How the Cubs’ newly lights-out bullpen carried Chicago to a Game 1 Wild Card Series win over the Padres

CHICAGO – It’s probably too much to say that the Chicago Cubs‘ bullpen has been maligned this season, but there’s no doubt their recent level of performance constitutes an improvement over 2025 taken in bulk. That was acutely obvious during the Cubs’ 3-1 win (box score) over the San Diego Padres in Tuesday’s National League Wild Card Series opener. 

The first tell that the Cubs’ bullpen is now a weapon rather than a shortcoming came in the top of the fifth. Chicago starter Matthew Boyd had just faced his 18th batter of the game and yielded a single, which meant he was about to get into the Padres’ lineup for the third time in the game. Managers in the playoffs who have a strong and deep relief corps are typically loath to allow their non-ace starting pitchers to face the opposing lineup for a third time. But would Craig Counsell do the same? He would because his bullpen is different now. 

With one on and one out, Counsell summoned Daniel Palencia, the right-hander with a big fastball who returned from a shoulder injury in time to make a pair of appearances in the final days of the regular season. It was the earliest Palencia had entered a game in almost exactly two years. It was also the first time he’d been called upon with traffic on the bases since before the All-Star break. With much improved control this season, Palencia has earned Counsell’s trust, and he was trusted in a major way on Tuesday at Wrigley Field. The 25-year-old right-hander got Fernando Tatis Jr. and Luis Arraez to line out and keep the score 1-0. The next half-inning, the Cubs would take the lead for good on a pair of solo home runs.

“Yeah, I think to me, that’s the outing of the game that was critical,” Counsell said after the game of Palencia’s outing. “You need outs from your starters in these games. You can’t do that every day. But him throwing up five outs in five hitters and going through the top of their lineup, the game made sense after that to me; know what I mean? There was a real path right there.”

There was indeed a path. Palencia worked the sixth, picked up a pair of strikeouts, and registered his longest relief appearance since April. Then came venerable lefty Drew Pomeranz, 11 years Palencia’s senior, to face the three left-handed bats that Padres manager Mike Shildt had positioned all in a row in his lineup. Pomeranz retired them in order on 11 pitches. Then came Andrew Kittredge, the right-handed deadline pickup who’s swapped out some four-seamers for sinkers since being acquired from Baltimore and reached a higher plane. He worked a perfect frame with a strikeout and roughly an hour later was announced as Counsell’s opener for Wednesday’s Game 2. 

Finally, it was Brad Keller to earn his first postseason save, which he did in spotless fashion. In all, the Cubs bullpen retired all 14 batters it faced in Game 1. 

“I’ve talked a lot about, you know, them helping each other and how that group has connected, and today was a great example of it,” Counsell said after the game. “You know, they get their outs, and they make their matchups the right matchups. And so just a brilliant job. Everybody made pitches, executed pitches. I can’t say enough about what they did today.”

This was to be a Padres advantage coming into the series and, to be fair, it may yet still turn out that way. The Padres, of course, added at the deadline an elite high-leverage arm in Mason Miller to what was already an enviable crop of relievers. The Cubs, though, are not to be dismissed on this front, especially with Counsell now being able to lean into his strengths as a tactician. Just two relievers who date back to the Cubs’ Opening Day roster — Keller and Caleb Thielbar — are among the group now at the manager’s disposal. Kittredge, Taylor Rogers, and Michael Soroka came over leading up to the trade deadline. Aaron Civale, claimed off waivers from the crosstown White Sox, has looked like a weapon since being converted to relief detail. 

Specific to October, Counsell said this pre-game on Tuesday: “I think you see both teams have starters that are active on the roster and may not start games. But we’ll use Colin to get outs. At some point he will factor in, quite possibly in an important situation.”

That would be tenured right-hander Colin Rea, who made 27 starts for the Cubs during the regular season and will work as a multi-inning volume reliever for them in October. That’s another point of distinction when it comes to the Chicago bullpen as it exists in this moment in time. 

When it comes to playoff baseball, you don’t want a bullpen with strikeout deficits. For a long time this season, the Cubs had such a thing, but the pen has been heavily remade to address, it seems, that very liability. If Game 1 and the month of September at large are reliable guides, then the Cubs are poised to suffocate the opposition when Counsell takes the ball from their starter.