Two days before his first Major League Baseball playoff game, Seiya Suzuki tried to envision what the experience and environment might entail.
Suzuki hadn’t asked any of his 14 Chicago Cubs teammates who previously played in a postseason to describe it. Instead, he found a YouTube video of Cubs fans’ filmed reactions to big playoff moments. Throughout this season, Suzuki would pull up the montage when he needed a pick-me-up or a reminder of his and the team’s October goal.
That was on his mind before Game 1 of the wild-card series Tuesday against the San Diego Padres.
“I was really moved by it, just watching the games, watching the fans, how much passion they have, how much support they have with the team,” Suzuki said Sunday through interpreter Edwin Stanberry. “In the regular season you try to almost kill your emotions a little bit, but with the postseason it’s a different animal where I’m looking forward to what kind of player I’m going to be, and I’m looking forward to playing for the fans.”
Being part of a game-defining moment exceeded the sounds and images Suzuki had replayed countless times on his phone over the last six months.
Suzuki jolted the 39,114 fans onto their feet at Wrigley Field with a 112.2 mph laser off Padres starter Nick Pivetta into the bleachers to tie the score in the fifth inning. Moments later, catcher Carson Kelly took Pivetta deep to left-center field to put the Cubs ahead on back-to-back homers.
Daniel Palencia, Drew Pomeranz, Andrew Kittredge and Brad Keller combined to toss 4 2/3 perfect innings in relief for a 3-1 victory in the best-of-three series — the Cubs’ first playoff win since 2017 and their first postseason game since 2020. Nico Hoerner’s sacrifice fly in the eighth provided a late insurance run.
“I mean, just simply put, it was fantastic,” Suzuki said of his homer. “You just felt the passion of the fans, them cheering us on. Rounding the bases, I felt some nerves obviously, but great feeling overall.”
In the week leading up to the playoffs, manager Craig Counsell kept reiterating that some players would need to step up, that it didn’t matter who, but for the Cubs to make an October run, opportunities must be seized.
Playoff newcomers stood out Tuesday as Suzuki, Kelly, Hoerner (two singles) and Michael Busch (single and intentional walk to set up the sac fly) were responsible for five of the Cubs’ six hits.
“In the postseason, hits change the stadium, it changes the energy of the stadium completely,” Counsell said. “I’m really happy for Seiya. I know he was very, very excited to take part in this and to play in this and happy he had a big role in it.”
Suzuki and Kelly became the fourth duo to hit back-to-back home runs in Cubs postseason history, the first since Miguel Montero and Dexter Fowler in Game 1 of the 2016 National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Suzuki’s sizzling stretch to end the regular season carried over to the postseason, at least on Tuesday. He tallied six homers in his last 15 at-bats, including homering in four consecutive games to end the regular season. Only three other major-league players have entered the playoffs on a four-game home-run streak: Ryan Howard in 2007, George Brett in 1985 and Mike Schmidt in 1980.
“I can’t really explain it,” Suzuki said. “With the past week coming into this game, I feel like there’s been a playoff switch that’s been turned on. It’s not just me. I think that homer was just the result of all my teammates being there and supporting me, all the fans. Everybody was involved in that.”
Through the offensive inconsistency of his second half, after a first-half performance that nearly equaled past full seasons of production, Suzuki’s teammates continued to believe in the slugger’s ability to affect the game with one swing.
“That kind of hitter is built for these moments,” Ian Happ said. “He can clip anybody at any time and you saw that today.”
Pivetta kept the Cubs lineup quiet through the first four innings, holding them to a single while striking out six. The Cubs knew the hard-throwing righty would look to pound the top of the strike zone with fastballs. Pivetta consistently dotted the upper zone, making it difficult for the Cubs to generate much contact.
While Suzuki took advantage of a poorly placed inside fastball that he was able to turn on, Kelly caught up to one of Pivetta’s elevated fastballs to backspin it out of the park.
“You dream about those moments as a little kid: getting to the postseason and hitting the game-winning home run,” Kelly said. “Having it happen today is really an honor.
“The feeling running around the bases, you feel like you are on cloud nine because of how much this fan base cares for Cubs baseball. From watching day games as a little kid, seeing the energy, seeing the crowd and getting to do it in real life is truly incredible.”
Cubs starter Matthew Boyd did his part to give the offense a chance to get something going against Pivetta. He stranded Xander Bogaerts at third with nobody out in the second after consecutive doubles by Jackson Merrill and Bogaerts for an early Padres lead, aided by Dansby Swanson’s stellar diving play with the infield playing in.
Boyd again faced a challenging moment in the fourth after a leadoff walk to Manny Machado, who advanced to second on Merrill’s sacrifice bunt. Bogaerts’ infield single put runners on the corners, but Swanson provided a game-changing catch in shallow center for the second out to keep the runners in place. Boyd got Gavin Sheets to fly out to center to end the inning.
“It’s our brand of baseball — that’s who we are,” Boyd said. “We’re not dependent on one guy, and I believe no moment is too big for anybody in our lineup, anybody in our bullpen, in our rotation. It’s like you don’t know who’s going to be the guy tomorrow or today, but it’s awesome when it happens.”
Kittredge gets the ball as the opener for Game 2 on Wednesday, with left-hander Shota Imanaga likely to be the Cubs’ bulk pitcher as they look to close out the Padres.
The Cubs’ erasure of the one-run deficit in the fifth could become a defining inning of their season. Since MLB adopted a best-of-three wild-card round in 2022, the Game 1 winner has gone on to win all 12 series.
