Padres complete sweep of Cubs, advance to NLDS

The home run from Sheets caused the fans to erupt and seemed to deflate the Cubs, who struggled on offense throughout the two-game series. Nick Pivetta started the game much like Michael King in the Game 1 win on Tuesday night. Pivetta struck out Pete Crow-Armstrong and Alex Bregman . Pivetta then got Michael Busch to groundout to get the San Diego offense to the plate.

There were no first-inning dramatics for the Padres in Game 2, but they did break open the scoring with two runs in the bottom of the second inning. San Diego was unable to add to its lead until the Sheets home run in the fourth and did not score after, but the four runs were all that were needed by the Padres.

Pivetta pitched into the fourth inning, but allowed a run after a single, a walk and a single and Stammen went to the bullpen for Bradgley Rodriguez. The rookie reliever struck out the first batter he faced, then hit the next batter, but left the bases loaded when he got Dansby Swanson to fly out to Jackson Merrill in center field.