Padres again dominate Cubs' MLB-best offense to finish sweep, will face Brewers in NLDS

The Chicago Cubs led MLB in runs scored during the regular season, with 850. Their postseason total will end at one, courtesy of the San Diego Padres.For a second straight game, the Padres had little trouble on Wednesday against a lineup led off by presumptive National League MVP Pete Crow-Armstrong. They took Game 2 by a score of 4-1, finishing off a wild-card sweep in front of a raucous crowd at Petco Park.Between the regular season and the postseason, the Padres have now won 19 of their past 22 games. They outscored the Cubs 12-1 across their two wild-card games.GOT 'EM pic.twitter.com/reemRMs99v— San Diego Padres (@Padres) October 1, 2026 Their reward will be an NLDS matchup with the Milwaukee Brewers, a 103-win team that isn't exactly getting rewarded for being the top seed in the NL bracket. Game 1 is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. CT Saturday in Milwaukee.The lone run of the Cubs' postseason wound up coming on a Nico Hoerner RBI single in the fourth inning against Padres starter Nick Pivetta. That prompted San Diego to go to its vaunted bullpen, and the Cubs couldn't get any traction after that.The group of Bradgley Rodriguez, Jason Adam, Adrian Morejon and Mason Miller combined to throw 5 2/3 innings with 2 hits, 1 walk and 4 strikeouts. On the offensive side, the Padres took the lead with a rally in the second inning — which included the first career postseason RBI for 20-year-old Ethan Salas, the youngest catcher in postseason history — and added a cushion with a Gavin Sheets homer in the fourth.Volume up for Petco Park's reaction to Gavin Sheets' homer 🔊 pic.twitter.com/v144jC3WNb— MLB (@MLB) October 1, 2026 From the first inning of Game 1, the Padres had the Cubs on their back foot. They are a talented team that finally found momentum in the last month of the regular season — so much so that the dynamics of the postseason changed significantly in that span. The Brewers might be MLB's best team since March, record-wise, but San Diego is suddenly looking like a complete team playing with urgency. That turn of events has ended the Cubs' season more quickly than anyone might have expected. Chicago spent months in the NL's top wild-card spot, but it wound up being the Padres hosting the Cubs in a very loud stadium. It's an anticlimactic ending for a talented team, but that will happen in the playoffs.