NL WILD CARD SERIES: CUBS VS PADRES VS CUBS

September 30, 2026

Gavin Sheets

Petco Park

San Diego Padres

Postgame Press Conference

Padres - 4, Cubs - 1

Q. Congrats on the win. Very exciting. Tell us about what was going through your head going to that at-bat. You know you were going to come up, they were going to go to Palencia and switch it. Palencia has obviously struggled against lefties throughout the year. What were you thinking going in there? What were you looking for in terms of what pitch?

GAVIN SHEETS: Going in, I knew I was either going to get Palencia or Zeferjahn. I saw Palencia get loose in my slot and kind of had a game plan for him. Obviously he's got great stuff. He's a great pitcher. Wanted to take a shot early and got a hit and fortunately did something with it.

Q. The crowd obviously went crazy over that. Over the last week, you guys are the hottest team in baseball. You kind of flipped the script being potentially on the road to getting this home series here. What was the impact of the crowd the last two days, and really like what were you feeling with rounding those bases when that crowd just exploded?

GAVIN SHEETS: Yeah, I think -- I don't want to say it was a complete difference maker, but obviously we went to Wrigley last year, and that's a tough environment. To get in front of these fans -- and I think it's the best fan base in baseball, the best ballpark -- they brought it. I think that was a huge difference.

Obviously we fed off of it and played great baseball, defensively and offensively, but man, these fans were pretty impressive this week.

Q. In terms of career highlights for you, where does this rank?

GAVIN SHEETS: This is at the top. Yeah, this was -- this was special. To do it obviously at home in this setting and on a night where we clinched. Obviously this is just the beginning of the steps that we want to take in this postseason.

But, yeah, fun night, and we're going to celebrate.

Q. When you were in Peoria, whenever it was, two weeks ago, could you have envisioned being here and doing this?

GAVIN SHEETS: This is what I was hoping obviously. It was tough. Going on the IL and not really knowing if I was going to be able to come back by the end of the year. This was just imagining these moments and picturing these moments and seeing how well the guys were playing, and just itching to get back and hoping that if I could get back, that we'd have some moments like this.

When you watch the guys and how well they were playing, it made it easy to work your butt off to try to get back for this. Yeah, it was pretty special to get back.

Q. How tall of a task is it for opposing hitters to face your bullpen?

GAVIN SHEETS: Obviously we wanted to get a lead early. I think it puts a lot of pressure on with the way our back end, you can kind of shut the game down in the fifth inning. Obviously to get some insurance runs there was huge, but they proved not to need it.

I think that's a huge asset. They've kept us in games all year long, and that's the reason we are where we are because they've picked up our offense when we've struggled, and that's definitely a weapon we have.

Q. Did Michael King start them ready to roll? Was that a factor?

GAVIN SHEETS: It set the tone, yeah. That's what you want your ace to do, to set the tone and go out there. I think he went above and beyond what you call for your ace, and obviously last night was an incredible way to start a series.

With Tati and Manny getting after them in the first inning, and obviously Michael throwing the way he did -- same thing for Nick tonight coming back, another guy on the IL that we didn't know if we'd have. To get him back and healthy and looking really good at this point of the season is great for all of us.

Q. On a team with such big stars, what is it like getting big contributions from you and from Ethan and from Ty France? Could you just talk about the length of your lineup?

GAVIN SHEETS: I think it's the culture that's been built here. You see the way Samad Taylor and Dustin Harris and these guys, even Salas have come up and contributed. They come to San Diego, just like myself, and Ty this year, obviously, and I think the culture that's been built here is guys feel comfortable, and they thrive.

I think it's a credit to our clubhouse and the way we do things here. It's not a mistake that all these guys come here and really have shown what they can do.

Q. Now it's on to Milwaukee for you guys obviously. What are you expecting from the Brewers when you get there? In a way, could playing these last two games give you a little bit of an edge where sitting might not have?

GAVIN SHEETS: Absolutely. I think you gain a lot of momentum from series like this. Obviously the Brewers are a 1 seed for a reason. They're a great team. They've got great arms. We've played them strong all year, and we know what they offer. Obviously, you've got Misiorowski Game 1, who's a great pitcher. Top to bottom, they're a solid, solid team.

We're going to start in Milwaukee, it's going to be just like here, it's going to be rocking. But I think there's some momentum that gets built when you play these two games.

Q. We talked about you coming back and hopefully being able to get your A swing off, like you weren't even sure if that was going to be a thing. When did you realize that you were capable of being yourself at the plate?

GAVIN SHEETS: It was obviously a quick buildup. We had two weeks left in the season. I was in the boot for three or four weeks to see if that would help. It was a weird buildup because it was get to Arizona and kind of start sprinting right away and see if we could do swings, see if we could do everything. Once we saw it felt pretty good and bounced back, and it was like, okay, there's not much time. Let's go for it.

Credit to this training staff and the rehab staff and everybody that got me ready. It was unorthodox, but it worked. It's pretty exciting because I didn't know -- I didn't have high hopes for it, but bounced back really well. Yeah, here we are.

Q. How important was that time in Arizona? I think you were getting a bunch of at-bats there, and maybe you could have been back here, but like what was that like to kind of make sure you were where you needed to be?

GAVIN SHEETS: Yeah, it was important. Got a ton of work there. Got a ton of live at-bats and nice instructions going on too. We were able to get seven, eight, nine bats a day, trajectory machine was out there as well. That was the nice thing was it wasn't like a slow buildup. It was, hey, let's see if we could do it. And as soon as we could do it, it's like let's get to game speed as soon as possible.

That was the game plan and everything was going well. Got a ton of work in, which was great, because obviously the version of myself in August and late July was not up to my standard. So it was exciting to get back and be taking swings I hadn't taken in a while.

Q. The moment tonight coming off as a pinch hitter, you only took one swing in the series, but to impact it that way, what was that moment like, the crowd, everything?

GAVIN SHEETS: You game plan for certain guys that you think you might see and you just get ready for that moment. So when it happens, you don't feel like it's sped up on you or anything like that. Just seeing this fan base the whole entire time, I just wanted to get in front of them and I wanted to play. These guys brought it and to be in front of it and contribute, it was pretty special.

Q. You mentioned before your success against the Brewers this year, and obviously you won the season series but you had a key sweep here, San Diego in August. As you look into that series, how much does this momentum you've had the last week, getting home field, sweeping this series, play into it? But also do you just throw out what happened during the regular season, or is that kind of something as a reference point to build confidence going into playing Milwaukee?

GAVIN SHEETS: I think there's more confidence from this series, build off the momentum of this series. Once you get into the postseason, everything changes a little bit. Obviously we played them strong in the regular season, but postseason is a different beast, and we know that.

I think we're going to build more off the momentum that we created in this series than anything that happened in the regular season.

We know what we're going up against, and we know how good they are. There's a reason they're the No. 1 seed in the NL. We'll treat them like that. We'll treat them with respect, and we'll be ready to go.