CHICAGO — The Padres’ October is over.
A 3-1 loss to the Cubs in Game 3 of the National League Wild Card Series provided a painful but also painfully familiar ending.
The Padres were in a hole from the start, and an offense that went through plenty of cold spells during the regular season could not make anything of its fleeting chances until practically the very end of an unseasonably warm autumn Thursday at Wrigley Field.
Jackson Merrill led off the ninth inning with a home run, and two straight hit batters and a Jake Cronenworth gave the Padres a chance with the tying run on second base and two out.
Freddy Fermin flew out to center field, ending the game — and the season.
Yu Darvish departed a game earlier than he ever had in 13 years’ worth of major league starts, leaving the bases loaded with no outs and the Padres already down 1-0 in the second inning. That deficit was 2-0 by the time that inning ended, and the Padres were mostly baffled for four innings by Cubs starter Jameson Taillon and five relievers for the rest, as afternoon turned to evening and the Padres’ season went dark.
When the final out was made, three batters after Merrill had led off the ninth inning with a home run, most of the 41,000 inside Wrigley Field stood and sang “Go Cubs Go” the way they do after every one of the home team’s victories at the old ballpark.
They were celebrating a win Thursday that sent their team to the NL Division Series, where it will play the Brewers beginning Saturday.
This time, the ditty was a send-off for the Padres, who faded into another offseason that felt like it came too soon.
After 90 wins, two losses brought the 2025 version of the Padres to a close.
Over three days at Wrigley Field, there was all the tension and elation and devastation inherent in a series that ends with one team hugging and shouting and drenched in alcohol and leaves the other in stunned silence and facing an early winter.
The Padres played two consecutive days under the weight of do or die.
They suffered a 3-1 defeat in Game 1, on the final day of September, not even officially the month that is synonymous with baseball’s postseason. They survived the first of those elimination games, on the first day of October — a 3-0 victory powered by Manny Machado’s majestic home run, Mason Miller’s mind-blowing velocity and the overall excellence of a pitching staff.
On Thursday, that bullpen was tasked with keeping a deficit from growing so the Padres could have a chance to come back.
After Jeremiah Estrada relieved Darvish and walked the first batter he faced to bring in a run, Estrada and the next three Padres pitchers got the game through the sixth inning with the margin still at two runs.
It had been an inconsistent offense that kept the Padres from winning even more this season and perhaps getting a bye into the Division Series.
And it was their undoing in the end.
Taillon, limited to 23 starts this season due to various ailments, came in having pitched sensationally since a mid-August return from the injured list. He had closed out the season by allowing two runs over 19 innings in his final three starts.
He was asked to work through just four innings Thursday, and he did so expertly.
A 111 mph line drive out by Machado in the first inning, a single grounded through the right side by Ryan O’Hearn in the second and Merrill’s two-out double in the fourth were the only dents the Padres made against Taillon before Cubs manager Craig Counsell deployed his first two relievers.
He used two in the fifth inning.
With the Padres’ three left-handed batters in the 6-7-8 spots due up, left-hander Caleb Thielbar came on to start the fifth and struck out O’Hearn and Cronenworth around a single by Gavin Sheets before being lifted.
Fermin greeted right-hander Daniel Palencia with a double down the left field line that moved Sheets to third and brought up Fernando Tatis Jr.
The Padres’ lead-off hitter, who had struck out on three pitches in his two at-bats against Taillon, hit the fourth pitch he saw from Taillon to right fielder Seiya Suzuki to end the threat.
After Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson took away a hit from Luis Arraez for the second time in the game, Palencia walked Machado before ending the sixth by getting Merrill to hit a grounder to Swanson, who stepped on second base and threw to first in time to complete a double play.
Palencia remained in to face Xander Bogaerts in the seventh, and Bogaerts’ single gave the Padres a runner on to start an inning for the first time in the game.
The hit ended Palancia’s day, as well, as Counsell once again went to a lefty for the trio of left-handed batters due up.
Drew Pomeranz got O’Hearn on a fly ball to center field before Jose Iglesias pinch-hit for Sheets. Bogaerts stole second before Iglesias lined a ball toward second base that Nico Hoerner leaped and caught in the furthest tip of leather on his glove and Croneworth hit a fly ball out to center field.
Brad Keller came on to protect what became a 3-0 lead in the eighth inning, and Fermin singled at the start before Tatis’ third strikeout was followed by Arraez and Machado groundouts.
The offensive futility came after the Cubs punched first and knocked out Darvish before he could get a batter out in the second inning.
Darvish, who pitched so well for the Padres in postseasons past, navigated a lead-off single in the first, which ended with catcher Freddy Fermin throwing out Hoerner attempting to steal second base.
Kyle Tucker’s single to start the bottom of the second began the end for Darvish.
Five pitches later, the bases were loaded after a double by Seiya Suzuki and a fastball from Darvish that hit Carson Kelly.
Two pitches after that, a single by Pete Crow-Armstrong gave the Cubs the lead, and Padres manager Mike Shildt emerged from the dugout to end the shortest outing of Darvish’s 13-year MLB career.
Estrada was the first man out of the bullpen, and he walked No.8 batter Dansby Swanson to put the Cubs up 2-0 before Estrada struck out Matt Shaw and ended the inning on a double-play grounder from Michael Busch.
After Estrada worked a scoreless third, Michael King took over in the fourth.
King, who was limited by injuries to 15 starts during the season, yielded a single to the first batter he faced before striking out the next three.
A double play before a double helped Wandy Peralta navigate a scoreless fifth before Shildt went to closer Robert Suarez.
The goal of making sure the game did not get further away as the chances for the offense dwindled was achieved.
For a time.
Suarez surrendered a home run to Michael Busch leading off the seventh, and Hoerner followed with a double before Shildt went to Adrian Morejón.
The left-hander, working a third consecutive day and had pitched a season-high 2⅓ innings on Wednesday, got out of the inning without any further damage.
Rookie David Morgan had the task of giving the Padres one more shot with the game in reach.
He did so.
And it did not matter.