Padres News: Why San Diego Has to Wait to See Who They Play in Wild-Card Round

Valentina Martinez | Sep 30, 2024

Sep 25, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; San Diego Padres right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. (23) celebrates with left fielder Jurickson Profar (10) after hitting a home run in the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The San Diego Padres only have to wait a few more hours until their wild-card opponent is revealed.

The Padres open the wild-card series against either the New York Mets or the Atlanta Braves. That won't be decided until after the two teams face off on Monday.

The Mets and Braves compete in a doubleheader. The final two games of the series was postponed because of rain. Depending on the outcomes, either one or both clubs will leave Truist Park on a plane to a playoff series.

It's a sticky situation because the Braves lost to the Kansas City Royals and the Mets beat the Brewers on Sunday, which created a three-way tie with the Arizona Diamondbacks for the two remaining spots in the National League playoffs.

The Braves and Mets both sit at 88-72. Arizona needs one of the clubs to win twice in order to reach the playoffs. Since the Diamondbacks lost the season series to both the Braves and Mets, the club would be eliminated if both reach 89 wins.

If the Braves and Mets split the series, the Braves would secure the No. 5 spot. The Mets have to get the sweep to secure the fifth seed.

Whoever earns the No. 5 seed will be San Diego's opponent in the wild-card round. The No. 6 seed will head to Milwaukee to face the Brewers.

The Padres lost five of seven games against the Mets. Meanwhile, San Diego won four of seven against the Braves this year.

The Padres have beat the Diamondbacks seven times of 13 matchups. The result of Monday's games doesn't matter to the Padres.

Jurickson Profar said the Padres don't care who their opponent is. The club is confident they can take on any team.

"As a team, we need to do what we’ve been doing. It doesn’t matter who we play. … We have a team," Profar told Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune. "And we know if we do what we have to do, we will be in a pretty good spot against any team.”

The confidence in themselves has been an ongoing theme throughout the 2024 season.

“We’ll be ready on Tuesday, and we’ll be prepared and eager and hungry to go compete,” manager Mike Shildt said. “… We’ll work out, and whenever the final out gets tallied and they tell us who we’re playing, we’ll get ready to compete.”