Sorry, baseball pursuits.

It’s great that Major League Baseball’s team owners added a second and third wild-card playoff berth in recent years.

With six postseason spots per league rather than four, the net gains in playoff contention outweigh the dilution of the divisional races.

The Padres and their fans are a proud bunch, but humble pie tastes good when the other option is having to beat the Dodgers in National League West race.

The Padres know that if they win some 85 to 90 games, they’ll get the second or third wild card in most years.

Now, riding an 8-1 surge that may have nixed a selloff, the Padres can dig into a 50-game playoff race on the other side of the trade deadline, starting Monday night in Phoenix.

Will the Padres (58-54) overcome the Diamondbacks (59-53) and Phillies (59-53) to claim either the second or third wild-card spot, assuming the Brewers (69-42) or the Cubs (63-49) grab the first one?

Will the youthful Marlins (58-55) and other low-payroll teams stick around?

Because of the wild-card prizes, the comebacks of Padres starting pitchers Nick Pivetta and Joe Musgrove will take on more significance, as will the trade-deadline actions taken by A.J. Preller and his wild-card rivals — notably Dave Dombrowski and Mike Hazen of the Phillies and Diamondbacks, respectively.

There are smaller details to digest, too.

The Phillies hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Padres. And the Padres and Diamondbacks, who have split six games so far, play seven more times this season.

At the very least, it’s all more interesting than NFL training camps, to which many baseball fans turn when their teams are playing out the string.

It seems only fair that MLB extended a hand to the Padres and others like them.

If the Dodgers hadn’t brilliantly exploited an MLB economic system that privileges big-market teams, the Padres wouldn’t be so beholden to the wild-card option year after year.

You take what you can get, while brushing off the news Saturday that the Dodgers traded for pitcher Tarik Skubal, a two-time Cy Young winner who is in his prime years.

While Padres players won’t concede the divisional race until the mathematicians tell them it’s over, they can’t help realize that “Wild Card or Bust” has become the de facto theme to every regular season in San Diego.

“Let’s just get in however you can, whatever that is,” Musgrove said Sunday after the team’s 5-4 win over the Giants, a big-market club that almost never gets to the playoffs anymore despite the expanded format.

“We play well, (the Dodgers) have a slide, we get the division, then great,” added Musgrove. “But we just want to get in. So, whatever way that is.”

The Padres can’t be accused of not going after the Dodgers with great gusto, year after year.

This isn’t a franchise that cries the small-market blues.

Peter Seidler’s zeal to slay the dragon couldn’t be doubted.

Coming to grips with how the Dodgers fit into Padres’ attempts to win the franchise’s first World Series title, Preller saw long ago that two crucial realities were evolving: winning the West race would be almost impossible in most years, and San Diego’s best chance to blow up the  L.A. Death Star would come via the wild card.

“The reality is,” he said in November 2020, a few weeks after L.A. swept his team in the playoffs, “the Padres are never going to be able to compete financially and roster-wise completely with the Dodgers.”

“So, what’s your next best option?” Preller added, in essence previewing San Diego’s best-of-five ouster of L.A. in the 2022 playoffs. “Let’s do the best we can, and if we get (to the postseason), we can beat them in a seven-game series.”

The prospect of labor strife looms over the rest of this Padres/MLB season, what with the labor pact due to expire in December and both sides already drawing bright red lines in public statements.

MLB owners and players reps will hear this winter from broadcasters who want a large World Series tournament as part of the next collective bargaining agreement.

Musgrove, speaking good sense once again, said he’d stick with 12 playoff berths.

“I’m not a huge fan of opening it up to any more teams,” he said. “It’s an exclusive group that’s the best of the best, and you settle it at the end of the year. It’s good now.”

If the Padres were to get in with the NL’s sixth-best record, there will be no complaints from Padres players or fans.