Standing in the middle of a champagne-soaked San Diego Padres clubhouse Monday night, Ryan O’Hearn talked about the accomplishment of making the National League playoffs.
“It’s a dream come true to pop bottles with these guys,” he said.
The Padres hope it was only the first of many celebrations over the next month-plus. They have a chance to upgrade their current postseason spot into one carrying home-field advantage if they can win games, starting with a Tuesday contest against the visiting Milwaukee Brewers, and get some help.
With a 5-4, 11-inning win over the Brewers on Monday, the Padres (86-71) moved within 2 1/2 games of the idle Los Angeles Dodgers (88-68) for first place in the NL West and within 2 1/2 games of the idle Chicago Cubs (88-68) for the first NL wild-card spot.
San Diego would lose a tiebreaker against Los Angeles since the Dodgers ended up with a 9-4 edge in the season series, but the Padres and Cubs split their six games this year.
The second tiebreaker is the teams’ record against their own division. The Padres are 29-20 vs. NL West foes with three games to come against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Chicago is 27-22 vs. the NL Central with three games remaining against the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Padres celebrated their playoff clincher in walk-off fashion on Monday. Catcher Freddy Fermin’s one-out single to center scored the winning run and sparked a raucous celebration in front of the 67th sellout of the year in San Diego.
“It felt like a playoff game for sure,” Padres reliever Mason Miller said. “You’re living and dying with every pitch.”
Miller, O’Hearn and Fermin were all trade-deadline acquisitions who helped San Diego got to the playoffs for the second straight year and the fourth time in six years.
The Padres hope their Tuesday starter, Randy Vasquez (5-7, 3.94 ERA), can bounce back from a short start on Thursday in an 8-3 road loss to the New York Mets. The right-hander allowed four hits and four runs in 2 1/3 innings with a walk and three strikeouts.
Vasquez has faced the Brewers twice in his career, going 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA in 9 2/3 innings. He threw 4 2/3 innings of two-hit ball but walked four in a no-decision at Milwaukee on June 6.
The Brewers are expected to start Bruce Zimmermann, who hasn’t pitched in the majors since going 2-0 with a 4.73 ERA in seven games with the Baltimore Orioles in 2023. The 30-year-old left-hander went 10-7 with a 4.11 ERA this year in 28 games (21 starts) for Triple-A Nashville. He is 8-10 with a 5.57 ERA in 38 career major league games (27 starts), all with the Orioles from 2020-23.
The Brewers (95-62) lead the Philadelphia Phillies (92-64) by 2 1/2 games for the majors’ top record, which would reward them with home-field advantage throughout the postseason. They have already earned a bye into the NL Division Series.
Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy set the club’s goal at getting the top seed for the playoffs while ensuring that the team is as fresh as possible for its October run.
“You have to thread the needle a little bit,” he said. “You can’t be ridiculous about how you go about it because you’re not in desperation mode, but you’re in ‘win tonight’ mode. That’s all there is to it. If you’re undermanned or you’re injured or your guys aren’t available, so what? Every team goes through it.”
The Brewers had chances to quash San Diego’s celebration on Monday, but they stranded 12 runners and had Jackson Chourio ground into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded in the top of the 11th.
–Field Level Media
