Walker Buehler, who has pitched in three World Series and has a pair of rings, signed with the Padres in February for this feeling.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing on a winning team that does it the way we have this year and is going to make the playoffs, it looks like, I think is a huge accomplishment,\u201d he said Sunday.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s right \u2014 the Padres are so hot and so close they aren\u2019t even afraid to say it.<\/p>\n
Buehler continued to be an indispensable part of what now seems an inevitable march to a franchise first \u2014 a third consecutive postseason appearance.<\/p>\n
He worked a season-high 6\u2154 innings in a 7-3 victory over the Marlins that whittled the Padres\u2019 magic number to two.<\/p>\n
By completing their third three-game sweep in their past four series, they put themselves in position to clinch a playoff spot as early as Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
What they need for that to happen is a victory in their series opener against the Dodgers and a Diamondbacks loss in Colorado.<\/p>\n
If the Padres are not celebrating Tuesday, there will be five more days of games for them to get the combination of victories or Diamondbacks losses that add up to two to assure their place in the six-team National League postseason field.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to winning ballgames,\u201d Fernando Tatis Jr. said. \u201cAnd there\u2019s still a lot in play. We want to clinch, we\u2019re trying to start a series over here in the playoffs. So, you know, still a lot in play, and we still have homework to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
As it stands now, the Padres hold the fifth seed, even with the Cubs and a game ahead of the Phillies. Because the Padres lost the season series against both teams, they would need to finish at least a game ahead of both in order to grab the fourth seed and host a best-of-three wild-card series.<\/p>\n
The Diamondbacks, four games behind the Phillies, are the last remaining NL team with a chance. And, like the Cubs and Phillies, the Diamondbacks won Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard not to kind of see what the rest of the teams around us are doing,\u201d Jake Cronenworth said after one of the most productive games of his career. \u201c\u2026 I think it drives us a little bit more. You see that score on the scoreboard, and I think it\u2019s kind of taken our game to another level.\u201d<\/p>\n
It seems so.<\/p>\n
Sunday was the Padres\u2019 13th victory in 14 games.<\/p>\n
Cronenworth hit a pair of two-run homers and drove in another run with a double.<\/p>\n
His homer in the second inning put the Padres up 2-0. Successive RBI doubles by Cronenworth and Samad Taylor doubled the lead in the fourth inning.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Buehler was as dominant as he had ever been in a Padres uniform for six innings and was an out away from a scoreless outing before Javier Sanoja\u2019s three-run homer got the Marlins to within 4-3.<\/p>\n
The first out of the seventh inning came on the 12th straight batter Buehler retired. He then allowed his second single of the game, got a fielder\u2019s choice grounder and issued his second walk before Sanoja\u2019s blast.<\/p>\n
Buehler walked off the mound to an ovation, barking an obscenity as he passed the first base line, frustrated at having left a fastball up but not up enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally, really good \u2019til the end,\u201d Buehler said. \u201cBut we won the game. That\u2019s all that matters.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Buehler worked into the seventh inning for the first time this season, he was replaced by Kyle Hart.<\/p>\n
Bradgley Rodriguez worked the eighth, and Mason Miller retired all three batters he faced in the ninth inning.<\/p>\n
Tatis\u2019 solo homer in the bottom of the seventh and Cronenworth\u2019s second home run, in the eighth, provided the final margin.<\/p>\n
Sunday was the fifth consecutive game in which the Padres scored at least seven runs, something they had done just four times in franchise history before this stretch.<\/p>\n
Their 13-1 record since Sept. 6 is their first 14-game run that good since 2006.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like the whole team is in a good spot right now,\u201d Tatis said. \u201cWe\u2019re playing really good baseball. We\u2019re checking in when we have to. The entire lineup is in a good spot right now. So when it\u2019s going like that, it\u2019s \u2026 a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Walker Buehler, who has pitched in three World Series and has a pair of rings, signed with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,1334,74,76,75,2611,127],"class_list":["post-470437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-latest-headlines","tag-mlb","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}