SAN DIEGO — It was history simply by taking place.
Padres batters were witnesses to it. And that’s about all they were.
Phillies right-hander Zack Wheeler held the Padres to one hit in seven innings, and two relievers closed out a 2-0 victory on Tuesday night in the first National League Championship Series game played at Petco Park.
A walk and an error gave the Padres their first real life in the ninth inning, but the runners at first and second with one out were there at game’s end when Manny Machado flied out and Josh Bell struck out against Jose Alvarado.
The Phillies didn’t do all that much against Padres starter Yu Darvish except hit two solo home runs — one barely long enough to left field by Bryce Harper and one to right field by Kyle Schwarber that was unlike any ever hit in the downtown ballpark.
A crowd of 44,826 almost entirely dressed in brown and gold was charged pretty much from start to finish as they watched the Padres begin play in just their third league championship series in 54 years of existence.
The previous two times they played in an LCS resulted in World Series appearances. To get there again, they will need to win four games while the Phillies need just three more. Game 2 is 1:35 p.m. Wednesday (FS1, 97.3-FM) before the series heads to Philadelphia for Games 3 and 4 (and 5, if necessary).
The Padres’ previous LCS occurred in 1998 and was played at Qualcomm Stadium. There was an ALCS at Petco Park in 2020, played with no fans in the stands due to COVID.
So Tuesday had been a long time coming for those who have followed the Padres.
Three nights after rain soaked the final two innings of the Padres’ Division Series-clinching victory over the Dodgers, it was 78 degrees when Darvish threw his first pitch and remained temperate all throughout a game in which they had four baserunners and only got a runner as far as second base in the ninth inning.
The game certainly had its moments of brilliance, starting in the top of the first inning. With two outs and Schwarber on third base, Padres second baseman Jake Cronenworth saved a run by diving to stop Harper’s 106 mph grounder in shallow right field and throwing to first for the third out.
Darvish threw 19 pitches in the first, just 10 of them strikes. He had a worse ball-to-strike ratio in the first inning just once this season, April 29 against the Dodgers.
Of his 15 pitches in the second inning, 12 were strikes.
He retired eight straight between Schwarber’s leadoff walk in the first inning and Schwarber’s two-out single in the third. His fifth strikeout ended that inning, and his sixth strikeout started the fourth.
To that point, five of the strikeouts were looking and Darvish had gotten 13 called strikes and eight misses on 23 swings. The Phillies watched an inordinate number of pitches by which they seemed to be surprised.
Harper came to the plate with one out in the fourth and was not fooled by a 1-0 sinker near the upper outside corner of the strike zone. He launched it the other way, uncommonly high and just long enough, with a 42-degree launch angle and off the hands of a fan standing in the first row beyond the left field wall.
Darvish set down the next five batters he faced, getting through the fifth inning in 10 pitches.
His first pitch of the sixth inning was not treated kindly by Schwarber.
The left-handed hitter turned on an 87 mph cutter that floated through the heart of the zone and sent it somewhere no one in attendance could remember a ball going — to the upper deck beyond right field. At a projected 488 feet, it was the farthest a ball had been hit at Petco Park and the farthest a ball had ever been hit by a Phillies player since Statcast began measuring distances in 2015. The 119.7 mph exit velocity was the hardest a Phillies player had ever hit a ball as well.
Darvish got through the Phillies in order in the seventh, and his night was done after 95 pitches before Nick Martinez and Luis Garcia each chipped in a perfect inning.
It wasn’t a bad night for Darvish.
Wheeler simply settled in even better.
The Padres made him throw 24 pitches in the first inning, including a four-pitch walk to Juan Soto and Manny Machado’s fly ball out to left field on the ninth pitch he saw.
Wheeler needed just 23 pitches to get through the next three innings.
Wil Myers’ one-out single stopped a streak at 12 straight batters retired by Wheeler, but he began another streak right after that and was through five innings on 59 pitches.
Another 12-pitch inning followed in the sixth and then another in the seventh.
Wheeler, who shut out the Padres for seven innings on May 18 in Philadelphia, was aided greatly by six one-pitch outs and finished his night having thrown just 83 pitches. He has allowed three runs on seven hits over 19 2/3 innings in his three postseason starts.
Seranthony Dominguez pitched a perfect eighth inning before left-hander Jose Alvarado walked Jurickson Profar with one out in the ninth and a grounder to third baseman Alec Bohm was thrown away.
