Another windy day at Wrigley Field with temperatures at 70° and the wind blowing in from right field at 11 mph with no chance of rain. I think that Padres batters are going to struggle a little, and the Cubs win their first playoff series since 2017. The Cubs have won four straight games now. Dylan Cease is the Padres starter, and the road has been an issue for him, going 1-9 with a 5.58 ERA, and the Padres have lost his last two starts. Andrew Kittredge is going to be the opener for the Cubs despite pitching yesterday, and then he'll give way to Shota Imanaga, who went 1-0 with a 0.73 ERA in two starts against the Padres. Cubs win.

The Cubs will be making this a bullpen game today as they try to close out this wild card series, with Andrew Kittredge getting the ball first before Craig Counsell begins to cycle thru his relievers. What we saw on Tuesday was both offenses struggling until the Cubs broke thru with some long balls to finally solve Nick Pivetta, but conditions at Wrigley Field suggest we're probably not looking at any fireworks show for Game 2, either. With the season on the line, Mike Shildt is also going to his deep Padres bullpen very early at the first sign of trouble for Dylan Cease. Play Padres-Cubs Under

Like Tanner Bibee with Cleveland (now 14.5 outs), you are telling me that former touted Cubs prospect Dylan Cease can't go 4.2 innings today (even if managers have quick hooks at this point)? Winds are blowing in at Wrigley about 9 mph from right-center. Cease also is about to hit free agency, so he'll be duly motivated. I'm well aware of his horrendous road splits during the year. Only Kyle Tucker really has great splits among Cubs regulars off Cease. Our model has him at 5.7 innings.

We are going with a longshot here, but Jackson Merrill has been swinging a hot bat as of late. Merrill finished the month of September with 7 HRs in 24 games played. While it looks like the Cubs are going to use an opener in front of LHP Shota Imanaga, we still like the value on Merrill assuming he gets 1 or 2 ABs against right-handed pitchers in this game. We set Merrill's line at +520 to homer, so getting +700 is worth a sprinkle as a longshot.