San Diego Padres Playoff Situations: Can They Nonetheless Miss the Postseason?

The San Diego Padres can clinch a playoff spot Thursday evening in Los Angeles, needing only a win over the Los Angeles Dodgers, after the Arizona Diamondbacks held off a livid Colorado Rockies comeback to win 12-8 in Denver.

An Arizona loss would have let the Padres clinch a playoff berth earlier than even taking the sector at this time. Now, San Diego should beat the Dodgers to have fun tonight.

A magic variety of 1 sits on the board at Petco Park, however nothing is official but, and the Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies are lurking one recreation again with tiebreakers already of their pocket.

San Diego (88-70) enters the evening having received 14 of its final 16 video games, a surge that sophisticated the already chaotic Nationwide League wild-card race into one thing nearer to a formality. Manny Machado‘s two-run homer fueled Wednesday’s 5-1 win over the Dodgers, and the Padres now management their very own future with 4 video games to play.

San Diego Padres’ Path to Clinching Thursday

Nick Pivetta will get the ball Thursday for San Diego reverse the Dodgers’ Tyler Glasnow, and in the event that they occur to fall tonight, the Padres nonetheless management their very own destiny. A single win on this weekend’s season-ending, three-game set towards Arizona at Petco Park would seal a berth no matter what occurs elsewhere.

That residence crowd can be no small issue. San Diego ranks third in Main League Baseball in common residence attendance and has already offered out 62 of 78 dates this season, a degree of buzz Machado clearly feeds off.

“It’s going to be sick. I’m getting goosebumps simply excited about it,” Machado stated, as quoted by Occasions of San Diego‘s Barry M. Bloom.

Padres’ Two-12 months Streak and Potential Cubs Rematch

San Diego reached October in each 2024 and 2025, beating Atlanta within the 2024 wild-card sequence earlier than falling to the Dodgers within the NLDS, then dropping to the Cubs in final yr’s wild-card spherical. The franchise has by no means made three straight postseasons, and a letdown towards Arizona this weekend would finish that streak earlier than it began.

The larger prize, the highest wild-card seed and home-field benefit within the wild-card sequence, requires extra work. San Diego owns a tiebreaker over Atlanta however has misplaced season-series tiebreakers to each Chicago and Philadelphia, pushing its magic quantity for that seeding to 4, in line with NBC Sports activities’ Eric Samulski.

If the bracket held at this time, the Cubs would go to Petco Park because the No. 5 seed, opening a best-of-three set scheduled to start Sept. 29 and run via Oct. 1, whereas the Phillies would journey to face the Braves.

Win the sequence, and the reward is a date with the 99-win Milwaukee Brewers within the NLDS.

Arizona, 2 1/2 video games again with three to play, would wish to brush the Padres to have an opportunity.

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