Impressive as a playoff game could be.

Dominant as the 1st game you’d want to see

Surprising this team could play that well against that team

The Padres electrified the crowd in crushing the Chicago Cubs in the first game of their playoff series.

Fernando Tatis crushed the first pitch of the game for a home run.  Manny Machado smoked a home run, four pitches later.  Xander Bogaerts hit a screaming line drive home run too.

The Friars had runners on all night against Cubs starter Matt Boyd and kept putting runs on the board.

As for the Cubs, the big hitting, power laden lineup, did nothing against Michael King, who took a no hitter into the 7th inning.

King was dazzling.  Kept the ball in the yard.  The defense made a few strong catches on fly balls.  The Cubs kept going back to the dugout shaking their head.

The Padres ace threw a 7-inning-1 hit-8 strikeout outing against the high scoring Cubbies.

El Nino arrived early and Tatis put on a show-scoring from first base on a stolen base and a throwing error on the play.

It was an electric start and the finish to welcome Joe Musgrove back after nearly 2-years o rehab sent the (47,011) fans into a tizzy, as he pitched out of a bases loaded jam.  What a night.

Winning the first game so important in a short series.

The other note from this Tuesday night of baseball at Petco Park, was the message sent by the Friars to everyone else in the National League playoff series.  This is a hot hitting Padres team, causing dangerous matchups in the batting order.  This team has pitchers who are piling up quality starts.  And when it gets late, the bell rings and here comes Adrian Morejon and Mason Miller.

Some first game in the Wildcard playoffs.  Wednesday is a new day, the next game is coming, and bulldogs Nick Pivetta and Walker Buehler are next in line to take the ball.

What a finish to the regular season, that (17-3) spurt.  What a way to start the postseason party, blowing up the Cubs momentum right from the start.

Here comes October and the Padres are still playing ball.  That’s quite a message.

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