernando Tatis Jr. hammered the initial pitch he encountered deep over the center-field barrier. Two batters later, Manny Machado launched a second home run off Cubs left-hander Matthew Boyd, giving San Diego an early 2-0 lead that electrified the home crowd.
The early display stood in stark contrast to last year’s wild-card matchup. Matthew Boyd surrendered another home run to Xander Bogaerts before Jackson Merrill contributed a later two-run single. During a commanding opening statement by the 91-win Padres, Manny Machado also went deep in the first frame and followed up with an RBI double in the third.
Michael King Flirts with Postseason History on the Mound
While the offense provided immediate run support, Michael King delivered a dominant pitching performance against the majors’ highest-scoring team. Opening his outing with a flourish, King struck out prospective NL MVP Pete Crow-Armstrong on three consecutive pitches—capping the sequence with a 98 MPH fastball that marked his maximum velocity of the entire season—before catching looking on a sweeping pitch to Alex Bregman that resembled a whiffleball.
Behind an 8-0 masterclass that placed San Diego one triumph away from moving on to the National League Division Series, King carried a no-hit bid into the seventh frame against the Chicago franchise that topped the big leagues in regular-season scoring. That marked the most extended individual postseason no-hit effort since Aníbal Sánchez worked 7 2/3 frames for the Nationals during the 2019 NLCS. The milestone bid concluded when Nico Hoerner spoiled King’s chase for history via a soft grounder down the third-base line with one out in the seventh.
King would allow just that one hit over seven stellar innings while thoroughly throttling the majors’ highest-scoring team. Although Nico Hoerner supplied the lone hit against King via a one-out infield single in the seventh frame, King proceeded to fan two additional batters to claim the final wave of numerous standing ovations from a roaring sellout crowd taking in his third career playoff start. Following a campaign where a knee issue restricted him solely to a relief appearance at Wrigley Field during the clubs' prior NL Wild Card Series meeting, King pitched seven frames while issuing three walks and yielding only Nico Hoerner’s infield single. It was his second consecutive postseason start in which he threw. Opening his postseason starting resume during the 2024 NL Wild Card round against the Atlanta Braves, Michael King made history as the initial pitcher to log 7.0 scoreless innings while racking up a minimum of 12 strikeouts. Two years later, King might have been even better. OK, not maybe. He absolutely was.
Cubs Face Elimination as Series Shifts to Game 2
With Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado making an impact alongside Michael King’s ability to pitch well beyond a single inning, those factors alone placed the Padres in a completely different tier compared to the previous year. To top it all off, Joe Musgrove was fully cleared to pitch, and the local San Diego product ultimately delivered the concluding pitch of an 8-0 triumph over the Cubs during Game 1 of the National League Wild Card Series on Tuesday evening before a packed Petco Park.
Game 2 is Wednesday night at Petco Park. The series winner faces the MLB-best Milwa
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