CHICAGO – It had been a long time since Wrigley Field shook the way it did on Tuesday afternoon. A nervous energy humming through the crowd transformed into full frenzy after the baseball launched by Seiya Suzuki defied the wind and disappeared into the sea of celebrating fans in the left-field bleachers.
The decibel level climbed higher – somehow – when Carson Kelly followed the fifth-inning shot with one of his own, helping power the Cubs to a 3-1 victory over the Padres in Game 1 of the National League Wild Card Series. Chicago’s fans had waited seven years to pack the old ballpark for a postseason game, and the Cubs delivered a classic opening win.
The back-to-back blasts from Suzuki and Kelly provided the spark needed to push the North Siders into the win column in a playoff game for the first time since 2017. Their feat was also the first time Cubs players connected for consecutive home runs since Game 1 of the NL Championship Series against the Dodgers in the run to the World Series crown in ‘16.
“Oh man, there’s no better feeling,” Kelly said in a postgame TV interview. “Seiya put a great at-bat together the at-bat before and just gave me a chance to go up there and put a good swing on a good pitch. Pretty cool to see it go over the fence.”
Heading into this series, Suzuki said he watched some old highlights of the Cubs’ postseason runs and was energized by the scenes he witnessed. His leadoff shot in the fifth off Padres righty Nick Pivetta – one projected at 424 feet with an exit velocity of 112.2 mph – provided a new moment for fans to revisit.
After a prolonged power outage across August and September, Suzuki ended the regular season with five homers in his last four games and his confidence soaring. He became the first player in MLB history to enter a postseason with a four-game homer streak and then launch another in the first game of the playoffs.
This represented the fourth time overall that the Cubs belted back-to-back home runs in a postseason game. In that ‘16 NLCS, it was Miguel Montero and Dexter Fowler who pulled it off against Los Angeles in the eighth inning to propel the Cubs to a dramatic win. That Montero shot – a pinch-hit grand slam that rattled the Friendly Confines – is one of the great home runs in the ballclub’s long, storied history.
The home runs were crucial for the Cubs on an afternoon Wrigley was offering a tough run-scoring environment between the flags rippling in and shadows creeping across the infield. That made the pair of defensive gems turned in by shortstop Dansby Swanson all the more important in the game’s early going.
In the second inning, Swanson dove to his right to snare a sharp grounder off the bat of Ryan O’Hearn, keeping Xander Bogaerts at third base in the process. Then in the fourth, Swanson ran into shallow center, making an over-the-shoulder catch on the run to rob O’Hearn of a potential RBI single. Manny Machado was forced to stay put at third on that one.
Once the 2-1 lead was in hand, it was up to Chicago’s bullpen to hold the line, following a solid 4 1/3-inning effort from lefty starter Matthew Boyd. Daniel Palencia, Drew Pomeranz, Andrew Kittredge and Brad Keller did just that, securing a win that gave the Cubs the edge in this best-of-three series.
“We’re very spoiled here, it’s no secret,” second baseman Nico Hoerner said about the Wrigley crowd in an on-field postgame TV interview. “These are incredible fans. I’ve been here for a little while now, and to be able to play playoff baseball in front of them is an incredible feeling. Hopefully we’ve got a lot more.”