The Padres franchise has made five trips to the post-season. Twice they went to the World Series. The other three times they were knocked out in the first round by the Cardinals.
As Yogi Berra said, it's like deja-vu all over again.
San Diego will host St. Louis in the best-of-3 National League Wild Card playoff series starting Wednesday night at Petco Park. The Friars knew they had the 4th seed locked up before beating the Giants 5-4 on Sunday afternoon at Petco Park. They found out who they'd play when the Red Birds beat the Brewers 5-3.
Interestingly, Milwaukee is getting into the playoffs anyway, despite finishing 29-31, because they own the tiebreaker over the Giants. Had San Francisco won any of the last three games at home against the Padres they would have earned the final playoff spot. It feels kind of nice for Padres fans to knock the Giants out of the playoff picture for a change. Milwaukee will be the 8th seed and face the Dodgers in Los Angeles.
As for Sunday, the Friars won with a bullpen day. Adrian Morejon started and looked pretty sharp, striking out four in 2.2 innings. The only run he allowed was on a Mauricio Dubon homer. After that six relievers combined to finish the game.
Outfielder Wil Myers put the final stamp on his NL Comeback Player of the Year resume with a home run and an RBI double to pace the offense.
San Diego gets two days off at home and they will not be boring. The Friars have to figure out the health of their top two pitchers, Mike Clevinger and Dinelson Lamet. Both reported biceps tightness in the last week. Both have played catch since and manager Jayce Tingler says both reported positive results. If they can go the Friars will be heavy playoff favorites.
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If not it'll likely be Chris Paddack and Zach Davies to start the first two games followed by ... well, hopefully that won't be a concern.
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