CHICAGO — Fernando Tatis Jr. homered on the first pitch he saw of the postseason last year, the start of a white-hot October that carried the Padres to the brink of an NLCS berth.

What Tatis did this week was not, well, “just not fun,” he said after the Padres’ 3-1 loss to the Cubs on Thursday. Just not fun at all. We definitely missed an opportunity.”

Indeed.

For all that went right with the bullpen in three games and even after the shortest start of Yu Darvish’s career, the demise of the 2025 Padres can be pinned on their inability to score across three day games at Wrigley Field.

Manny Machado put the finishing touches on Wednesday’s win with a two-run homer after Tatis’ fifth-inning walk. The only other home run of the series was Jackson Merrill’s ninth-inning solo shot on Thursday

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