Sutcliffe had been almost literally unbeatable since his mid-June acquisition by the Cubs, but he had trouble getting out of the gate in the postseason. The first three Padres singled, Steve Garvey's base hit scoring Alan Wiggins to put SD ahead, before Sutcliffe recovered to retire the next three men and escape further damage. His teammates got the run back in the bottom half of the inning when Bob Dernier led off with a single, took second an a groundout, and scored on Leon Durham's single to right field. What looked as if it might be a noisy day for the hitters then quieted suddenly - Sutcliffe escaped from under two 2nd-inning singles, and Show loaded the bases with nobody gone in the 3rd before striking out Gary Matthews, getting Durham to pop up on the infield, and coaxing Keith Moreland into an inning-ending force out but, after that there were a lot of disappointed batters. Sutcliffe allowed only one hit over a four-inning span and Show retired eight in a row as the game went into the 7th innings still knotted at one. Jody Davis broke the silence, however, with a solo shot to lead off the bottom of the 7th and the Cubs had the lead. Sutcliffe retired the first batter in the 8th, but Tony Gwynn followed with a triple to left center; Garvey flied out to shallow center to hold Gwynn at third and Jim Frey opted, with the left-handed Graig Nettles due up and zero lefty arms in the Chicago pen, to pull his starter in favor of Tim Stoddard. Nettles didn't make great contact, but his dribbler down the third-base line was enough for an infield hit that tied the game again. The closers were going to get the 9th, and Lee Smith got the first two outs in the top of the frame before Garry Templeton whacked a long drive to center field - it skipped off the fence, and when Dernier tried to spin and throw the ball in he didn't have complete control of the ball and it rolled out of his glove and along the base of the wall. Templeton didn't stop running until he had slide across the plate ahead of Jody Davis' tag and the two-base miscue had put the Friars in front with only three outs to go. Goose Gossage came into the game and immediately walked the tying run on base in the person of Larry Bowa, but he whiffed PH Richie Hebner, retired Dernier on a soft liner to Nettles and got Ryne Sandberg to hit one right back into his glove on one hop for the final out. San Diego 3-10-0, Chicago (N) 2-7-1. [scoresheet]
The Cubs made a quick start at getting back into the Series, Sandberg drawing a one-out walk in the 1st, stealing second, and trotting home on Moreland's two-base hit down the right-field line. When Chicago used two singles, a walk and a run-scoring ground ball to double the lead in the 4th with Trout having allowed just three singles, things were looking up on the North Side. But Trout walked the leadoff man when SD came to bat next, and Luis Salazar followed with a base hit. Templeton again proved to be a thorn in the Cubs' s side, as he doubled again to score one run and put two more in scoring position. Thurmond chopped one to first base that was slow enough for the runners to advance to tie the game, and Gwynn singled home Templeton with two outs to cap a three-run rally that again had the Padres on top. Thurmond got a double-play balk in the 5th and a caught-stealing in the 6th to hold the line, and Trout ran out of gas in the 7th. After a leadoff single had been erased on a steal attempt, Templeton singled and moved to second on Thurmond's sacrifice. George Frazier came on to face the lefties this time and fared no better than had Stoddard yesterday - Wiggins greeted him with an RBI single up the middle to make it 4-2 San Diego, and it went downhill quickly for the Cubs from there. Rick Bordi allowed a three-run homer to Terry Kennedy in the 8th and Warren Brusstar coughed up two doubles and two runs in the 9th as the visitors ran away to a 9-2 lead. Chicago got a couple of consolation runs in the bottom of the 9th when Thad Bosley hit a pinch-hit two-run homer off of mop-up man Luis De Leon, but the Cubs were now facing the prospect of having to win three in a row on the road to steal the Series. San Diego 9-15-0, Chicago (N) 4-10-0. [scoresheet]
Game Three was the chance for the Cubs' other mid-season pitching acquisition to provide a playoff payoff and Eckersley got a quick lead to work with when Matthews doubled with two outs in the first and scored when Wiggins kicked Durham's pulled grounder into foul territory for a two-base error. The Padres, though, struck back quickly when Kennedy started the 2nd with a base hit and Kevin McReynolds followed with a long drive inside the left-field foul pole to make the score 2-1. A Dernier single, Sandberg sacrifice and Durham RBI single tied the game up in the Cubs 3rd and then the two pitchers settled down to business. Eckersley retired twenty of the final twenty-one to face him, and Whitson scattered two singles across the middle four innings before leaving the game in the 8th with the score standing still with a one-run San Diego lead. The Cubs loaded the bases after two were out in the 8th against Greg Harris, but Gossage came on to blow a third strike past Davis to end the threat. The 9th was relatively uneventful, with the two closers now on to take control of proceedings, and the first real opportunity presented itself to San Diego when Carmelo Martinez started the bottom of the 10th with a single into left field. Bobby Brown pinch-ran, and stole second, but Templeton couldn't do damage this time as he popped out to left, and Smith whiffed Salazar. Wiggins worked a free pass, and that brought up Gwynn - again, with no lefties on whom to call, and his best reliever already on the hill, Frey stuck with the horse that brung him for a ninth batter. And Gwynn brought out the second-guessers with a single to right that scored Wiggins easily with the run that swept the Padres into the World Series. San Diego 3-6-2, Chicago (N) 2-9-0. [scoresheet]
Sutcliffe and Eckersley pulled their weight for the Cubs (15.2 ip, 0.83 whip, 2.30 era), but there was no help. The bullpen was a dumpster fire (11 h, 10.13 era in 5.1 ip) and the lineup managed a .659 OPS and went 5-for-26 with RISP against a San Diego pitching staff that is solid, but not overpowering before the late innings. Regardless, there were two one-run games that were decided in the final at-bat - these could have gone either way, but San Diego was the team that found a way to win them. [Series stats]
With a Series-leading five hits and both of the Padre's game-winning hits (the decisive run in Game One scored on Dernier's error), San Diego RF Tony Gwynn gets the nod over teammates Garry Templeton and Terry Kennedy.
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