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The San Diego Padres are accomplishing feats that are rare in MLB history.

Six shutouts in the team’s first 16 games, with all of the zeros coming at home. Allowing just 11 runs in their first 10 home games, all of them wins. And on top of that, a 13-3 start matching the best in franchise history.

Next up: the start of what should be a good series and the biggest challenge San Diego has faced at home when the Chicago Cubs come to town Monday night to open a three-game series in a battle of division leaders.

The Padres became the first team since Cleveland’s 2017 squad to sweep a three-game series and not allow a run. Michael King capped the weekend with the first shutout of his career, a 6-0 two-hitter against Colorado that gave San Diego 10 straight home wins to open 2025.

Padres manager Mike Shildt said his team enjoys a vast home-field advantage because of crowd support. They have sold out eight times in 10 home games.

“It’s a playoff-like atmosphere almost every game,” he said.

The Padres’ pitching has been otherworldly. San Diego is the first team since Cleveland in 1966 to notch six shutouts in the first 16 games.

Right-hander Dylan Cease (1-1, 7.98 ERA) will have quite a bar to clear when he takes the mound for the series opener on Monday. He’s coming off perhaps the worst of his 159 MLB starts, allowing nine runs in four innings Tuesday night during a 10-4 loss to the Athletics in West Sacramento, Calif.

Cease is 4-2 with a 2.38 ERA in seven career starts against the Cubs, beating them twice last year.

Meanwhile, Chicago arrives in town fresh off taking two of three from the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Sunday night bus ride down Interstate-5 was a happy one for the Cubs after a 4-2 win in the series finale that saw Pete Crow-Armstrong hit two solo homers.

It was a positive end to a rough day for Chicago, which disclosed that left-hander Justin Steele will undergo reconstructive elbow surgery on Friday and miss the rest of the season. Steele was 3-1 with a 4.76 ERA in four starts this year and worked seven shutout innings last Monday night in a 7-0 win over Texas.

“You don’t just replace Justin Steele,” Cubs starter Jameson Taillon said. “You do your best to limit the damage and hopefully keep our team in games. But yeah, you don’t just go and replace a guy like that. It’s a cruel world, and the game doesn’t know whether you’re putting in the work or not.”

Right-hander Jameson Taillon (1-1, 6.06 ERA) will start for Chicago on Monday night. His last outing was Tuesday, when he received a no-decision after yielding three runs and five hits in six innings of a 10-6 win over Texas. Taillon, who walked one and struck out six, is 2-0 with a 2.19 ERA in four career starts
against the Padres.

The Cubs took two of three from San Diego at Wrigley Field earlier this month.

–Field Level Media