Fernando Tatis Jr. hit the first leadoff home run in Padres playoff history, and Michael King took a no-hitter into the seventh inning, powering San Diego to an 8-0 victory over the Chicago Cubs in Game 1 of their National League Wild Card Series on Tuesday night at Petco Park.
The 91-win Padres set the tone immediately before a raucous sellout crowd of 47,084 in downtown San Diego. Three pitches into the top of the first inning, Michael King struck out presumptive National League MVP Pete Crow-Armstrong, unleashing a wall of noise that set the stage for a dominant evening. Leading off the bottom of the frame, Fernando Tatis Jr. crushed the first pitch he saw from Cubs left-hander Matthew Boyd over the center-field wall.
Tatis crushed it 405 feet to center in a blast reminiscent of his first-inning homer in Game 1 of San Diego’s 2024 NL Wild Card Series victory over Atlanta. Moments later, Manny Machado launched another changeup out to left-center, setting off pandemonium at Petco Park with his franchise-record ninth postseason homer.
We’re one.
Fernando Tatis Jr., via MLB
At-bat after at-bat, we trust each other,
Tatis added, reflecting an offense that arrived in October on a 17-3 roll and hit the postseason as the best offense in baseball for a month.
Michael King’s Near-No-Hitter and the Pitching Masterclass
While the bats provided an immediate cushion, Michael King delivered a pitching performance that ranks among the most dominant in Padres postseason history. King held the Cubs hitless through six innings, carrying his bid into the seventh before Nico Hoerner broke it up with a soft infield single down the third-base line with one out.
It was the longest individual postseason no-hit bid since Aníbal Sánchez went 7 2/3 innings for the Nationals in the 2019 National League Championship Series. King finished with seven stellar innings, allowing just that one hit, walking three, and striking out eight.
The gem came exactly 28 years to the day after Kevin Brown struck out 16 Astros in the 1998 National League Division Series, a game widely viewed as the greatest single-game pitching performance in franchise history.
Matthew Boyd’s Changeup Struggles and the Cubs’ Offensive Shutout
For Chicago, the evening unraveled largely through the unraveling of Matthew Boyd’s signature offspeed offering. All three home runs surrendered by the veteran left-hander — to Tatis, Machado, and a fourth-inning shot by Xander Bogaerts that landed on the Western Metal Supply Co. building — came off his changeup.
It marked the first time in Boyd’s career, regular season or postseason, that he allowed three home runs off that pitch. The struggles of Chicago’s pitching staff compounded a night where the majors’ highest-scoring team went 0-for-20 into the seventh inning.
San Diego continued to pour it on in the fifth inning against reliever Javier Assad, where Jackson Merrill cracked a two-run single to center before Ty France scored on a passed ball to make it 7-0. Tatis added a final insurance run in the seventh after singling, stealing second, and scoring when the throw trickled into center field.
Joe Musgrove’s Return and the Road Ahead in Game 2
In the ninth inning, San Diego native Joe Musgrove made his first major league appearance since October 2, 2024, returning from Tommy John surgery. After allowing a pair of singles and a walk to load the bases, Musgrove struck out pinch-hitter Michael Conforto to preserve the 8-0 shutout.
The victory places San Diego just one win away from advancing to a National League Division Series matchup against the top-seeded Milwaukee Brewers. Historical trends favor the hosts: teams that win Game 1 are 15-1 in wild-card series since Major League Baseball adopted the best-of-three format in 2022.
Game 2 is scheduled for Wednesday night at Petco Park.