By admin 
Michael King loves baseball and fun as much as the newest blond in the clubhouse, but he’s not quite on the same page as Manny Machado, who said Tuesday night that he “wouldn’t be opposed” to the final wild-card spot coming down to the last series of the weekend against the Diamondbacks.
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“I’d be very opposed to it,” King said with a smile Wednesday as he dressed for his between-start bullpen. “I would much prefer to have a little rocking-chair series and be prepared for whoever we’re playing in the wild card.”
Yeah. Good luck with that.
On Wednesday, the Padres and Diamondbacks swapped spots in the standings for the sixth time in 11 days, with San Diego completing a sweep of the scuffling Nationals while Arizona settled for two of three at lowly Kansas City.
That’s how delicate the Padres’ half-game grip is on the NL’s final wild-card spot as they embark on a road trip through San Francisco and Colorado, the two bottom-feeders in the National League West. Both the Padres and D-backs were off Thursday.
FanGraphs.com as of Thursday morning pegged the Padres’ playoff odds at 57.5%, but they’ve been roughly where Arizona’s postseason odds are now (45.1%) on the days they’ve found themselves peering up at the Diamondbacks in the standings.
Meaning, the NL’s third wild-card spot is up for grabs over the final 16 games of the season.
Put an asterisk on the last weekend of the season: Unless the Padres or Diamondbacks can build a four-game lead or the teams ahead of them in the wild-card chase fall apart (more on that in a bit), they will essentially be beginning the postseason Sept. 25-27 at Petco Park.
“It probably will (come down to that),” Machado said. “Hopefully not, but I mean, I wouldn’t be opposed to it. Love baseball.”
Meaningful baseball is what it’s all about this time of year, and the Padres are at least relishing their new lease on the season after teetering on the brink of irrelevance shortly before the trade deadline.
Their postseason odds shrank as low as 7.4% after losing five of seven coming out of the All-Star break and swelled to more than 70% during an MLB-best 21-7 run that gave the Padres a two-game cushion on the Diamondbacks.
The Padres were on the verge of extending that lead to three games when they had the bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the 10th inning against the Pirates on Aug. 24. The Diamondbacks had already been blanked by the Cubs that day, but Jackson Merrill struck out on three straight pitches, Xander Bogaerts lined out and the Padres lost in 12 innings.
The seesawing hasn’t stopped since.
Given the alternative, the Padres are at least enjoying the ride for what it is.
“It’s fun baseball,” first baseman Ty France said. ” … It’d be nice to be up 15 games, but that’s not where we’re at right now. We’re in a spot where we need to keep winning baseball games and it’s going to probably come down to the last weekend of the year.”
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So long as the Padres at least take care of their own business.
The Padres had, as of Thursday, the easiest remaining schedule of the four teams battling for wild-card spots. Their remaining opponents have won just 48% of their games this season.
The Phillies’ remaining opponents have won 54.4% of their games. The Cubs’ foes have won 51.8%, while the D-backs’ opponents have won 49.4%.
The Padres begin their slate with three straight series against losing teams – the Giants, Rockies and Marlins – before playing the toughest opponent on any wild-card hopeful’s remaining schedule: the Dodgers in Los Angeles.
Dave Roberts’ team may still be playing for home-field advantage in the penultimate series of the season.
The Diamondbacks, on the other hand, face a Rangers team on the fringe of a wild-card race, the Marlins and a Yankees team that could still be fighting for the AL East crown. They also get a trip to Coors Field against the down-and-out Rockies, but three games in Denver directly leading into a make-or-break series in San Diego is enough to make any pitching coach’s ulcers flare up.
Then consider this: The Cubs lost four in a row heading into Thursday to cede the top wild-card spot to the Phillies, whose tough finish includes home games against two teams (the Brewers and Rays) who could either be fighting for No. 1 seeds or using the final days of the season to set up pitching for the postseason.
The tougher portion of the Cubs’ remaining schedule includes a home series against the NL East-leading Braves and a trip to face the playoff-bound Red Sox for the final weekend of the season.
So maybe, just maybe, it’s not strictly a Padres-or-Diamondbacks proposition these final two-plus weeks of the season.
Either way, it’s a lot of fun to game out considering the alternatives the Padres were flirting with in July.
King would just prefer to watch the final weekend from the dugout in advance of his Game 1 NL Wild Card Series start than having to actually pitch the Padres past the Diamondbacks that final weekend.
“Derek Jeter played like one game that didn’t actually matter in his whole career,” King said. “I guess what I will say is I would like for that series not to matter because we’re already in the playoffs, and that’s why it doesn’t matter. But it is September baseball. It feels like there’s that sense of urgency that is a little uptick, and we’ve got to make sure that we’re winning every game we can.”
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This story was originally published September 10, 2026 at 2:15 PM.