Good morning. The Padres needed one swing to get Petco Park going and nine innings to get within one win of the Division Series. The Golden Knights started Year 10 with a win, a 20-year-old scoring his first NHL goal and Ryan Craig winning his first game as a head coach. The Aces’ series with the Fever is going to a Game 3 on Thursday. Tonight the Padres try to finish off the Cubs, and the Kings open their season in Denver. Let’s get into it.
🚨 HEADLINES
⚾ 8-0. King threw seven one-hit innings and the Padres took Game 1 from the Cubs — Fernando Ramirez at Petco Park.
🏒 First goal, first night. Trevor Connelly scored in his NHL debut as the Golden Knights beat Chicago 5-2 — Steve Carp at T-Mobile Arena.
🏀 Game 3. Caitlin Clark had 27 points and 15 assists as the Fever beat the Aces 99-89 — Arion Armeniakos at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
🏀 Decision coming. The NBA is close to a call on expansion to Las Vegas, with three groups in the running — Steve Carp in Las Vegas.
🏈 “It guts you.” USC’s offense tries to regroup after its first loss before Washington comes to the Coliseum — Holdenn Graff at USC.
See what else is trending at The Sporting Tribune.
📋 SCOREBOARD — TUESDAY
⚾ MLB Wild Card: Padres 8, Cubs 0 (Padres lead 1-0)
🏀 WNBA Playoffs: Fever 99, Aces 89 (series tied 1-1)
🏒 NHL: Golden Knights 5, Blackhawks 2
⚾ PETCO WAS ROCKING
It took Fernando Tatis Jr. one swing to find the moment. He led off the Padres’ first postseason game at Petco Park with a home run, his first playoff homer since October 2024. Manny Machado homered too, and before the Cubs had a hit, San Diego led 2-0.
“Petco was rocking today,” Machado said. “It was unbelievable to play in front of.”
Machado added a two-run double in the third. Xander Bogaerts hit a home run onto the third floor of the Western Metal Supply Co. building. Jackson Merrill drove in two with a bases-loaded single. It finished 8-0.
Michael King did the rest. Seven innings, one hit, eight strikeouts, 97 pitches. Fernando Ramirez was at Petco as King held the Cubs to a single hit.
Then came the best moment of the night. Joe Musgrove pitched the ninth, his first appearance in nearly two years. It wasn’t tidy. He struck out the first batter, then gave up a single, a walk and another single to load the bases. He struck out the last hitter to end the game.
“It was amazing, man,” Musgrove said. “To come back in a playoff situation with the crowd the way they were tonight at home, yeah, it was perfect.”
The Padres (91-71) earned home field for this series by winning when they needed to at the end of the regular season, and now they need one more win. Game 2 is tonight at 7 on NBCSN: Nick Pivetta against Kevin Gausman. Win, and the Padres are in the Division Series.
GO DEEPER
› Fernando Ramirez: Machado, Tatis power offense, King dominates as Padres win Game 1 (The Sporting Tribune)
› Fernando Ramirez: Padres close strong, shift their focus to Game 1 vs. Cubs on Tuesday (The Sporting Tribune)
› Fernando Ramirez: Machado’s three-run blast helps Padres clinch wild card home-field advantage (The Sporting Tribune)
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🏒 YEAR 10, NIGHT 1
A day after Steve Carp wrote about the standard the Golden Knights set in Year One, the franchise opened Year 10 in a way that fit.
Trevor Connelly, a 20-year-old rookie, scored his first NHL goal in his first NHL game with 4:38 left in the first period for a 2-0 lead. He and Cody Glass are the only first-round picks in team history to score on opening night in their debut. His family was there.
“It’s great that he was able to do it in his first game, in front of his family,” Ryan Craig said. Craig won his first game as an NHL head coach. He was an assistant on the Golden Knights’ first staff.
Jack Eichel had a goal and two assists and reached 700 career points. Victor Olofsson scored on the power play, Noah Hanifin scored 39 seconds after Patrick Kane brought Chicago within one, and Mark Stone added an empty-netter for a 5-2 final. Brayden McNabb and Shea Theodore, two of the three players left from the original roster, had two assists each.
“We carried our play from camp into the first game,” Craig said.
GO DEEPER
› Steve Carp: Connelly has memorable night in NHL debut (The Sporting Tribune)
› Steve Carp: Ten years later, the Golden Knights’ standard of excellence remains high (The Sporting Tribune)
🍔 THE DEALS BOARD
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🏟️ TWO GAMES, ONE WEDNESDAY
Cubs at Padres, Wild Card Game 2, at 7 on NBCSN. Pivetta vs. Gausman. A win ends the series.
Kings at Avalanche at 7 on TNT, opening night for both teams at Ball Arena. The Kings finished the preseason with regulars Alex Laferriere and Joel Armia scoring in a 2-1 win over the Ducks, and Peter Laviolette said the team was “much better defensively.”
Still ahead: Fever at Aces, Game 3, on Thursday in Las Vegas. The Dodgers open the NLDS on Saturday at Dodger Stadium against the Phillies-Braves winner.
📌 AROUND THE MARKETS
Urgency. Arion Armeniakos writes that the Fever denied A’ja Wilson inside and outscored the Aces 58-26 in the paint in a 99-89 win that sends the series back to Las Vegas. Clark had 27 points and 15 assists, Kelsey Mitchell scored 26, and Aliyah Boston had 22. Wilson finished with 22 on 5-of-11 shooting. “That was a team playing for their lives, and they showed it,” Becky Hammon said. “We’ll be better,” Wilson said.
The NBA in Vegas. Steve Carp reports a decision on Las Vegas expansion could come in the coming days, or by December. Three groups are finalists: Bill Foley and Jerry Colangelo; Nancy and Bill Laurie; and Marc Lasry and Steve Apostolopoulos. It would take 23 of 30 owners to approve, the price is $12 billion to $13 billion including an arena, and a team would begin play in 2028-29.
Five and 15. Holdenn Graff notes Lincoln Riley is 5-15 against ranked opponents at USC after the loss to Oregon. Washington, which is 3-1 and allowing fewer than 17 points a game, is next at the Coliseum. “To put ourselves in that position to win it, not capitalize on it, it guts you,” Riley said.
GO DEEPER
› Arion Armeniakos: Fever make adjustments, force decider with home win over the Aces (The Sporting Tribune)
› Steve Carp: NBA closing in on decision on expansion to Las Vegas (The Sporting Tribune)
› Holdenn Graff: USC’s offense looks to steady itself after first loss (The Sporting Tribune)
› L.A. takes the Mile High City: A fan’s guide to Rams at Broncos and Kings at Avalanche in Denver (The Sporting Tribune)
📺 WATCHLIST — WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30
⚾ MLB Postseason: Cubs at Padres, Wild Card Game 2 — Petco Park — 7:00 p.m. — NBCSN
🏒 NHL: Kings at Avalanche — Ball Arena — 7:00 p.m. — TNT
🎟️ GOING TO A GAME?
Get-in prices across Southern California, Las Vegas and Hawaii— brought to you by TickPick, the no-hidden-fee ticket marketplace.
⚾ Cubs at Padres, Wild Card Game 2 — Petco Park — $110
🏀 Fever at Aces, Game 3 — Michelob ULTRA Arena (Thursday) — $45
🌴 TST TRIVIA
Trevor Connelly became the second first-round pick in Golden Knights history to score on opening night in his NHL debut. Who was the first?
Answer at the bottom.
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Trivia answer: Cody Glass.
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