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CHICAGO — The Cubs finally returned to Wrigley Field after opening the 2025 season with nine games away from the Friendly Confines.

It was a familiar home opener weather-wise — a crisp 44 degrees at first pitch, with the wind howling in to create a difficult hitting environment for the Cubs and the undefeated San Diego Padres.

But the Padres are undefeated no more, as the Cubs won 3-1 on Friday.

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Here are three observations as Chicago improved to 6-4 with their fourth consecutive win and San Diego fell to 7-1:

Sho-time is back

This represented Craig Counsell’s second home opener as the Cubs’ manager. So, how did it feel in Year 2?

“I tried to make it feel identical — I had [left-handed pitcher] Shota [Imanaga] pitch,” Counsell jokingly said before the game. “I’m trying to make it feel exactly the same.”

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The results were even better this time.

Imanaga (2-0) pitched a gem in the win, allowing one run on four hits with four strikeouts across 7.1 innings. He exited the game in the eighth to a standing ovation as he continued another strong start to his season.

Understandably, questions about how Imanaga’s second campaign stateside would go were there. It’d be hard to improve on a rookie season that featured a 2.91 ERA across 173.1 innings, an All-Star appearance and top-five finishes in both the National League Cy Young Award and Rookie of the Year ballots. But, through 18.1 innings across three starts this season, Imanaga owns a 0.98 ERA and undoubtedly has picked up where he left off.

Not too shabby for an encore. 

Walk this way

It can be tough to hit at Wrigley on days like Friday. Fly balls that might be a few rows deep into the bleachers in July instead safely landed into outfielders’ gloves.

The Cubs tried to take advantage in other areas to combat the pitcher-friendly environment. They did that by being patient and drawing seven walks — a trend that has emerged early this season. The Cubs entered Friday’s game with 43 walks, nine more than the next closest team, the Arizona Diamondbacks (albeit with two more games played).

Every Cubs run Friday stemmed from a free pass. Ian Happ led off the first with a single, then after two outs, the Cubs drew three consecutive walks to take a 1-0 lead. Happ had a two-out single in the fifth, then the Cubs drew back-to-back walks to again load the bases. Justin Turner’s single and a rare Manny Machado error brought in two more runs.

The Cubs’ ability to consistently draw walks benefits them in multiple ways. The most obvious is that it adds baserunners, leading to more opportunities to score. It also racks up an opposing pitcher’s pitch count, allowing them to chase them earlier in games and force the other side to dig into their bullpen much earlier in contests.

A long-term benefit, though, could be what it means for the team during slumps. If they continue to draw free passes when an inevitable offensive downswing happens, it can still allow them a path to score runs and win games. Friday was a prime example: runs were at a premium as both teams combined for nine hits, but being patient at the plate allowed the Cubs to win the game.

It’s all in the details

The Cubs slugged their way to a three-game sweep of the Athletics in West Sacramento, Calif., earlier this week. The ball seemingly jumped off Chicago’s bats for 27 innings, as the team scored 35 runs. 

Wrigley didn’t play like Sutter Health Park, but it was more like the pitcher-friendly park it was in 2024. The Cubs obviously have no idea how the Friendly Confines will play this season, but they spent the offseason preparing themselves as if scoring would be at a premium.

That means emphasizing the intangibles.

“When it’s a low-scoring environment, baserunning, stolen bases, errors, those often swing games,” Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said before the game. “When the winning team is going to have two or three runs, those little things that you do make a huge difference.”

That was the case Friday. Turner’s two-out single in that fifth-inning salvo was a hard-hit grounder to Padres shortstop Xander Bogaerts, who dove to his left, fielded the ball and fired a throw to second base to try and pick up the inning-ending force-out. Seiya Suzuki, though, hustled to second, sliding in before the throw, and was called safe, allowing Happ to score and extending the inning.

Pete Crow-Armstrong beat a similar two-out force-out attempt in the domestic opener in Arizona last week, extending the fifth inning and allowing the Cubs to pad their lead against the Diamondbacks.

The Cubs also made some defensive plays to keep the Padres off the basepaths and from advancing. None was bigger than in the fifth inning. With one out, a runner at third and the score tied at 1, the Cubs’ infield played in to try to prevent the run — and it paid off. Martín Maldonado hit a sharp grounder to shortstop Dansby Swanson, who fired home and, after a brief rundown, Jake Cronenworth was tagged out between third and home.

It wasn’t the Cubs’ only defensive highlight. Second baseman Nico Hoerner made a nifty play to pick up the first out in the sixth inning, and center fielder Crow-Armstrong made an incredible catch at the wall to rob Bogaerts of extra bases.

“You never know from game to game, but I think we all know, in April there will be a lot of those types of scores, and hopefully, we’re well equipped to put balls in play in those situations, take our walks and play good defense, run the bases well,” Hoyer said. “That’s what really matters. There’s not going to be a ton of three-run homers and stuff when the winds blowing in, in the cold.”