Seiya Suzuki has picked a fine time to start flexing his muscles again.
Suzuki followed up a seven-week homerless drought by going deep five times over the Chicago Cubs’ final four games of the regular season.
Suzuki will look to continue his recent torrid run on Tuesday afternoon as the fourth-seeded Cubs host the fifth-seeded San Diego Padres in Game 1 of their best-of-three National League wild-card series.
San Diego right-hander Nick Pivetta (13-5, 2.87 ERA) will be tasked with keeping Suzuki in check in the series opener.
Chicago waited until Monday afternoon to name left-hander Matthew Boyd (14-8, 3.21) the Game 1 starter for the Cubs.
Boyd, 34, has four previous playoff appearances and three starts with the Guardians last season. He had an ERA of 0.77 but was on a tight pitch count returning from elbow surgery.
In 31 starts in his first season with the Cubs, Boyd struck out 154 over 179 2/3 innings.
“He took the ball every time, every start,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said Monday. He’s a big reason why we’re (here). Happy to hand the ball to a guy like that.”
Counsell said he’s not concerned about the historical facts in play, including his last playoff series win as a manager coming in 2018 with the Brewers. Counsell is 1-8 in the playoffs since his last series win. But he said one-win-at-a-time is the mindset, and the fundamental reason for not deciding yet on a Game 2 starter in this series.
“The result of Game 1, like, really impacts how you look at Game 2,” Counsell said. “That’s why I would always leave it open.”
Back to Suzuki, who belted a solo homer in the Cubs’ 2-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in the season finale on Sunday. He boosted his team-leading RBI total to 103 after driving in 12 runs during his seven-game hitting streak.
“It’s great to have a player that goes in with a ton of confidence,” Counsell said of Suzuki. “He struggled for a bit of the second half, for a pretty good portion of the second half. But he picked it up at a good time. … He’s definitely entering the postseason in a very confident place.”
Suzuki isn’t the only member of the Cubs heating up at the right time. Nico Hoerner is batting .337 in September while Pete Crow-Armstrong has two homers and four RBIs during his four-game hitting streak.
“The recent couple of games, the offense is back to where it should be,” Suzuki said Sunday. “Going into the playoffs, everybody has that confidence, especially the offense right now. Hopefully, we can use that as a strength in the playoffs.”
Suzuki, however, went 1-for-13 with four strikeouts against San Diego in April. The teams each won two of their three games at home against the other.
While the Cubs (92-70) punched their ticket to the postseason for the first time since 2020, the Padres (90-72) are set to compete in the playoffs for the fourth time in six years. San Diego is doing so after recording consecutive seasons with at least 90 wins for the first time in franchise history.
“That’s a big accomplishment,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “This team is setting out to be consistent and year in year out play baseball that the city can be really proud of.”
Pivetta, however, doesn’t have much postseason experience, save for three appearances with the Boston Red Sox in 2021.
He split a pair of outings against the Cubs in April. He allowed three runs over three innings in a 7-1 setback in Chicago on April 5 and yielded one run over six frames in a 4-2 victory in San Diego 11 days later.
Pivetta, 32, is 2-2 with a 3.96 ERA in six career appearances (five starts) versus the Cubs.
Boyd faced the Padres this season for the first time in his career, going 1-1 with a 1.59 ERA.
Counsell did not name his Game 2 starter but the Cubs will oppose Dylan Cease, Shildt said Monday.
It’s expected Chicago will turn to left-hander Shota Imanaga. He had a 1-0 record with a 0.73 ERA against the Padres this season and is 1-0 with a 1.40 ERA in three career meetings with the Padres.
–Field Level Media
