Everything until now between the Padres and Dodgers — the season series, the stunning triple play, the memories of 2022 — have been building-to-this-moment appetizers.
Now it’s time for the main course.
Bring out the expensive flatware and white linens for a National League baseball feast that has been seasoned and simmering for years. Order the large cut. Pour a glass of the good stuff.
The Padres wiped out the wiped-out Braves 5-4 on Wednesday at Petco Park to polish off a wild-card series that barely had time to sprout whiskers.
Stop by the maitre d’ to find your seat.
A regular season that inspired confidence and pumped intrigue into a blossoming rivalry that too often lacked competitive wings suddenly arrived like a window-rattling storm that brewed in a blink.
Welcome to the NL Division Series matchup with the $1 billion Dodgers, Shohei Ohtani and all.
Welcome to Game 1 of a baseball powderkeg, lighting the fuse at 5:30 p.m. Saturday inside historic Dodger Stadium.
Welcome to baseball’s long-anticipated squall.
“It’s going to be unreal,” Padres rookie star Jackson Merrill said. “I know it’s going to be loud and energetic. It will be cool kind of playing in an away stadium (for) the first time in the playoffs. I think it will take a second to take it in, just like I’ve taken it in here. …
“But we’re going to play our A game. We’re going to play our Padres baseball. We’re going to go at them. I just want our guys to be ready and trust each other.”
Said manager Mike Shildt: “Now we’re at the part of the season where the winner moves on. We wouldn’t want it any other way.”
The gourmet meal comes with a potential bitter aftertaste on the Padres’ plate.
When starting pitcher and clubhouse leader Joe Musgrove threw with a 5-1 lead and two outs in the fourth inning Wednesday, it appeared he was settling into the type of groove that positioned him among baseball’s best since Aug. 12.
Then came a pedestrian 74-mph curveball to Matt Olson that left Musgrove, who made two stops on the injured list this season for elbow-related issues, shaking his arm.
A meeting at the mound ended with Musgrove walking off with right elbow tightness, his status moving forward a skyscraper-sized question mark for a rotation that seems built for big things.
That pitching depth president of baseball operations A.J. Preller built?
It could become a life raft rather than a luxury.
Elbow uncertainty aside, the Padres earned a seat at the next table because of a two-out uprising that instantly became the stuff San Diego playoff lore.
When Donovan Solano grounded out to third and Jake Cronenworth struck out against Max Fried in the second inning, it brought up No. 9 hitter Kyle Higashioka.
In the world between the lines, that spot in that situation is the place where innings wither and wilt. Instead, the Padres showed why they are so feared in these playoffs, a minefield since the All-Star break where danger lurks in so many corners.
Higashioka homered to left. Luis Arraez singled to center. Fernando Tatis Jr. raced to an infield single. Profar followed with an infield single, the Padres’ fourth of that variety in the first two innings. Manny Machado doubled in two runs. Jackson Merrill tripled in two more.
In the span of 15 game-tilting pitches, the Padres dinked and dunked and pounded the wobbled Braves into a standing eight-count as Petco Park roared.
By the time the third inning came, Fried was showers-bound.
The spark that grew into an untamed brush fire with six consecutive hits and a team-wide cycle in the same inning for the first time in postseason history, according to OptaSTATS, was impressive considering what happened an inning earlier.
The Padres loaded the bases with no outs and cleanup hitter Machado warming, but failed to score. It was the type of big-league missed chance that deflates some if not most.
It wasn’t fatal. It was fuel.
Playoff baseball rarely comes with a cruise-control knob, however. The drained Braves, who played 18 innings Monday to simply secure a playoff pulse, still tried to tap into the season-saving reserve tank.
The Padres, who did not score after the second inning, flirted with becoming too quiet for too long.Shortstop Orlando Arcia, the No. 9 hitter, led off the eighth with a single off trade-deadline pickup Jason Adam.
One pitch later, Harris hammered a 94-mph fastball 414 feet to cut the lead to 5-4.
“Nobody was ever, woe is me, and they weren’t griping about anything,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said of his team’s rocky road and fight to keep traveling it. “They just kept playing.”
In San Diego, the land of tranquil waves and rosy sunsets, a storm had brewed in a blink. Fear was standing on deck. Utter deflation lurked in the hole.
To start the ninth against hard-throwing closer Robert Suarez, Jorge Soler lined a rocket to center that nearly burned Merrill. The athleticism of the 21-year-old rookie allowed him to recover for the out.
Suarez coaxed Ramon Laureano into a groundout before Gio Urshela popped up to the catcher Higashioka. Though he was nearly undercut by Solano charging from first, he secured the ball as the Padres secured a date with the Dodgers.
Cue the fireworks.