The Cubs’ Biggest Problems Just Showed Up at the Worst Possible Time

All season long, the Chicago Cubs were the most dominant offense in baseball. Not just that, but Pete Crow-Armstrong was the best player in the sport and will take home the MVP when award season rolls around. However, every flaw we’ve seen from the Cubs this season has been on full display, as their season is on life support and they now trail the San Diego Padres 1-0 in the NL Wild Card race.

Let’s give the Padres some credit first. Michael King was awesome, and truly looked like a bona fide ace. More importantly than King’s 7-inning, 8-strikeout performance was the offensive explosion from a team that has been so inconsistent at the plate. While Manny Machado will live in Cooperstown when his career is all said and done, he has struggled at the plate this year.

Fortunately, he had one of his best games of the season, with a massive home run in the first, an insurance RBI in the third, and reaching base 3 times on the night. The Padres had 13 hits last night and took advantage of a Cubs pitching staff that has been rocky all season long.

Despite the Padres looking great in game one, I feel this was more of a disappointment for Chicago. In his first taste of postseason action last year, PCA looked entirely overmatched. He had an OPS of .399 in 27 ABs, and struck out 12 times. It seemed he picked up right where he left off with a near-Golden Sombrero: three strikeouts, a zero-hit day.

PCA was one of the more dominant players in baseball, proving many doubters wrong during the regular season, but his biggest issues were highlighted under the bright lights. At times, Crow-Armstrong seems to press too much at the plate. When the rest of the Cubs' offense is struggling, he also struggles, and his strikeout issues begin to surface. But to give PCA some grace, he wasn’t the only Cub to struggle against King, who allowed only one hit all night.

Chicago has to start strong in game two against Nick Pivetta. The righty missed most of the season with an injury, but when he did play, he was solid, though he wasn’t going deep into games. Pivetta never threw more than 5 innings this year, which might seem like a positive for the Cubs, but I’m not sure it is.

The Padres bullpen is one of the best in baseball, and they were not needed in what was a blowout in game one. If the Cubs can’t start fast tonight and Kevin Gausman can’t limit the damage, Chicago won’t even get to say they played October baseball in 2026.