Michael King came within seven outs of the first no-hitter in Padres postseason history. The rest of San Diego’s night was almost as ruthless.
The Padres beat the Chicago Cubs 8-0 in Game 1 of the National League Wild Card Series, with King throwing seven innings of one-hit baseball at Petco Park. Chicago is one loss from elimination.
The No-Hit Bid Was Real
King struck out the side in the first inning on eight pitches. He carried a no-hitter into the seventh before Nico Hoerner broke it up with a soft single down the third-base line with one out.
By then it hardly mattered. San Diego already led 7-0, and King had thrown the longest individual postseason no-hit bid since Anibal Sanchez went 7 2/3 in the 2019 NLCS.
That places this outing in rare company. Kevin Brown’s 16-strikeout masterpiece against Houston in 1998 still sits at the top of the Padres postseason list, 28 years later. King’s start belongs right behind it.
Tatis And Machado Ended It Immediately
Fernando Tatis Jr. homered on the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the first. Two batters later Manny Machado went deep off Cubs starter Matthew Boyd.
Back-to-back home runs in the opening inning of a playoff game do something to a visiting team, and Chicago never recovered. Boyd was chasing the game from his eighth pitch onward, which is not a position any starter survives in October.
Chicago’s Bats Went Missing
One hit. That is the entire Cubs offensive output against King. You can point to a hot pitcher, and you would be right, but a playoff lineup that manages one baserunner through six innings has bigger issues than variance.
The Cubs now have to win two straight in San Diego against a rotation that just showed what its front end can do. That is a tall ask for a team that looked overwhelmed from the first inning.
My Take On San Diego
The Padres have been treated as a fun wild card team rather than a threat. That framing is wrong and Tuesday explained why.
San Diego has a legitimate ace pitching like one, two superstars who set the tone in the first inning, and a home park that turns any lead into a nightmare for visitors. The Padres did not scrape by. They embarrassed a playoff opponent.
If they close this out Wednesday, they arrive in the Division Series with the most dangerous thing a short-series team can own: a pitcher nobody wants to face twice.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.