Michael King silences Cubs as Padres turn Wild Card opener into blowout

SAN DIEGO — So much for those five regular-season wins.So much for the 55 runs, the 23-3 humiliation in July and all the evidence the Chicago Cubs could carry into October suggesting they had the San Diego Padres’ number.But numbers don’t mean everything, and not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.So on Tuesday night, the Padres started their own count. One.

Two.Three.

Four.Five.

Six.Seven.

Eight. San Diego opened the NL Wild Card Series with an emphatic 8-0 victory over Chicago at a roaring Petco Park, riding Michael King’s flirtation with history and first-inning thunder from Fernando Tatis Jr.and Manny Machado to move within one victory of returning the favor for last October’s elimination at Wrigley Field.Everything expected this to be a close battle between two of baseball’s best teams.

Instead it was an ambush.  The biggest news, opinion and culture shaping California right now.Please provide a valid email.

By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.Never miss a story King carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning against the highest-scoring offense in baseball, suffocating the Cubs for 6 1/3 innings before Nico Hoerner finally broke up the no-no with a soft grounder to third base that Machado couldn’t field and throw cleanly, allowing Hoerner to reach on an infield single. By then, the damage had been done everywhere else.King struck out Pete Crow-Armstrong and Alex Bregman back-to-back in a perfect first inning.

Moments later, Tatis detonated Matthew Boyd’s first pitch of the night over the center-field wall.Crow-Armstrong nearly brought it back, but nearly was about as close as Chicago got in this blowout of a baseball game. Four pitches into Machado’s first plate appearance, the Padres third baseman launched another homer and Petco Park was shaking beneath 47,084 fans, including actor Bill Murray....