Michael Reaves/Getty
“You’re either winning or going home,” Padres right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. said Tuesday morning. “I ain’t trying to go on vacation yet.”
By Tuesday evening, Tatis and his teammates were a loss away from that vacation.
The Cubs’ 3-1 win in Game 1 of the wild-card series saw the Padres come up empty in big moments, stymied by a North Side defense that has dazzled all season.
“To win any baseball game, you’ve got to make outs, outs,” shortstop Dansby Swanson said. “They came my way today.”
Swanson did his Gold Glove thing, making a pair of highlight-reel plays that led to a pair of runners stuck on third base, the difference in a close – and crucial – postseason battle.