The Chicago Cubs will turn to veteran right-hander Kevin Gausman on Wednesday, handing him the ball in Game 2 of the National League Wild Card Series after an 8-0 loss left their season one defeat from ending.
“The Cubs make it official: Kevin Gausman will start Wednesday in Game 2 to try to save their season,” USA TODAY MLB insider Bob Nightengale wrote late Tuesday.
The assignment is as straightforward as it is urgent. Chicago must beat the San Diego Padres at Petco Park to force a decisive Game 3 on Thursday. A second loss would send the 89-73 Cubs home before October arrives.
San Diego seized control of the best-of-three series on Tuesday night behind Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado and Michael King. Tatis led off the bottom of the first with a homer on the first pitch he saw from Matthew Boyd, the first leadoff home run in Padres postseason history. Machado homered later in the inning and added an RBI double. Xander Bogaerts also went deep.
King took a no-hitter into the seventh and finished with seven innings, one hit, three walks and eight strikeouts. Nico Hoerner’s infield single was the only hit King allowed. The Padres collected 13 hits in all and never trailed.
The shutout landed hardest on an offense that led the majors with 850 runs during the regular season. Chicago managed three hits and looked nothing like the club that spent six months scoring at a league-best clip. Pete Crow-Armstrong, a National League MVP candidate, struck out to open the game on three pitches.
Gausman, 35, arrived from Toronto at the trade deadline to stabilize a rotation that had been battered by injuries. He went 9-12 with a 4.51 ERA and 184 strikeouts in 177 2/3 innings overall this season. In nine starts after the trade, he was 4-2 with a 4.83 ERA, 57 strikeouts and 11 walks in 50 1/3 innings.
His availability was in doubt as recently as last week. Gausman left his final regular-season start against Miami on Sept. 23 after injuring his left, non-throwing shoulder on a diving tag. Manager Craig Counsell said then that the shoulder “got extended kind of weird” and “just grabbed on him a little bit.”
Gausman completed a bullpen session over the weekend and was placed on the Wild Card roster.
“Today was a big step in the right direction,” he said after that workout. “I’m going to go out and give everything I’ve got, but if I feel like I can’t give this team a chance to win or pitch the way I know I can, then I need to be smart and think about these guys and not myself.”
Counsell spent the week declining to lock in a Game 2 starter, describing his staff as a collection of pitchers rather than a traditional rotation.
“We’ve just got to figure out how to get 27 outs, and the order that that happens? Starter, reliever, closer, setup man — those words don’t matter,” he said. The official announcement settled the first of those 27 outs.
Gausman has generally handled San Diego. He is 3-1 with a 3.04 ERA and 60 strikeouts in 10 career appearances against the Padres, including six innings and eight strikeouts at Petco Park on July 12 while still with Toronto.
Nick Pivetta will start opposite him. The Padres right-hander is 3-2 with a 2.86 ERA this season and posted a 1.45 ERA in 18 2/3 innings over four starts after returning from a nearly five-month elbow absence. First pitch is scheduled for 10 p.m. Eastern.
Chicago beat San Diego in last year’s Wild Card Series at Wrigley Field and took the 2026 regular season series five games to one, including two of three in San Diego. None of that will matter if the Cubs cannot score Wednesday.
The Padres finished 91-71 and earned home-field advantage as the National League’s top wild-card team. They also closed the regular season on a tear and now sit one win from an NL Division Series matchup with Milwaukee.
For Gausman, the night is the reason Chicago acquired him. The Cubs asked a 14-year veteran with a World Series appearance last fall to take the mound with elimination looming. Their season now rests on whether he can give them the start Nightengale said they need to save it.
