By Jedd Pagaduan
Copyright clutchpoints
On Thursday night, the Chicago Cubs punched their ticket to the NLDS after securing a 3-1 victory over the San Diego Padres. This game was very smooth-sailing for the Cubs for the most part, but the thousands of fans in attendance at Wrigley Field had to hold their breath for portions of the ninth inning, especially after Padres leadoff hitter Jackson Merrill hit a solo shot to trim the deficit to just two runs to start the bottom part of the inning.
After the Cubs rebounded to strike out Xander Bogaerts (in somewhat of a controversial manner), relief pitcher Brad Keller proceeded to hit two batters in a row, putting the tying run for the Padres on base. Nonetheless, Andrew Kittredge came in to save the day for the Cubs, as he forced a groundout from Jake Cronenworth (that moved the runners to second and third, however), and then he induced a first-pitch swinging weak flyout from Freddy Fermin to seal the deal.
Former Cubs starting pitcher Jake Arrieta, who was a core piece of the team’s 2016 World Series-winning roster, was in attendance on Thursday and he was among those who were very nervous as they awaited the home team to get across the finish line unscathed.
“I was way more nervous in the stands than I ever was as a player. … [But] I was telling some of the people [in the stands], ‘You got to calm down. You got to calm down a bit.’ I know, a little bit of drama, a couple hit-by-pitches in the ninth. This is how it goes. A win is a win,” Arrieta told Taylor McGregor of Marquee Sports Network.
“I was way more nervous in the stands than I ever was as a player.”
Jake Arrieta is one of us 🐍 pic.twitter.com/LHQ6gOdBaq
— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) October 3, 2025
Jake Arrieta beams with pride as Cubs return to NLDS
David Banks-Imagn Images
After winning the World Series in dramatic fashion in 2016, the Cubs weren’t able to establish themselves as a dynasty like some had envisioned. They made it to the NLCS in 2017 (falling to the Los Angeles Dodgers), but since then, they haven’t won a single playoff game — not until 2025.
Thus, Arrieta is proud of the Cubs and how they’ve been able to return to former glory.
“Watching the way that they played, month after month, culminating to this point, obviously it’s not done, I’m amazingly proud of them. They earned it. They beat a really good team. It wasn’t easy but they got it done,” Arrieta added.
Game 1 of the Cubs’ NLDS clash against the Milwaukee Brewers will be on Saturday, October 4, at 2:08 PM E.T.
