CHICAGO \u2014 Nick Pivetta arrived at Wrigley Field on Monday morning, climbed a set of stairs and walked along an aisle in the lower seating bowl.<\/p>\n
When he reached a spot behind home plate, a dozen rows from the field, he lifted his phone and took a photo.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just taking in the moment,\u201d Pivetta said later. \u201cI enjoy this field. It\u2019s a very beautiful day here in Chicago. The sun is nice. I haven\u2019t had much time to be outside. So I just walked around the stadium, got a good photo. You just take in the moments and appreciate them and are very grateful for them. And excited, too. \u2026 I think every baseball player appreciates Wrigley Field for its history. It\u2019s part of baseball history. It\u2019s baseball in general. I have a great appreciation for the sport and every field and individual and person, but it\u2019s just being cognizant, being present, it\u2019s just very important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pivetta will start Game 1 of the National League Wild Card Series for the Padres on Tuesday after a season in which he signed with the team in February and ended up being their ace.<\/p>\n
Dylan Cease will start Game 2. Yu Darvish will start Game 3 if it is necessary. Michael King will work out of the bullpen.<\/p>\n
That trio was expected by the Padres to be atop their rotation in 2025. Darvish missed the first half of the season with an elbow issue and has posted a 5.38 ERA in 15 starts since returning. King was sidelined more than half the season with a nerve impingement near his shoulder and knee inflammation, and he was mostly effective but inconsistent in four starts since returning. Cease struggled all year to find a rhythm and harness his pitches en route to posting a 4.55 ERA.<\/p>\n
Pivetta finished the regular season ranked fifth in the NL in ERA (2.87) and second in WHIP (0.99), both career bests by a large margin.<\/p>\n
Among his 19 quality starts was an April 16 game against the Cubs at Petco Park in which he allowed a run on six hits and three walks over six innings. Not quite two weeks before that, the Cubs scored three runs off Pivetta, who walked three and allowed three hits before being removed after three innings.<\/p>\n
\u201cI watched that start back,\u201d Pivetta said Monday. \u201c\u2026 I think I got myself more into trouble than I needed to. I was walking more hitters. I had bases loaded three times in that game. So staying out of those situations, getting ahead of guys, attacking the strike zone and allowing my defense to make plays \u2014 getting ahead in the dugout will lead to success.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pitching plan<\/p>\n
It had been apparent for a few days that the Padres were leaning toward Cease to start Game 2.<\/p>\n
The rotation for this series likely would have been different had King been able to establish his pitches over the past four starts. Instead, King will be available out of the bullpen along with fellow starter Randy V\u00e1squez.<\/p>\n
But the Padres feel better about Cease, who closed with his best stretch of the season, posting a 2.86 ERA in 22 innings over his final four starts.<\/p>\n
A part of the consideration was\u00a0his success against the Cubs. He has a 0.96 ERA over three starts against them in the past two seasons and has a 2.50 ERA in three career starts at Wrigley Field.<\/p>\n
\u201cDylan has been good, throwing the ball more consistently lately,\u201d manager Mike Shildt said. \u201c\u2026 He has thrown the ball well here. He has thrown the ball well against this club. And Dylan has a big arm, and we feel he\u2019s the guy we feel is the best suited for Game 2.\u201d<\/p>\n
The move also made sense to the Padres in that King (like V\u00e1squez) has extensive experience out of the bullpen, while Cease and Darvish have never pitched in relief. And if King is not needed in the Wild Card Series, he would be available to start Game 1 if the Padres advance to the Division Series.<\/p>\n
Backstopping<\/p>\n
A final decision regarding the status of Elias D\u00edaz, who departed Saturday\u2019s game with tightness in his left oblique, probably will not be made until Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n
The Padres brought two extra catchers just in case.<\/p>\n
Mart\u00edn Maldonado and Luis Campusano are on the taxi squad, and one of them will likely be on the roster for this series. It could be as a third catcher if D\u00edaz is determined to be OK to play.<\/p>\n
D\u00edaz worked out in a limited capacity on Monday.<\/p>\n
He will start Game 1 if he is active, because he has been behind the plate for all of Pivetta\u2019s starts this season. If D\u00edaz cannot go, Freddy Fermin is expected to start every game, with the extra catcher being there solely in case of an emergency.<\/p>\n
While Campusano had an outstanding season in Triple-A, he went 0-for-21 in two stints with the Padres and was never used at catcher. Even as Maldonado hit below .200 most of the season, the Padres stuck with the veteran catcher, who split time with D\u00edaz until being designated for assignment when Fermin was acquired at the trade deadline.<\/p>\n
Maldonado re-signed with the Padres on Aug. 31 so that he was eligible for the postseason. He continued to work out but has not caught in a game since July 30.<\/p>\n
Choosing offense<\/p>\n
The Padres, who lost Ram\u00f3n Laureano to a fractured finger last week,\u00a0appear to have settled on Gavin Sheets as their starter in left field.<\/p>\n
Shildt does value defense highly, and he had left open the possibility of going with Bryce Johnson for that reason. But it always seemed likely the potential for Sheets to get an extra-base hit was going to win out despite his limitations in the field.<\/p>\n
It can get especially tricky playing the outfield at Wrigley, where the wind whips in different directions, sometimes from inning to inning.<\/p>\n
As Shildt noted Tuesday: \u201cThere\u2019s not another ballpark that can be any trickier than Wrigley.\u201d<\/p>\n
Originally Published: September 29, 2025 at 3:47 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2014 Nick Pivetta arrived at Wrigley Field on Monday morning, climbed a set of stairs and walked…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":265019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1370,1266,3549,1306,7264,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-265018","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-san-diego-padres","15":"tag-sandiego","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}