A video played on the large screen beyond the left field bleachers before Monday’s game explaining the forces behind a particular home run hit at Wrigley Field.
Exit velocity plus spin plus wind. Some more math. The net effect was that the featured homer got a boost of some 30-plus feet on a wind of 16 mph and would not have been a home run if not for said wind.
It was a like a science lesson. And a warning.
On a day the wind had Wrigley’s plentiful flags stiffly blowing out toward Waveland and Sheffield Avenues through most of the game, the Cubs rode the breeze to five home runs and the Padres hit a lot of ground balls against a pitcher who spent most of the past nine years in the minor leagues.
Chris Paddack allowed home runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings of what ended up being a 7-2 Cubs victory in the opener of a three-game series. (Box score.)
“They did a better job today than we did,” Padres manager Jayce Tingler said. “They barreled some balls, got them in the air. Ball was jumping today.”
Monday was the first time the Padres allowed five home runs in a game since Aug. 13 at Dodger Stadium.
“It felt like a good day to hit,” Tingler said.
It was also the first time the Padres lost successive games since dropping the first two of a series in San Francisco on May 7 and 8. The loss meant they no longer had the best record in baseball and fell into second place behind the Giants in the National League West.
While the Cubs slugged, the Padres seemed mostly sluggish, as they near the end of a 10-day trip and were coming off a weekend in Houston that saw them play one game longer than five hours and another that was nearly five hours.
“I thought we were a little heavy in the legs,” Tingler said. “Hopefully now — we’ve got 26, 27 hours — get back, get off our feet, get some rest, get our legs back underneath us. We’re in a grueling part of the schedule, and we’re playing a hell of a team over there.”
Tuesday, they will actually face a veteran pitcher in Kyle Hendricks.
Kohl Stewart, who was called up Monday to make his Cubs debut after last pitching in the major leagues in 2019, didn’t just shut down the Padres. He sailed through them. He took just 64 pitches to complete his five innings, allowing only an unearned run.
“We had some traffic,” Tingler said. “… I thought Stewart made some pitches. He got some pull-side ground (balls) and he was able to get out of it with some double plays.”
After Tatis scored to give the Padres a 1-0 lead— reaching second base when shortstop Javier Báez bounced a throw to try to get him at first, moving to third on Eric Hosmer’s grounder and scoring on Wil Myers’ single — Victor Caratini’s double play grounder ended the second inning.
Paddack was hit by Stewart’s first pitch in the third, but two pitches later, Tommy Pham grounded into a double play.
In all, the Padres grounded out 12 times and hit three ground ball singles.
Tatis also homered — moving into a tie for the major league lead with his 16th of the season — on a 423-foot shot to center field that cut the Cubs’ lead to 5-2 in the sixth inning.
His was one of the hits that might not have gone as far as it did Monday but would probably have cleared the ivy even on a still afternoon.
The first of Báez’s two homers, which sailed an estimated 455 feet and bounced off the second-deck roof of the restaurant beyond center field, almost certainly would have cut through an incoming wind. The first of Patrick Wisdom’s homers was the same distance as Tatis’. But Kris Bryant’s homer was a fly ball on a still day and possibly a pop-up caught by the second baseman if Monday had featured one of Wrigley’s infamously swirling breezes.
The Cubs’ home run barrage continued after Paddack departed when Wisdom again hit the first pitch he saw, this one from Tim Hill in the sixth inning, a couple rows deep in right-center. Báez’s eighth-inning home run, off Nabil Crismatt, went 397 feet to the left field bleachers with the wind blowing that direction. Maybe there will be a video before Tuesday’s game breaking down the extra carry that one got.
Paddack retired the Cubs in order in the first and survived a 30-pitch second inning by leaving runners at second and third.
His teammates didn’t do him any favors in the third inning.
Eight pitches after being hit by a pitch, Paddack was back on the mound.
He began the third by getting Kohl on a groundout and striking out Joc Pederson. But Pederson’s at-bat lasted eight pitches, the fifth Cubs at-bat that stretched seven or eight pitches.
Bryant hit what by all rights should have been a single, but Jurickson Profar dove at the last moment for a ball he had very little chance of catching and it rolled to the ivy as Bryant cruised to third base with a triple.
That brought up Báez, who launched a full-count change-up to give the Cubs a 2-1 lead.
They were up 3-1 after Wisdom ambushed a first-pitch fastball just a smidge off the center of the plate with two outs in the third.
Paddack was at 85 pitches by the end of the inning.
Pinch-hitter Sergio Alcantara doubled to lead off the fifth before Pederson grounded out. Bryant then hit his fly ball to right field. At the wall both Myers and a fan holding a full beer went for the ball. The fan ended up with the ball while Myers ended up soaked in beer.
The end of the play was shown on the big screen twice, to the delight of the crowd of 24,824 on a balmy Memorial Day. Had it been shown 20 more times, the cheers might have continued to get louder.
The locals started in a good mood — applauding long and loud for Caratini, who played here for four seasons, before his first at-bat — and ended with them singing “Go! Cubs! Go” as they celebrated the Cubs’ 12th victory in their past 15 games.
“It (felt) like a playoff game, especially playing against these guys with Tatis over there and Caratini for the first time back over here,” Báez said. “It’s fun. Honestly, with the weather and the wind blowing out, it was a great day for us.”
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