The Chicago Cubs absolutely demolished the San Diego Padres on Wednesday, and the final score looks like a typo. It wasn’t. The Cubs won 23-3 at Wrigley Field, handing San Diego the worst loss in franchise history.
You have to go back to 1977 to find the last time Chicago scored 23 runs against the Padres. That game ended 23-6. This one was worse. The previous low point for San Diego came in September 2005, when the Rockies rolled to a 20-1 win. That mark now sits in second place.
The Cubs didn’t waste any time. Seiya Suzuki launched a three-run homer in the first inning to kick things off like a Fourth of July fireworks show. Dansby Swanson followed with a solo shot in the second, a 397-foot blast that made it 4-0. Miguel Amaya added an RBI single in the third to push the lead to 6-0. Then Swanson stepped in again. This time he crushed a two-run homer that traveled 434 feet. Chicago was up big and it wasn’t even the fifth inning yet.
(The Padres actually scored in the fifth, thanks to pitcher Sung-Mun Song hitting a solo homer that cleared the right-center field fence at 385 feet. Ty France later drove in Manny Machado with a ground-ball double. That made it 8-2 at the time. It didn’t matter.)
Chicago just kept piling on. By the time it was over, the Cubs had hung 23 runs on a Padres pitching staff that looked completely overwhelmed from the first pitch. San Diego dropped to 43-42 overall.
Fernando Tatis Jr. went 0-for-4 and never really threatened. Jake Cronenworth had three hits, which was nice, but it’s hard to celebrate much when your team loses by 20 runs. The Padres entered July with trade rumors swirling about their interest in Detroit’s Tarik Skubal, and games like this one make it pretty clear why they’d want another arm.
This isn’t the kind of history any franchise wants to make. But the Cubs sure enjoyed being on the right side of it.
Leave a Comment