Mets collapse opens door for surprise NL Wild Card race down the stretch
USA TODAY Sports’ Bob Nightengale breaks down the top storylines to watch in the NL as the MLB season winds down.
Sports Pulse
The San Diego Padres became the fifth National League team to secure a spot in the 2025 Major League Baseball playoffs after defeating the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-4, in 11 innings on Monday, Sept. 22.
The Padres sit 2½ games behind the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers, who were idle on Monday but open a three-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Phoenix on Tuesday, Sept. 23. The Dodgers’ magic number to win the division over the Padres is 3.
The Padres won two of three games against the Dodgers in a late-August series in San Diego, taking a brief lead in the division. However, the Padres were unable to take advantage of the moment. While the Dodgers came out of that series and went a middling 4-6 from Aug. 25 through Sept. 5, the Padres had a run of eight losses over 10 games. San Diego has trailed Los Angeles by as few as one game and as many as four ever since.
By securing their spot in the postseason, the Padres now have reached the playoffs in four of the past six seasons. San Diego had five total playoff appearances in the 51 seasons prior to 2020, including two World Series appearances in 1984 and 1998.
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