SAN DIEGO -- The Padres spent September as the hottest team in baseball, surging into the postseason and securing a Wild Card Series at Petco Park. Gavin Sheets, meanwhile, spent most of the month in a walking boot.
All summer, Sheets had been playing through a nasty injury -- a plantar plate tear in his left foot. He wondered if he’d be able to contribute at all. The Padres decided there was almost no way that Sheets could contribute defensively. He’ll probably require surgery at some point this offseason.
But maybe … just maybe … if Sheets could heal just enough … he could deliver a meaningful swing or two in the postseason.
A swing like this one.
Sheets came off the bench to deliver the swing that broke the Cubs in Game 2 of the National League Wild Card Series on Wednesday night -- a pinch-hit, two-run home run that sent Petco Park into delirium and the Padres on course for Milwaukee.
With their 4-1 victory over the Cubs, San Diego secured a trip to the NL Division Series against the Brewers, beginning on Saturday night. Milwaukee finished with the Majors’ best record and has Jacob Misiorowski lined up for Game 1.
A tall task, sure. But the way these Padres are playing right now, would you put it past them?
They made quick work of the Cubs this week, dispatching them in two games that were never really all that close. The two teams played 18 innings at Petco Park this week. The Padres led after 17 of them -- sweet revenge after their 2025 season came to an end with a Wild Card Series exit at Wrigley Field.
In Game 1, the Padres were a force of nature. The ballpark partied from the very first pitch (a Michael King fastball past Pete Crow-Armstrong) to the very last pitch (Joe Musgrove punctuating his triumphant return to the mound with a game-ending strikeout). They won, 8-0.
Game 2 brought a different kind of postseason energy. A party, to be sure. But one with some tension mixed in. October baseball, on the final day of September.
San Diego jumped in front in the second with Xander Bogaerts’ RBI single and Ethan Salas’ sacrifice fly. (Salas, the youngest player in history to catch a postseason game, also became the youngest player at any position with a postseason sac fly -- since at least 1954 when that stat was fully tracked.)
But the Cubs scratched a run back against Nick Pivetta in the fourth and worked their way into the Padres’ bullpen. Crow-Armstrong and the top of the lineup loomed in the fifth.
There were two outs and a runner aboard, and Chicago manager Craig Counsell had gone with right-hander Daniel Palencia. Sheets strode to the on-deck circle, then, eventually, the batter’s box -- with those three familiar thuds echoing through the Petco Park sound system.
Ho-ly Sheets.
This was the moment they’d been planning for. The moment they’d been hoping for. When Sheets is right, he mashes right-handed pitching. He’s a weapon in the clutch and a force off the bench.
As it turned out, Sheets would take all of one plate appearance across two games in the series. One swing, even.
He made it count. Palencia threw a 100.8 mph fastball at the bottom of the zone on the inner half. Sheets turned on it -- the hardest pitch any Padre has ever homered on, regular or postseason.
Petco Park exploded and Sheets trotted around the bases. The Padres led, 4-1. Their lockdown bullpen could take it from there -- straight to Milwaukee.