By BERNIE WILSON The Associated Press
SAN DIEGO — Back in 1984, Tony Gwynn, Steve Garvey and the San Diego Padres used the energy from their home crowd at Jack Murphy Stadium to rally from a 2-0 deficit in the National League Championship Series and stun Ryan Sandberg, Gary Matthews and the Chicago Cubs to reach their first World Series.
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The players, stadium and playoff round are different now. But Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado and the Padres hope to tap that home energy once again when they open a Wild Card Series against likely NL MVP Pete Crow-Armstrong, Alex Bregman and the Cubs starting Tuesday night at a packed, raucous Petco Park.
From the Padres’ standpoint, it’s way better than last year, when they lost 2-1 to the Cubs in the wild-card round at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
The fourth-seeded Padres will host every game in the best-of-three series against the fifth-seeded Cubs. The winner will face the NL Central champion Milwaukee Brewers in a best-of-five NL Division Series beginning Saturday in Wisconsin.
The Padres had 66 sellouts and their total attendance of 3,347,081 this season was second in the majors behind the rival Dodgers at 4,034,219.
“It’s great. It’s nice to feel 45,000 people behind you, waving the yellow towels,” rookie manager Craig Stammen said Monday. “It’s just a good feeling when you go out there and get the lineups announced that we’re at home. There are no boo-birds and the whole fan base is for us and not against us.”
Chicago left-hander Matthew Boyd (10-5, 3.91 ERA) and Padres right-hander Michael King (12-10, 3.21 ERA) are scheduled to start Tuesday night.
SOME BIG STARS
Crow-Armstrong, who grew up in L.A. and starred at Harvard-Westlake, made his case for NL MVP by becoming the first Cubs player to join the 40/40 club, with 45 home runs and 41 stolen bases.
Machado hit 30 homers for the eighth time in his big league career and fourth time in his eight seasons in San Diego.
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Tatis had an unfathomable home run drought to start the season, taking until his 56th game, in Washington on May 30, to connect for the first time. He’s now recorded his fourth 25-homer season and has 38 stolen bases. He continues to make jaw-dropping home run robberies in right field, like the one that denied Francisco Lindor a grand slam against the Mets on Aug. 18 in New York. Tatis hit two homers in that game.
THE MATCHUP
The Cubs dominated San Diego 5-1 in the season series, including handing the Padres their worst loss ever, 23-3, at Wrigley Field on July 1, when they hit eight home runs.
But the Padres turned it around after the All-Star break, going 43-23, the second-best mark in the majors, to clinch their club-record third straight postseason berth and, at 91-71, their third consecutive 90-win season.
“I think we’re firing on all cylinders,” King said. “I think the last two months, 2½ months, the offense has possibly been the best in baseball. We’ve really come together as a starting rotation, and the bullpen is obviously a strong piece. I think that, when you look at us, we don’t really have many weaknesses.
“We’re very confident in what we’ve been doing the last few weeks, and we’re very happy that this is the time that we got hot, and we’ve just got to continue it throughout all this postseason.”
ALEX BREGMAN UPDATE
Bregman went 4 for 4 with two home runs and four RBIs as the designated hitter on Sunday in his second game back from a frightening injury.
Bregman took grounders at third base during Monday’s workout, but Manager Craig Counsell said he isn’t sure when he’ll return to third base.
“I haven’t made a decision there yet,” Counsell said. “I think today was a much better day than kind of how he looked in Tampa. I think it’s just a sign on like how he’s feeling just overall. The fractures are not healed. You know, it’s just how he’s feeling, kind of just pain-wise and things like that. Moving around, swelling, like, just much less. He still has fractures in his face and I think that’s kind of what we have to weigh.”
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