LOS ANGELES -- Amid the stench of champagne and the plume of cigar smoke, it was hard to realize that these San Diego Padres weren't supposed to be here.
Two months and one day ago, the Padres were three games under .500 with a paper-thin rotation, a thoroughly underwhelming offense and a bullpen that couldn't make up for it all. A freefall seemed inevitable. What followed instead was a dazzling, unforeseen surge that culminated Thursday night in a raucous visiting clubhouse at Dodger Stadium, where the Padres celebrated their third consecutive trip to the playoffs.
"We found a way," a bobbing, sunglass-wearing Fernando Tatis Jr. said after a 4-2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers. "We found our groove, and here we are."
The Padres went from a 50-53 record to winning 39 of their next 56 games. During that stretch, their rotation was bolstered by the additions of Robbie Ray and Casey Mize, their offense rallied around the resurgences of Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jackson Merrill, and their bullpen, fronted by Mason Miller and Adrian Morejon, finally had the space to showcase its dominance.
In just two months, the Padres have gone from a floundering team to one that nobody wants to face.
"We've been here, so we're battle tested," Padres general manager A.J. Preller said. "We've played a lot of big games. You've got to have big-time performers to play in October. We've got a lot of them. To play in close games with a bullpen like this is a big strength, and we're gonna use it."
The Padres began September with a half-game lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks for the third and final wild-card spot in the National League and now have an inside track on hosting the first round. They've gone a major league-best 16-5 this month, gaining seven games on the Philadelphia Phillies and six games on the Chicago Cubs.
The Padres currently hold the No. 1 spot, one game ahead of the Cubs and two ahead of the Phillies, though both teams hold the tiebreaker over them. Their ace, Michael King, was lined up for Sunday's regular-season finale but will instead start Game 1 of the wild-card series on Tuesday. The Padres will finish the regular season with a home series against the D-backs, who are still barely in playoff contention. Given their 26-8 record at Petco Park since the start of July, they'll push for that No. 4 seed.
"I think it's a huge advantage," Padres second baseman Jake Cronenworth said of hosting the best-of-three wild-card round. "You ask any team that has the opportunity to do it, I think they would."
The Padres' victory over the Dodgers, who clinched a first-round bye when the Atlanta Braves lost moments before first pitch, came courtesy of Ethan Salas, the 20-year-old catching prospect who has proven he belongs on the playoff roster.
Salas was behind the plate to guide Nick Pivetta and four relievers through nine innings of two-run ball against the back-to-back defending champions. Offensively, he broke up Tyler Glasnow's no-hitter with a sixth-inning, opposite-field single, then drove in the Padres' third run with a base hit up the middle in the seventh. Salas' numbers -- 8-for-35 with two home since being called up Sept. 1 -- haven't jumped off the page. But his aptitude and composure has.
"I'm impressed," Padres third baseman Manny Machado said. "Not a lot of people impress me."
Two months ago, Machado was at the center of a lineup that was among the worst in the big leagues -- under a rookie hitting coach in Steven Souza Jr. and a rookie manager in Craig Stammen. But the Padres' offense boasts the sport's second-highest OPS and third-most runs per game since the start of August.
Tatis has 25 home runs despite not hitting his first one until May 30. Merrill went from a .212/.269/.337 slash line in April, May and June to a .295/.332/.545 slash line in July, August and September. Ty France, signed to a minor league contract, has been worth 3.7 FanGraphs wins above replacement. Unheralded guys like Dustin Harris and Samad Taylor have provided major boosts around them. And lately, Cronenworth and Xander Bogaerts have gotten hot.
"Staying true to each other," Machado, who's batting only .216 but also has 29 home runs, said of how the offense turned it around. "I think we all knew what we have. I think the biggest part of it was knowing that baseball's hard, and understanding that, staying true to yourself, staying true to your strengths, and attacking that, and maximizing it, helped us in the long haul."
The Padres have now made three consecutive postseason appearances for the first time in franchise history, which dates back to 1969. Their new owners, Kwanza Jones and Jose E. Feliciano, made the trip to L.A. to commemorate it, taking part in some of the champagne celebration before celebrating with some of the players on the Dodger Stadium infield.
Since officially taking control of the franchise a month ago, Jones and Feliciano have vowed to follow in the footsteps of late owner Peter Seidler by being singularly focused on delivering the Padres their first World Series title.
In five days, that journey will begin anew.
"It's not gonna be easy," Machado said, "but this is why we play baseball."