Well, the opener to the NL Wild Card series between the San Diego Padres and Chicago Cubs wasn’t exactly a thriller, but it did see the home team get the job done thanks to a pair of home runs at Wrigley. On Wednesday, the Cubbies now look to finish their opponent off and advance to the next round of the MLB Postseason for their first playoff series win since 2017.
In this outing, Andrew Kittredge takes the mound to open ahead of a potential Shota Imanaga appearance against Dylan Cease. Can San Diego stave off elimination or will Chicago punch its ticket to advance? Find out with this Cubs vs. Padres Game 2 prediction and pick on DraftKings Sportsbook!
Cubs vs. Padres Game 2 prediction, preview
Yesterday’s series opener saw a 3-1 finish in favor of the Cubbies in which home runs from Seiya Suziku and Carson Kelly ultimately made all the difference. Chicago out-hit San Diego six to four with noticeably quiet performances from all kinds of stars — a combined zero hits between Kyle Tucker, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado felt like a real aberration given the amount of All-Star talent on the field. That may not continue on Wednesday, but the pitching matchup does provide plenty of intrigue.
Right-handed reliever Andrew Kittredge will open for the Cubs in a bit of a surprising move. The veteran’s pitched exceedingly well this year with a 3.43 ERA and 1.17 WHIP to go along with a 30.8% K% and 5.3% BB%, both elite marks in the 92nd percentile. He’s a very competent arm to get things going against the top of the order, and per the Chicago Sun-Times, lefty Shota Imanaga likely follows in the second inning. The latter struggles to start games and didn’t look too hot in his last start of the regular season with eight runs allowed on nine hits, but his 0.99 WHIP does impress even if his 3.73 ERA doesn’t do the same. He faded down the stretch with a 4.70 ERA after the All-Star break, so perhaps it’s best he doesn’t face the top of the order after all.
Imanaga pitched twice against the Padres back in April, allowing just a single earned run and eight hits while striking out 11 batters in 12.1 innings. It’s been a while since then, but as our own Dan Johnson put it in yesterday’s Game 1 write-up, the San Diego lineup actually may wind up vulnerable once the lefty takes the mound:
The sore spot is lefties—mid-90s wRC+ vs LHP invites a southpaw parade if Chicago wants to script it. But give this group one slider that stays up or one heater that leaks arm-side, and the scoreboard starts talking.
For the Padres, Dylan Cease steps up as the starter. The veteran right-hander finished the regular season with the sixth-most strikeouts of any hurler at 215 in 168.0 IP, good for a 29.5% K%. He brings nice velocity of 97 mph on average with his fastball and frequently forces swings and misses with the rest of his stufff, generating a 95th-percentile whiff percentage and 80th-percentile chase rate. Chicago posted a top-seven K% at the plate at 20.9% this season, but that’s ticked up slightly to 23% over the last 30 days and there’s some opportunity for Cease to work with that.
In his lone appearance against the Cubs this season, Cease went 5.2 innings with seven hits and two earned runs allowed, including a homer. He struck out six batters and walked on in that contest. However, he did face Chicago twice in 2024 and didn’t allow a single earned run across 13 innings of work.
Padres vs. Cubs Game 2 pick, best bet
On DraftKings Sportsbook, the odds indicate a near toss-up for Game 2. The Cubs are listed at -111 on the Moneyline while the Padres come in at -109 to win outright. That margin remains razor-thin. The run total sits at 6.5 for the contest with the over favored at -121 odds in contrast to an even +100 on the under.
Well, it’s certainly tougher to pick postseason games than in the regular season. Both of these teams closed the regular season with a top-10 OPS over the last 30 days, and both sides smashed the ball to close the year — Chicago held a .185 ISO and 38 homers over that span while San Diego came somewhat close to matching it with a .158 ISO and 36 home runs as its power bats finally came to life. With similar scoring performance to close the season, we look toward the arms to make up the difference. Both bullpens ended the year dealing, with an 11.27 K/9 for the Padres and a 10.86 K/9 mark for the Cubs. A 3.12 ERA for Chicago slightly outpaced San Diego, but the big difference-maker comes via the vulnerability to the long-ball. In that regard, the Padres finished with an 0.89 HR/9… and the Cubs logged a 1.51 tally themselves.
That may be the key to surviving this game for the visitors and keeping the season alive. While the Wrigley faithful will support their Cubbies and ensure a hostile environment for San Diego, another low-key outing from both Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado feels quite unlikely. One of those two will rise to the occasion and Tatis remains a great pick to do so after he finished the regular season on a scorching-hot streak at the plate. The Padres are too good of a team to go down without a fight, and if Imanaga’s confidence is shaken at all between how his last outing went and the stakes on hand for Wednesday, San Diego should capitalize. We’re going with a good ol’ outright Moneyline pick in this one.
Best bet: SD Padres ML (-109)
Tail it with me in the DKN Betting Group here!
