Coming off a disappointing loss on Friday, the San Diego Padres were looking to bounce back at home against the Chicago Cubs.

Drew Smyly, coming into the game with a 5-2 record, would have to battle against the Padres’ star-studded lineup and try to continue his excellent season.

Both teams had a tough time getting started as Darvish recorded a 1-2-3 first inning, followed by a fruitless inning by the Friars as Juan Soto was stranded on a two-out double. Darvish would have a clean second inning as well, with his only blemish coming on a walk by ex-brave Dansby Swanson.

The Padres would lead off the scoring by getting some production from the newcomer Gary Sanchez as he and Jake Cronenworth would single to begin the inning. Ha-Seong Kim‘s sacrifice bunted the two runners over, and Brandon Dixon hit a sacrifice fly, scoring Sanchez and which moved Cronenworth to third. Trent Grisham hit Cronenworth in with a double to the gap, but an error by center fielder Mike Tauchman would lead to Grisham getting third base.

Another clean inning by Darvish would be followed up by Fernando Tatis Jr. hitting his 10^th homer of the year. He hit the ball 430 feet to deep left-center field. The Padres wouldn’t make any more noise in the inning despite a single by Manny Machado with only one out.

The scoring would be squelched by both starters as they would both proceed to mow down batter after batter in the middle third of the game. Yu Darvish would end the game with seven innings pitched. In those seven innings, Darvish recorded nine strikeouts and a walk. He only allowed two hits with no runs given up. Other than the three runs given up in the third inning, Smyly would hold the Padres scoreless until getting relieved by right-hander Michael Fulmer.

The scoring drought would last until the eighth inning as Tatis Jr. hit his second home run of the night off Jeremiah Estrada. Grisham and Kim would take the trip around the bases with Tatis to put three more in the scoring column for San Diego. Brent Honeywell had e a great appearance with a scoreless ninth inning.

The Padres look to take a series lead on the Cubs Sunday afternoon as youngster Ryan Weathers will face off against Cubs ace Marcus Stroman. Weathers will be looking to bounce back after a less-than-stellar performance against the Marlins in his last start, while Stroman will look to maintain a sub-three ERA.

Spencer Defils

Spencer DeFils is a sports broadcasting major at Austin Peay State University. He likes watching, playing, and writing about sports, especially the Padres. He loves his wife and son and hopes to make a career out of writing about and broadcasting sports.