As the Padres wait to pop champagne, a whisker from the playoffs, an unmistakable reality has taken shape that stretches beyond the division and the National League.
No one wants to face this team in the playoffs.
They’re a matchup mess, from the rotation to the bullpen, from the offense to the bench. Since the All-Star break, no team in baseball has been a bigger piston-firing success.
Preferrable appointments on the calendar include a colonoscopy or IRS audit.
They win tight games, as they did in a 4-2 comeback Sunday over the free-falling White Sox at Petco Park. They win when they’re behind. They win on the road. They win when Aquarius is in alignment with the Harvest Moon.
San Diego has found profound equilibrium, a team that can do everything a baseball game demands.
Entering Sunday’s home finale, Padres’ starting pitching owned a 3.32 ERA since the break — the fourth-best mark in the game. The offense had scored 5.13 runs per game during that stretch, better than all but three teams.
They’re 10-2 in extra innings. Their 45-30 road record trails only the Yankees.
Even while trailing the White Sox in the eighth inning, a spot where they have been 10-56 this season, they pieced and plunked and powered their way to three runs and the 90th win of a soaring season.
“That was fitting,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said “Grit Squad showed up again.”
These Padres are everything the 2023 version — despite stars like Juan Soto, Blake Snell, Josh Hader and the payroll-driven expectations that came with them — could not be.
They sliced $90 million-plus from the books, watched a generational player become one of the biggest things in the Big Apple and saw three-fifths of the rotation bolt.
Then they built a better mousetrap all the same.
“We are never out. We are never out,” said Fernando Tatis Jr., whose 389-foot missile to left capped the uprising in the eighth. “… We have shown it all around the year. What we have been doing over here is really special.
“We have the talent to go all the way, but it’s time to take care of business a day at a time.”
The Padres found an All-Star off the free-agent scrap heap in left fielder Jurickson Profar. They gambled on a 20-year-old in center field with Jackson Merrill and saw him blossom into the most dynamic rookie in the National League.
In the Soto trade, they mined critical pitching with innings question mark Michael King. They made stone-cold moves to pick up batting champ Luis Arraez and starter Dylan Cease early and bullpen anchors Tanner Scott and Jason Adam at the deadline.
They built a sturdy bench with now-starter Donovan Solano and David Peralta.
And because of it all, they’re a matchup migraine.
“We have everything,” said Donovan Solano, whose double to left began Sunday’s big inning. “We have guys who can hit, starting pitching, bullpen guys. We’re solid for the playoffs.”
Where are the holes? Minus recent and real questions about All-Star closer Robert Suarez, you need a microscope. The pickups of Scott and Adam provide options on that front anyway.
And so many arrows are pointing up. The rosy rotation returns of Joe Musgrove and Yu Darvish are buoyed by Cease looking like Cease.
Toss in King, and what team goes deeper? Martin Perez has become a delicious luxury that suddenly deepens the bullpen, where Jeremiah Estrada already is waiting.
The offseason surgery recovery of Manny Machado feels complete, as he relocated his power. Adding healthier-by-the-day Tatis has lengthened the lineup from Petco Park to Poway.
That’s not to say the Padres cannot fall in the opening series of the playoffs. This is baseball, after all. Grow overly confident at your own risk.
These Padres, though, feel as complete as ever. That should make what seems possible creep into the minds of those lined up to face them with seasons in the balance.
“It’s a complete roster,” Shildt said. “… We’ve been able to demonstrate how to win games a lot of different ways.”
This will be no matter of simply beating one starter or a couple of bats as it has too often come down to in the past. There’s lots of poison to pick.
It’s a roll-up-your-sleeves assignment.
Starting pitching? Darvish finished with nine strikeouts and no walks with just three hits, two of them solo home runs, in 6 1/3 innings.
The bullpen? The baton-passing unit of Adrián Morejón, Estrada and Suarez did not allow a run after striking out six with no walks.
The bench? Luis Arraez dusted off his bat for a double that tied things in the eighth. Speedy pinch runners Tyler Wade and Brandon Lockridge both scored.
“We’re confident,” Solano said. “We’re ready to compete. We’re ready for any situation. No matter what the score is, we think we can do it and we’re doing it.”
The champagne is coming.
How much? The Padres might be wise to buy in bulk.
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