Padres Humiliated By Cubs, 23-3, As Chicago Hammers Out Eight Home Runs In Route

The San Diego Padres checked out of Wrigley Field early on getaway day, as starter Walker Buehler gave up nine runs in the first three innings of the final game of the three game set that put the Padres in a deep hole of what became a gruesome 23-3 loss. 

It was an ugly end to a bad series for the Padres in Chicago. They were competitive in the first game that wound up being a 3-2 loss, but their starting pitching blew up big in the last two, as Walker Buehler played “can you top this?” by beating JP Sears’ bad effort last night by giving up three in the first, a single run in the second and five more in the third to put the Padres down 9-0. 

The homers started early and often, with Seiya Suzuki hitting a 426-ft. three-run bomb to center, and Dansby Swanson hit a solo homer in the second. Swanson homered again  in the third with a three-run shot, and that basically ended the game. 

There were still six more innings to play, though, so the Cubs kept hitting. They wound up with a total of eight home runs in the game as they racked up 23 runs on 17 hits, and by the end of the game catcher Rodolfo Duran switched to a mound role as he provided some numerical symmetry by giving up eight runs in the eighth . 

The Padres did get a solo home run of their own from Sung-Mun Song in the fifth, but the Cubs owned this home-run derby affair. Swanson wound up with three homers, while Michael Conforto had two on a nightmare day for a team whose calling card is usually good pitching.  

Buehler wound up gutting out four innings, and Kyle Hart went two more as he gave up six additional runs, five of them earned. The sweep in Chicago left the Padres with a five-game losing streak as they head west for a four-game set against the Los Angeles Dodgers. 

The statistical footnote of the day belonged to Swanson, who has now had 26 RBIs in his last ten games. The historical reference here is Joe Dimaggio, the last player to do this for the New York Yankees in 1939. 

Colin Rea got the smooth and easy win for going five innings and giving up two runs. In the ridiculousness category, Jordan Wicks capitalized on an obscure corner of the save rule to earn his second save of the season for his three-inning, one-run effort at the end.