Padres scramble as Yu Darvish is chased after three outs in NL Wild Card Game 3

This was never going to be a soft landing. Winner-take-all, NL Wild Card Game 3, Wrigley Field humming like a power plant, and the Padres betting on the veteran who has reinvented himself a dozen times. Yu Darvish is the sort of October roll that either buys you calm or chaos. San Diego needed calm — early strikes, soft contact, a path to the late-inning matchups they’ve trusted all year. Instead, by the time the tarp of noise settled after the first, it was clear this was going to be a survival shift. The Padres’ margin shrank pitch by pitch, plan by plan.

From the jump, the Cubs made him work. He recorded just three outs, one inning and the outing turned into a scramble drill almost immediately. Only a gem from Freddy Fermin, who cut down Nico Hoerner trying to steal in the first, kept the inning from turning crooked. That brief reprieve didn’t hold. Darvish opened the second by loading the bases on a handful of too-finishable pitches and a hit batter, forcing Mike Shildt into an early, unpopular walk to the mound. Twenty-one pitches, one inning, and a season now hanging on by the bullpen.

Padres turn to bullpen early after Yu Darvish is chased in NL Wild Card Game 3

Jeremiah Estrada took the ball and the mess, inheriting three aboard with no outs and the Wrigley decibels peaking. By the time the Padres exhaled, the damage read two runs — painful, but survivable in October math. 

If we’re honest, this is who the 2025 Padres have been outside of Nick Pivetta’s turns. The rotation’s job description has often been “get us as far as you can, then hand it off.” Sometimes that’s six; sometimes it’s three. Game 3 just pressed the accelerator. With Darvish chased, Shildt’s bullpen blueprint becomes the story — how quickly he uses his A-tier arms, who he protects for a possible multi-inning bridge, and whether anyone can steal soft contact to buy a breather.

The tactical spillover hits the offense, too. When your starter lasts only one inning, the lineup has to buy time. That means your stars living in the big part of the field and your role players turning seven-pitch outs into tomorrow’s fatigue. It sounds boring; it’s how you win these games. San Diego can’t wait for a perfect swing; they have to manufacture stress, then jump the first mistake.

None of this erases the frustration of Darvish’s outing. The Padres asked their veteran to steady the ship, and he left them bailing water before the first out of the second inning.

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