After delay, Darvish pitches gem in Padres’ win over Cubs

Twister sirens blared at Wrigley Area for many of an hour early Monday night.

Rain fell, thunder clapped, lightning flashed.

It was fairly a present.

Then the sport began.

A climate delay of 1 hour, 25 minutes simply meant the Padres waited longer to proceed hardly hitting.

Happily, ready did nothing to cease Yu Darvish. The best-hander held his former crew down for eight innings, and the Padres did finally take their first lead in three video games.

Three runs within the eighth in opposition to Rowan Wick, a former Padres reliever, have been the distinction in a 4-1 victory. (Field rating.)

“We’re simply persevering with to imagine in ourselves and proceed to imagine we’ll get that huge hit,” mentioned Eric Hosmer, whose two-run double within the eighth inning drove within the sport’s closing runs.

Darvish, making his first begin at Wrigley Area since a Wild-Card Collection sport in opposition to the Marlins on Oct. 2, 2020, allowed a run on 5 hits whereas going eight innings for the primary time with the Padres.

It was the third straight begin through which he went not less than seven innings and the tenth time in 12 begins this season he has gone not less than six.

Taylor Rogers pitched an ideal ninth for his nineteenth save, because the Padres (38-24) halted a shedding streak at two video games and moved into first place within the Nationwide league West.

“We’re solely 60 — I don’t even know what number of video games — in,” Jake Cronenworth mentioned. “We’ve nonetheless obtained 100 to play, which is loads.”

Even after scoring 29 runs in a three-game stretch final week, the Padres entered Monday ranked fifteenth within the majors with a mean of 4.39 runs per sport. They scored two runs in every of the three video games between that offensive outburst and Monday’s sport, batting .144 (13-for-90) within the course of.

They obtained 10 hits Monday, 4 of them within the eighth inning.

Jurickson Profar started the eighth with a stroll, moved to 3rd base on Jake Cronenworth’s single and scored on a single by Manny Machado. Machado and Cronenworth moved up on a groundout by Luke Voit and scored on Eric Hosmer’s double.

Three of the Padres’ first 5 hits Monday didn’t depart the infield.

That included their first hit, Cronenworth’s grounder up the center that bounced off Cubs beginning pitcher Justin Steele’s naked hand as he tried to seize it within the first inning.

Steele, who entered the sport with a 4.79 ERA in 11 begins, tied a profession excessive by getting by way of seven innings.

After the Cubs, who’ve misplaced seven straight, took a 1-0 lead on Yan Gomes’ residence run within the second inning, the Padres put collectively a pair of hits to the outfield — Profar’s double and a single by Cronenworth — to tie the sport within the third.

Not less than till the eighth inning, it was way more eventful within the hours main as much as the sport.

Blue skies turned grey within the early afternoon, and the clouds grew darkish because the Padres started batting follow round 3:30 p.m. PT. A couple of half-hour later, batting follow ended immediately. The batting cage was rapidly collapsed, as gamers jogged off the sector and a tarp was positioned over the infield.

After a couple of minutes, the siren rang out. Followers have been directed to take cowl within the concourse. Hundreds of telephones contained in the ballpark started to beep with an alert {that a} twister had been sighted within the space.

The one participant on the sector — truly the one particular person in any uncovered space — was Darvish. He ran and stretched for a time simply earlier than the heavy rain started falling round 4:40 p.m. PT and continued, together with loud thunder and lightning, for the subsequent hour.

Simply as immediately because it began, the storm stopped. Followers returned to their seats. Darvish reappeared, and the grounds crew emerged to take away the tarp and start getting ready the sector.