SAN FRANCISCO — The Padres didn’t do all they did at the Trade Deadline with the intention of merely sneaking into a Wild Card spot.
No, they have their eyes squarely on the National League West — a crown they haven’t worn in 19 years.
And right now, they’re making their move.
San Diego has won 12 of its last 15 games — the latest a 4-1 victory over the Giants at Oracle Park on Monday night. As the Padres were celebrating that victory, the first-place Dodgers were in the process of dropping their series opener against the Angels in Anaheim.
Those results leave Los Angeles clinging to a one-game lead — as close as the Padres have been to first place in two months and as close as they’ve been to first place post-All-Star break in any season since 2010.
“Of course we see it,” said center fielder Jackson Merrill, who pounded out three hits against Giants ace Logan Webb. “But we’re just playing our own game.”
Indeed they are. Yu Darvish was excellent over six innings of one-run ball on Monday night. The new-look bullpen was even better, with Mason Miller punching out all three Giants he faced. Catcher Freddy Fermin launched his first homer with his new club to put the game out of reach in the seventh.
It was quite a way for the Padres to start a crucial stretch on their schedule in which they play 13 straight games against division rivals. They face the Giants — the team currently behind them in the NL West standings — six more times over the next two weeks. They’ll play the Dodgers — the team so tantalizingly within reach — six times as well.
“This is August/September baseball right here at its best,” said left fielder Gavin Sheets. “You get divisional opponents back to back. Then, they come to our place. It’s going to be a really good stretch of baseball.
“I’m excited for it. I know we’re excited for it. We’re built for this.”
If they weren’t already, general manager A.J. Preller ensured as much on July 31, when he swung five trades involving 22 players on a frenzied Trade Deadline day. In the process, he addressed virtually every area of need on the roster, boldly declaring, “If you’re going to win a championship, you can’t have any weak links.”
Those moves already have paid major dividends. On Monday, the Padres’ two biggest Deadline upgrades made all the difference — the bottom of their lineup and the back end of their bullpen.
Fermin’s seventh-inning homer capped a go-ahead three-run rally created entirely by the bottom-third of the lineup — the team’s most glaring pre-Deadline weakness. Sheets, who had been mostly relegated to a bench role, sparked that rally with a leadoff double and finished 2-for-3.
“What can you say about Gavin Sheets?” said Padres manager Mike Shildt. “That guy kept his head in the game, hasn’t been able to get the at-bats he was getting early and accepted it like a pro, stayed ready for his teammates.”
Staked to a late lead, the Padres’ bullpen offered no lifeline. Jeremiah Estrada, Miller and Robert Suarez nailed down the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, respectively. Even by his lofty standards, Miller was electric, inducing whiffs on six of the Giants’ eight swings against him.
“It’s exciting,” Sheets said. “Obviously we know the pressure we can put on other teams just with the bullpen we have. When you use the bullpen like that as a weapon and you have a really deep lineup, it just puts a lot of pressure on the other team.”
Precisely what Preller envisioned. Approximately one quarter of the season remains. (The regular season, that is.) The Padres are within striking distance in the division and in contention for a bye. They’re now one game back of the Cubs for the top Wild Card spot (and home-field advantage in their first playoff series).
The next two weekends will see the Padres play a pair of three-game series against the rival Dodgers, first in L.A. beginning Friday, then at Petco Park beginning the following Friday. The stakes will be as high as any August series San Diego has played in recent memory.
But first thing’s first: It has been nearly 15 years since the Padres memorably dropped the 2010 regular-season finale in San Francisco, missing out on a shot at the NL West title. They haven’t entered a day of games in the second half with first place on the line since. They’ll do so on Tuesday.
