9 Padres pitchers blank Cardinals, will face Dodgers
SAN DIEGO — Craig Stammen and eight fellow relievers combined on a four-hitter in a brilliant, record-setting effort that sent the San Diego Padres over the St. Louis Cardinals 4-0 Friday night in the deciding Game 3 of their NL wild-card series.
The Padres won a postseason series for the first time in 22 years and advanced to face the NL West rival Los Angeles Dodgers in the division series at Arlington, Texas, starting Tuesday.
The nine pitchers marked the most used in a nine-inning shutout in any big league game since 1901.
With starters Mike Clevinger and Dinelson Lamet unavailable due to injuries suffered in their final regular-season starts, rookie manager Jayce Tingler was forced to tap the Padres’ already-stressed bullpen, and it came through magnificently. San Diego became the first team in baseball history to use eight or more pitchers in three straight postseason games.
Trevor Rosenthal, who started his career with the Cardinals, struck out the side in the ninth and the Padres began to celebrate in empty Petco Park.
It’s the first postseason series win for the Padres since they beat the Atlanta Braves in the 1998 NLCS and only the second time they’ve won a playoff game at Petco Park, which opened in 2004. The Padres lost to St. Louis in the division series in 2005 and 2006, the last time the Padres were in the postseason. The Cardinals also eliminated the Padres in 1996.
All four division series feature matchups between division rivals. All seven Central teams lost in the first round, with the Cardinals joining Cincinnati, the Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Chicago White Sox and Minnesota.
Fernando Tatis Jr., who homered twice and drove in five runs in Thursday night’s wild 11-9 victory, doubled into the left-field corner off losing pitcher Jack Flaherty with one out in the fifth and scored on
Eric Hosmer’s two-out double to right-center.
The Padres added on against reliever Alex Reyes in the seventh, on a bases-loaded walk to Hosmer and Manny Machado’s fielder’s choice and an error on third baseman Tommy Edman.
Marlins defeat Cubs 2-0, win series
In Chicago, the Miami Marlins didn’t need a hand from a fan at Wrigley Field to knock the Cubs out of the playoffs this time. They did just fine on their own, and they showed they’re hardly bottom feeders.
Garrett Cooper homered against Yu Darvish in a tworun seventh, rookie Sixto Sánchez dominated for five innings and the Miami Marlins won their first playoff series in 17 years, beating the Cubs o complete a two-game wildcard series sweep.
Miami will face Atlanta in the NL Division Series in Houston starting Tuesday.
Led by manager Don Mattingly and CEO Derek Jeter, the Marlins remained unbeaten in all seven postseason series they have played following triumphs in the 1997 and 2003 World Series. And this time, in empty Wrigley Field, they didn’t need an assist from the crowd. In Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS, fan Steve Bartman deflected Luis Castillo’s foul ball as Cubs left fielder Moises Alou tried to make a leaping catch, which led to an eightrun, eighth-inning rally.
“The one thing that we talked about us all year was why not us?” Mattingly said. “With this kind of pitching, you can do anything . ... You feel like you’ve got a good shot at kind of stopping almost anybody if you make pitches.”
Miami lost 105 games in 2019 and became the first team to reach the playoffs after a 100-loss season. The Marlins finished second in the NL East at 31-29 being beset by a virus outbreak early this season that forced 18 players from the field following the opening series and prevented them from playing for more than a week.
Chicago, the NL Central champion, went 3 for 27 (.111) with runners on base in the series.