The Padres have put themselves in a position they badly needed, and the timing couldn’t be better.
With their final regular-season series against the Diamondbacks set for Sept. 25-27 at Petco Park, San Diego already has a celebration on the calendar: Hispanic Heritage Weekend, mariachis, City Connect uniforms and a Los Tucanes de Tijuana concert. If the standings hold, those three days could feel like a victory lap. If they don’t, every pitch in that series could carry playoff weight.
For now, the Padres have created enough breathing room to make sure Arizona can’t steal the show. Entering Sept.
18, San Diego is 84-69 and up four games on the Diamondbacks for the final NL Wild Card spot. That lead has grown from 2 1/2 games Tuesday morning after the Padres won 10 of 11 while Arizona lost two straight.
That difference matters because these two teams have split their first 10 meetings. If San Diego went into that final weekend with only a three-game lead and Arizona swept, the clubs would finish tied. In that scenario, the Diamondbacks would own the 8-5 head-to-head edge and claim the final playoff berth in a two-team tie.
A four-game cushion changes the math completely. If the Padres carry that lead into Sept.
25, Arizona cannot catch them during the series. Even a sweep would still leave San Diego one game ahead.
There are still six games left before the showdown at Petco. The Padres host Miami before heading to the Dodgers, while Arizona gets the Yankees at home and then travels to Colorado.
San Diego only needs to match Arizona result for result to stay safe. The elimination number between the clubs is six, so any combination of six Padres wins and Diamondbacks losses knocks Arizona out before the finale even begins.
San Diego had a rough moment Tuesday when it fell 9-3 to Colorado. The Cubs and Phillies had both lost, Arizona was still within reach and the Padres’ eight-game winning streak ended against a last-place team.
But they answered quickly. Wednesday brought a 9-3 win over Colorado, highlighted by Ethan Salas becoming the youngest catcher in MLB history to hit two home runs in a game.
Then came Thursday’s 9-2 victory, which completed a 6-1 road trip and gave the Padres three of four at Coors Field.
Over the Colorado series, San Diego scored 29 runs and piled up 52 hits. Michael King worked six strong innings in the finale, and Xander Bogaerts finished a single short of the cycle.
The trip ended with the Padres holding that four-game Wild Card lead and sitting one game behind both Chicago and Philadelphia. Because San Diego has lost the tiebreaker against each club, it has to finish ahead of them outright to make sure a Wild Card Series comes through San Diego.
So the next six games are about more than just Arizona. The Padres can lock down their postseason spot while still pushing for home-field advantage.
Miami won’t be a free pass, either. The Marlins just took two of three in Arizona, helping create the cushion San Diego now enjoys. And the Dodgers, while already having clinched the NL West, are still chasing a first-round bye.
Nothing about this stretch has been easy. But compared with where they stood two days ago, the Padres are in a much better place.
They no longer need to gain ground on Arizona before that final series. They just need to avoid giving any back.
In Other News...
Padres Rookie Reliever Could Become An October Weapon Fast
Bradgley Rodriguez has quietly become one of the more interesting arms in the Padres bullpen, and that matters now because San Diego is still fighting for a National League wild-card spot. The rookie reliever has put together a 2.38 ERA while bringing a different look than most power arms, leaning on a changeup as his go-to pitch and giving the Padres another option in the late innings.
For Rodriguez, the rise has not come easily. He has worked through early career setbacks and injuries before climbing through multiple minor league levels and making his way into the big league bullpen in 2026. With October still within reach, the Padres have a young pitcher who could go from promising depth piece to a very real postseason weapon in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]
Padres May Finally Have An Answer For Their Biggest Lineup Problem
The Padres have spent much of the season searching for some stability in the No. 2 spot, cycling through 12 different hitters with little to show for it. The production there has lagged well behind the rest of the order, and for a team trying to maximize every inning around Manny Machado, that kind of lineup hole has become hard to ignore.
One possible fix is starting to take shape in a platoon that would pair Dustin Harris against right-handed pitching and Austin Hays against left-handers. Both have shown better splits in those matchups, and the idea is simple enough: give the Padres a steadier presence near the top of the lineup while extracting more value from two hitters whose strengths fit different looks. Whether it sticks is the next question, but it at least gives San Diego a more deliberate answer than the revolving door it has used so far. [Read more 🡒]
Padres Fans Need To Watch This Manny Machado Winter Decision
Manny Machados name is suddenly part of the Padres winter conversation in a way few would have expected a couple of years ago. Pat Ragazzo of FanSided reported that Machado is viewed as a potential trade candidate, despite the fact that he is under an 11-year, $350 million extension signed in February 2023 and still carries the kind of profile that keeps him relevant around the league. Even in a down year offensively, he remains a player with real talent and enough track record to draw attention if San Diego ever decided to listen.
The complication, of course, is that nothing about a Machado move would be simple. He holds a no-trade clause and would have to waive it for any deal to happen, and the Padres would also have to weigh the optics of moving one of the faces of the franchise under new ownership. For now, it is less about a finished conclusion than the possibility itself, which is enough to make this one of the more important storylines to monitor as the winter unfolds. [Read more 🡒]