{"id":818904,"date":"2026-10-01T13:30:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T13:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/818904\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T13:30:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T13:30:18","slug":"chicago-cubs-score-and-recap-9-30-26-padres-4-cubs-1-offense-fails-to-materialize-as-season-ends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/818904\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Cubs Score and Recap (9\/30\/26): Padres 4, Cubs 1 \u2013 Offense Fails to Materialize as Season Ends –"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Cubs\u2019 season came to an end Wednesday night as the Padres won the second game of their Wild Card series at Petco Park. The offense stayed ice cold, scoring just a one run, as the clock struck midnight on 2026.<\/p>\n

San Diego took the lead against Kevin Gausman<\/a> in the bottom of the 2nd when Xander Bogaerts<\/a> hit an RBI single and Ethan Salas<\/a> added a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0. The Cubs scored their only run of the series with a Nico Hoerner<\/a> knock against Nick Pivetta<\/a> in the top of the 4th.<\/p>\n

The Pads landed the big blow of the game in the bottom of the frame when pinch-hitter Gavin Sheets<\/a> hit a two-run homer against Daniel Palencia<\/a> that increased the advantage to 4-1. The North Siders got completely shut down by the bullpen after that, with only three men reaching base in the final five innings. (Box score)<\/a><\/p>\n

Key Moment<\/p>\n

After the Hoerner RBI single, Chicago had two on with one out trailing 2-1 in the top of the 4th. San Diego pulled Pivetta and brought in reliever Bradgley Rodriguez,<\/a> who struck out Matt Shaw.<\/a> After Carson Kelly<\/a> was hit by a pitch, Rodriguez got Dansby Swanson<\/a> to pop out.<\/p>\n

Why the Cubs Lost<\/p>\n

The offense just could not do anything on Wednesday night, and four runs were more than enough for the Padres to win.<\/p>\n

Stats That Matter<\/p>\n

Gausman was fine but didn\u2019t get any help: 3.1\u00a0IP, 3 R, 5 H, 1 K, and 0 BB.
\nHoerner was the only Cubs player to do much on offense with a single and a double.
\nPete Crow-Armstrong<\/a> went 0-for-7 with four strikeouts and a walk in the series.<\/p>\n

Bottom Line<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard not to be disappointed with how the season ended for the Cubs. The lineup that had the highest team OPS in baseball ran out of gas in the final two weeks. The myriad pitching issues probably meant they weren\u2019t going to win the World Series regardless, but to go out with only one run in the two-game series was unexpected. Labor issues that might lead to a work stoppage mean the Cubs could have longer to stew on what happened at the end of the season.<\/p>\n

On Deck<\/p>\n

The plan is for Chicago to begin spring training in Mesa in February 2027, but that is subject to change.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cubs\u2019 season came to an end Wednesday night as the Padres won the second game of their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":722340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2399],"tags":[78932,5,138,24,4245,161,389,4,33,35],"class_list":["post-818904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-cubs","tag-2026-mlb-playoffs","tag-baseball","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-chicagocubs","tag-cubs","tag-kevin-gausman","tag-mlb","tag-nico-hoerner","tag-pete-crow-armstrong"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117365900969668239","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=818904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}