The Chicago Cubs will head to San Diego for a Wild Card Series rematch against the Padres, with late-night start times and a challenging matchup awaiting.
As the regular season came to a close on Sunday, details about Major League Baseball's postseason came to light.
For the Chicago Cubs, things were decided on Saturday, as the team was locked into the No. 5 seed in the National League playoff picture and matched up against the San Diego Padres for this week's Wild Card Series at Petco Park.
As the rest of the playoff picture took shape, it was announced when the Cubs and Padres would take the field, and fans were provided with additional information about the games and broadcast.
Cubs-Padres In Late-Night Slot
Cubs-Padres is the only Wild Card Series of the bunch being played on the West Coast, and as a result, they've landed in the late-night window.
First pitch for Game 1 is set for Tuesday evening at 9 p.m. Central, 7 p.m. local time in San Diego.
Each of the four Wild Card Series will remain in its set time slot on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, with occasional changes being made if some of the series do not last three games.
As expected, the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium get the prime-time slot, while the series between the Braves and Phillies takes the matinee window, and the White Sox and Astros sit in the middle of the afternoon.
The Cubs likely would have been a contender for that prime-time window, or at least could have landed in the matinee spot, had they secured home-field advantage for the Wild Card Series.
The games will be broadcast on NBCSN and Peacock, with Tom McCarthy handling play-by-play.
Cubs color commentator Jim Deshaies will be one of the analysts on the broadcast, joined by Mark Grant and Adam Ottavino.
The Matchup
The Cubs fared really well against the Padres during the regular season, going 5-1 in the season series, including a 23-3 win.
But that's a much different Padres team than the one we saw over the final few months of the season, while the Cubs went in the opposite direction.
Chicago played around .500 baseball for a majority of the year after a really strong start to the season. The Padres, on the other hand, were 50-53 at one point before proceeding to go 41-18 over their final 59 games of the season.
The Cubs offense in particular was an issue over the final stretch of the season, though Alex Bregman's return to the lineup and his two-home-run effort in the regular-season finale in Tampa Bay could be a good sign that Chicago's best hitters are swinging it well when it matters most.
It's a rematch of the 2025 Wild Card Series, which went three games at Wrigley Field and ended with the Cubs advancing to the NLDS.
