San Diego Padres at Chicago Cubs

· Major League Baseball

San Diego Padres

7-1, 0-1 Away

Final
1 - 3

Chicago Cubs

6-4, 1-2 Home

Imanaga and Happ lead the Cubs past the Padres 3-1 in Wrigley Field opener

Shota Imanaga tosses 7.1 strong vs. Padres

Imanaga (2-0) allowed four hits in 7 1/3 innings in his second straight win. Picking up right where he left off in his impressive rookie season, the Japanese left-hander has permitted two runs and seven hits in 18 1/3 innings over his first three starts this year.

Ian Happ had two hits and scored two runs as Chicago improved to 6-2 since it dropped its first two games in Tokyo against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

San Diego had opened the season with seven consecutive victories for the best start in franchise history.

Martín Maldonado homered for the Padres in the third, tying it at 1. But the Cubs scored two runs in the fifth after Randy Vásquez (0-1) retired the first two batters.

With the bases loaded after a pair of walks, pinch-hitter Justin Turner greeted Yuki Matsui with a hard grounder to Xander Bogaerts. The shortstop threw from his knees as he tried for the forceout at second, but Seiya Suzuki was safe and Happ scampered home with the tiebreaking run — delighting the crowd of 40,244 on an overcast afternoon.

Kyle Tucker scored when Manny Machado committed an error on Dansby Swanson's grounder to third.

Porter Hodge got two outs for Chicago before Ryan Pressly worked a shaky ninth for his third save. It was Pressly's first home game since he was acquired in a January trade with Houston.

Key moment San Diego put runners on second and third in the ninth, but Jake Cronenworth looked at a called third strike for the final out.

Key stat The Cubs have won four consecutive home openers for the first time since 1950-53.

Up next Padres right-hander Nick Pivetta (1-0, 0.00) and Cubs left-hander Matthew Boyd (0-0, 0.00 ERA) start on Saturday.

How can I watch San Diego Padres vs. Chicago Cubs?

TV Channel: Padres at Cubs 2022 MLB Baseball, is broadcasted on MLB.TV.
Online streaming: Sign up for Fubo.

Scoring Summary

	9th Inning	Cronenworth struck out looking.
	9th Inning	Sheets grounded out to third, Merrill to second, Bogaerts to third.
	9th Inning	Sheets hit for Gurriel
	9th Inning	Merrill singled to center, Bogaerts to second.
	9th Inning	Bogaerts walked.
	9th Inning	Machado grounded out to shortstop.

Statistics

SD		CHC
1	Games Played	1
1	Team Games Played	1
0	Hit By Pitch	1
0	Ground Balls	0
6	Strikeouts	5
1	Runs Batted In	2
1	Sacrifice Hit	0
6	Hits	3
0	Stolen Bases	1
1	Walks	7
0	Catcher Interference	0
1	Runs	3
0	Ground Into Double Play	0
0	Sacrifice Flies	0
32	At Bats	28
1	Home Runs	0
0	Grand Slam Home Runs	0
9	Runners Left On Base	14
0	Triples	0
0	Game Winning RBIs	0
0	Intentional Walks	0
2	Doubles	0
0	Fly Balls	0
0	Caught Stealing	0
139	Pitches	140
0	Games Started	0
0	Pinch At Bats	0
0	Pinch Hits	0
0.0	Player Rating	0.0
1	Is Qualified	1
0	Is Qualified In Steals	1
11	Total Bases	3
34	Plate Appearances	36
162.0	Projected Home Runs	0.0
3	Extra Base Hits	0
2.3	Runs Created	1.7
.188	Batting Average	.107
.000	Pinch Hit Average	.000
.344	Slugging Percentage	.107
.188	Secondary Average	.286
.212	On Base Percentage	.306
.556	OBP Pct + SLG Pct	.413
0.0	Ground To Fly Ball Ratio	0.0
2.3	Runs Created Per 27 Outs	1.9
17.0	Batter Rating	14.0
32.0	At Bats Per Home Run	0.0
0.00	Stolen Base Percentage	1.00
4.09	Pitches Per Plate Appearance	3.89
.156	Isolated Power	.000
0.17	Walk To Strikeout Ratio	1.40
.029	Walks Per Plate Appearance	.194
.000	Secondary Average Minus Batting Average	.179
2.0	Runs Produced	5.0
1.0	Runs Ratio	0.7
0.4	Patience Ratio	0.3
0.2	Balls In Play Average	0.1
70.5	MLB Rating	64.8
0.0	Offensive Wins Above Replacement	0.0
0.0	Wins Above Replacement	0.0