Padres lock up Wild Card date with Mets
AJ Cassavell
@AJCassavellSAN DIEGO -- The Padres¡¯ postseason path is locked in.
And it¡¯s a doozy -- starting Friday night against the Mets in New York.
With their 6-2 victory over the Giants on Tuesday night, the Padres assured themselves of the second Wild Card spot in the National League and the No. 5 overall seed. In the meantime, the Braves¡¯ victory in Miami wrapped up the NL East, bumping New York into the Wild Card round -- and a three-game series against the Padres this weekend at Citi Field.
¡°They¡¯ve got a great team over there,¡± said Wil Myers, who homered for the second consecutive night on Tuesday. ¡°Should be electric in that ballpark, should be a good environment. Looking forward to it.¡±
That series will feature no shortage of storylines. Two revered longtime managers going head-to-head, one of whom -- Padres manager Bob Melvin -- played his final season as a player under then-Yankees manager and current Mets skipper Buck Showalter. It¡¯s also Juan Soto¡¯s return to the NL East (and a ballpark he has raked in), where he¡¯d presumably face former teammate Max Scherzer at some point.
But more than anything else, it¡¯s a heck of a matchup between two teams with excellent pitching staffs. Though neither team has confirmed its pitching plans, here¡¯s how the two sides might line up this weekend:
Game 1: Yu Darvish vs. Jacob deGrom
Game 2: Blake Snell vs. Max Scherzer
Game 3: Joe Musgrove vs. Chris Bassitt
¡°They have a really good team, and I know their rotation will be all set up, and we¡¯ll see some really good starting pitchers,¡± said Padres manager Bob Melvin. ¡°They will as well. So it should be fun.¡±
Really, no matter where the Padres ended up in the bracket, the road was always going to be tough. The National League is loaded. But this particular path offers quite a challenge.
The Mets won their 100th game on Tuesday night. Beat the Mets, and the Padres would face the rival Dodgers, who have already set a franchise record with 110 victories this season. The 101-win Braves would be favored to reach the NLCS, while the 105-win Astros own the top seed in the American League.
The Padres might have to beat four 100-win teams over the next month to reach their ultimate goal.
Hey, they¡¯re in. They¡¯re fine with that.
¡°It¡¯s zero and zero now,¡± Melvin said Sunday amid his team¡¯s clinch celebration. ¡°You look at our team and how, maybe, we stack up against some other teams -- I think we¡¯re a pretty good playoff-caliber club, with what the roster¡¯s going to look like once we get going. I¡¯m really encouraged. Hopefully, our best moments are yet to come.¡±
Speaking of that playoff roster, three noteworthy developments from Tuesday¡¯s game:
1. Sean Manaea pitched six brilliant innings, as he continues his recent turnaround. In early September, Manaea was demoted from the rotation, but he finished the season with consecutive excellent outings. In doing so, he¡¯s knocking on the door for a potential spot on the playoff roster as a long reliever.
2. Brandon Dixon went 2-for-4 on Tuesday, and suddenly it doesn¡¯t seem so far-fetched that he might have a spot as a pinch-hit bat on the postseason roster. The Padres¡¯ bench is thin, and in a three-game series, it¡¯s worth wondering if they¡¯d need to carry 13 pitchers. Dixon, who raked all season in the Minors, is 3-for-11 since his callup.
3. Wil Myers homered again. Even against a trio of Mets right-handers, he¡¯s making a serious case to start this weekend. ¡°Start? In place of who?¡± you might be asking. That¡¯s a good question. Perhaps Myers starts in place of Josh Bell, who has struggled lately (though that would make the Padres¡¯ lineup extremely righty-heavy). Perhaps Myers would play center field (but in a low-scoring series, that¡¯s an option they¡¯d prefer to avoid). In any case, it¡¯d certainly be useful to have his red-hot bat on the bench.
First, however, there¡¯s the small matter of wrapping up the regular season on Wednesday afternoon. The Padres are 89-72 and looking for their first 90-win season since 2010. Myers, meanwhile, might be playing his final game as a Padre at Petco Park. The longest-tenured Padre will almost certainly have his team option declined this winter. In his eight seasons in San Diego, this year marks just his second trip to the postseason -- the other being the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign.
Said Myers: ¡°It¡¯s going to be nice tomorrow coming in for the last game of the season, knowing it¡¯s not my last game of the season.¡±
Indeed, bigger things await, beginning Friday at Citi Field.