Padres visit Cubs, red-hot Seiya Suzuki for wild-card opener
Seiya Suzuki has picked a fine time to start flexing his muscles again.
Suzuki followed up a seven-week homerless drought by going deep five times over the Chicago Cubs' final four games of the regular season.
Suzuki will look to continue his recent torrid run on Tuesday afternoon as the fourth-seeded Cubs host the fifth-seeded San Diego Padres in Game 1 of their best-of-three National League wild-card series.
San Diego right-hander Nick Pivetta (13-5, 2.87 ERA) will be tasked with keeping Suzuki in check in the series opener.
Chicago has yet to announce its Game 1 starter. However, left-handers Matthew Boyd (14-8, 3.21) and Shota Imanaga (9-8, 3.73) figure to be the top candidates.
But let's get back to Suzuki, who belted a solo homer in the Cubs' 2-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in the season finale on Sunday. He boosted his team-leading RBI total to 103 after driving in 12 runs during his seven-game hitting streak.
"It's great to have a player that goes in with a ton of confidence," manager Craig Counsell said of Suzuki. "He struggled for a bit of the second half, for a pretty good portion of the second half. But he picked it up at a good time. ... He's definitely entering the postseason in a very confident place."
Suzuki isn't the only member of the Cubs heating up at the right time. Nico Hoerner is batting .337 in September while Pete Crow-Armstrong has two homers and four RBIs during his four-game hitting streak.
"The recent couple of games, the offense is back to where it should be," Suzuki said Sunday, per the Chicago Sun-Times. "Going into the playoffs, everybody has that confidence, especially the offense right now. Hopefully, we can use that as a strength in the playoffs."
Suzuki, however, went 1-for-13 with four strikeouts against San Diego in April. The teams each won two of their three games at home against the other.
While the Cubs (92-70) punched their ticket to the postseason for the first time since 2020, the Padres (90-72) are set to compete in the playoffs for the fourth time in six years. San Diego is doing so after recording consecutive seasons with at least 90 wins for the first time in franchise history.
"That's a big accomplishment," Padres manager Mike Shildt said. "This team is setting out to be consistent and year in year out play baseball that the city can be really proud of."
Pivetta, however, doesn't have much postseason experience, save for three appearances with the Boston Red Sox in 2021.
He split a pair of outings against the Cubs in April. He allowed three runs over three innings in a 7-1 setback in Chicago on April 5 and yielded one run over six frames in a 4-2 victory in San Diego 11 days later.
Pivetta, 32, is 2-2 with a 3.96 ERA in six career appearances (five starts) versus the Cubs.
Boyd, 34, posted a 0.77 ERA and 1.11 WHIP in three playoff games last season with the Cleveland Guardians. He faced the Padres this season for the first time in his career, going 1-1 with a 1.59 ERA.
Imanaga fared even better versus San Diego this season, posting a 1-0 record with a 0.73 ERA. He is 1-0 with a 1.40 ERA in three career meetings with the Padres.
Either pitcher would be wise to tread carefully around Fernando Tatis Jr. and Luis Arraez. Tatis has gone deep in three of his last four games, while Arraez is batting a robust .352 in September.
49ers QB Brock Purdy Has 1-Word Answer About His Injury After Loss
Brock Purdy turned the ball over three times for the first time in almost two years Sunday.
Brock Purdy did not play well, especially in the second half Sunday. But the San Francisco 49ers quarterback isn’t ready to blame his injuries for his uncharacteristically bad game.
Purdy simply said “no” when asked if injuries affected him during his three-turnover performance in San Francisco’s 26-21 home loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.
Purdy was returning after missing the past two games due to toe and shoulder ailments and still threw for 309 yards and two touchdowns. Veteran journeyman Mac Jones started in his place and went 2-0 with a 66.3 completion percentage and 4-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio.
The loss was San Francisco’s first of the season and dropped it into a first-place tie with the Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks atop the NFC West.
Purdy’s Injuries Weren’t A Factor, Per Kyle Shanahan
Purdy confirmed what Niners head coach Kyle Shanahan thought, which was his ailments were not an excuse for the quarterback’s sloppy play.
“You can ask him; I don’t think so,” Shanahan said when asked if Purdy’s toe injury had an effect. “We all got to do better. He had some good plays today, but we all got to do better.”
Shanahan seemed frustrated with the Niners offense, which is a continuation of a trend that goes as far back as the 2024 season. The Niners are 22nd in the NFL in points per game (20.0), and Purdy is just 2-6 in his past eight starts at Levi’s Stadium while averaging 23.3 points per game and 13 turnovers in that span, including four Sunday against the ball-hawking Jaguars defense.
“I saw some inconsistency with our whole offense,” Shanahan said. “We moved the ball but really killed ourself with four different turnovers.”
Still, Shanahan noted the Niners offense had a chance to win the game after Cam Little’s missed 47-yard field goal, but Purdy was sacked by former 49ers defensive end Arik Armstead and lost a fumble — his first lost fumble of the year and sixth of his career.
“He’s got to do a better job of protecting the ball there,” Shanahan said.
Purdy ‘Really Not Sure’ If High Throws Were Due To Toe Injury
Purdy may have said the injuries didn’t affect him, and he also said he did receive any painkilling injections to numb his toe. But when asked his toe ailment had an impact on leaving throws high — like on his miss in the first half on Devin Lloyd’s interception — he opened the door to that while also citing rust as a factor.
“I’m not really sure,” Purdy said when asked if the toe injury had an impact. “Just getting back out there and throwing and getting into a rhythm, being down two weeks, coming back and feeling out my body. I don’t know the answer to [if the injury affected his mechanics].”
Still, Purdy said he would learn from his second three-turnover game and the first since Oct. 29, 2023 against the Cincinnati Bengals. He also noted his frustration about the game-sealing fumble — his first lost fumble since Dec. 4, 2024.
“For us to turn the ball over throughout the game and have a chance to win the game at the end,” Purdy said. “Our defense just played their butt off and gave us a chance. We had an opp to take a shot, and the ball goes on the ground. I was mad about everything.”
