A city and its lone remaining major professional sports franchise waited 14 years and then through the first six months of an ongoing pandemic and on Sunday through two extra innings.
Finally, for the first time since 2006 and just the sixth time in their 52 seasons of existence, the Padres are headed to the postseason.
They clinched that berth by beating the Seattle Mariners 7-4 in 11 innings Sunday afternoon in a nearly empty ballpark, with just a few dozen team employees and the faces of a thousand fans affixed to cardboard cutouts looking on.
After Trevor Rosenthal struck out Philip Ervin, the celebration began.
Fernando Tatis Jr. kicked his right leg high in the air and ran to center field to meet the outfielders. Manny Machado, a smile as wide as his cheeks would allow hollered and met first baseman Mitch Moreland for a bear hug. Players poured from the dugout.
The giant video board beyond left field flashed gold with the interlocking “SD” preceding “CLINCHED” in white.
Soon, carts being emptied of commemorative hats and T-shirts. The shirts read, “Respect San Diego.”
After about five minutes of hugs and hand slaps, the Padres retreated to their clubhouse. Before he left the field, Machado pointed out to the buildings that overlook Petco Park and pointed to fans watching from balconies and rooftops.
The Padres scored three times in the top of the 11th.
Befitting of this strange season, they then took the field, having to wait for Rosenthal to get the final three outs before they could celebrate.
The poor air quality in Seattle due to wildfires along the West Coast prompted this series to be moved to San Diego, and the Padres were officially the home team though they batted first in each inning.
All good. It’s 2020.
This is the year of things that didn’t previously make sense.
And so, here are the playoff-bound Padres.
The team whose record over the previous nine seasons was the second worst in the major leagues has the National League’s second-best record this year.
The Padres’ 34th win in 54 games in this shortened season guaranteed they will begin a playoff series Sept. 30.
With six games remaining in the regular season, they can clinch second place with another victory or a Giants loss. Any combination of Padres wins and Marlins losses that total three means that best-of-three wild card series will be at Petco Park.
For all that has been exciting and new this season, it was perhaps perfect that Wil Myers was one of Sunday’s heroes.
His three-run homer to straightaway center field in the sixth inning bounced beyond the shrubs in front of the batters’ eye and sent Padres players from the rails pumping their fists and clapping.
It was just a few minutes earlier they had gotten their first hit off Mariners starter Justin Dunn.
Through 5 1/3 innings, the Padres had walked four times, been hit by a pitch and absolutely stung a bunch of outs right at Seattle defenders.
Their first hit, with two outs in the sixth, was even a potential letdown.
With Eric Hosmer on first base having walked, Moreland bounced a ball over the wall in left field. Where Hosmer would have easily scored had the ball remained in play, he had to stop at third on the ground-rule double.
But Myers, the longest-tenured Padres player and perhaps their greatest metaphor, did what he and others have so often this season.
The player the Padres dangled in trade talks the past two years and who hit .239 in 2019, came through by hitting his 14th home run. His OPS at that point was an even 1.000, 261 points higher than his OPS last season.
Myers had been around for five of the Padres’ nine straight losing seasons.
The Miami Marlins (.431) were the only team with a worse winning percentage than the Padres’ .445 mark between 2011 and ‘19.
They improved to 34-20 on Sunday, as Dinelson Lamet was dominant again.
He did not allow a hit until two were out in the fifth. That’s when Evan White’s single and Tim Lopes’ double gave the Mariners a 1-0 lead.
It was the fourth time in his 11 starts that Lamet did not allow a hit in the first four innings, and he followed the back-to-back hits by striking out the final four batters he faced.
With that, he assumed the NL lead with 89 strikeouts on the season.
Drew Pomeranz worked a scoreless seventh, his 17th scoreless inning this season.
After Luis Torrens singled, Dylan Moore tied the game 3-3 by lining a two-run home run to left field off Emilio Pagán in the eighth.
Pierce Johnson held the Mariners scoreless in the ninth to force extra innings.
Jorge Mateo began the top of the 10th at second base, moved to third on Jurickson Profar’s grounder to the right side and scored on Tatis’ flare into center field.
Tim Lopes began the bottom of the 10th on second and moved around to score on successive fly balls. After Moore’s ground-rule double, Rosenthal struck out Kyle Lewis.
Moreland led off the 11th by blooping a double to left field that drove in in Machado from second base, where he had started the inning under the extra-inning rule in place for this COVID-altered season.
A two-out single by Profar scored Moreland, and Austin Nola came around from second when Moore mishandled Trent Grisham’s groundball.
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