The Chicago Cubs will have to play a winner-take-all Game 3 on Thursday against the San Diego Padres after they made the wrong kind of history in Game 2.
The Cubs, who won Game 1 by a score of 3-1 on Tuesday, were held to just four hits and no runs as they were shut out 3-0 on Wednesday afternoon, with Manny Machado clubbing a two-run home run to decide the game.
According to ESPN, the Cubs’ loss Wednesday made some history in the Wild Card Series era, which got underway in the 2022 season.
ESPN’s Sarah Langs reported that of the 20 teams to have lost a Game 1 in a best-of-three Wild Card Series entering play Wednesday, only four had forced a Game 3 in their respective series.
None of those four teams had been the road team, meaning that the Cubs are the first home team in the Wild Card era with a 1-0 series lead to have lost Game 2.
Unfortunately for the Cubs, history is not on their side when it comes to winner-take-all games at the Friendly Confines.
In total, there have been three games played at Wrigley Field where both teams were facing elimination from the postseason. The most recent occurred in 2018, when the Cubs lost 2-1 to the Colorado Rockies in the National League Wild Card Game.
Prior to that, the last winner-take-all game at Wrigley was Game 7 of the 2003 National League Championship Series, which the Florida Marlins won 9-6.
The first winner-take-all playoff game at Wrigley was Game 7 of the 1945 World Series, won 9-3 by the Detroit Tigers.
The Cubs have played one other winner-take-all game against the Padres in the postseason, losing Game 5 of the 1984 NLCS to the Padres at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego.
The game time for Thursday’s Game 3 has not yet been decided, pending the outcomes of other games.
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