Padres Magic Number (Updated Sept. 22): Series win puts San Diego in driver's seat

UPDATE: After their series win against the White Sox, the Padres' magic number is now two (2) as they go for the sweep on Sunday.

Now that the San Diego Padres have gotten back to their winning ways, it is finally time to really start talking about when they can lock in a spot in the postseason. While chasing down the Dodgers in the NL West remains a possibility as they only have a four-game lead on Sept. 20, the far more likely playoff path for San Diego will come via one of the NL wild card spots.

Fortunately, there is a pretty easy way for fans to understand exactly what needs to happen for the Padres to punch their ticket to the postseason by looking at their magic number.

Padres Magic Number (Updated Sept. 22): San Diego closing in with historically terrible White Sox coming to town

It is a little weird when you start looking at wild card races as multiple teams are in the conversation, but a team's magic number is essentially the combined number of Padres wins and competitor losses needed to secure a playoff spot. In this case, the focus is on the Diamondbacks and Mets the rest of the season as they are currently tied for the last two wild card spots in the National League.

Given the Padres cushion in the wild card race, they could secure their spot in the playoffs in the coming days. The Pads' magic number for a playoff spot currently sits at five. With a three-game set over the weekend against the truly awful White Sox before tough series against the Dodgers and Diamondbacks, the Padres have a prime opportunity to take control and then make some noise in the division race.

Again, the magic number situation could get a little convoluted once you start looking as specific playoff seeds. Even if the Padres lock in a playoff spot soon, which seed they would actually be is likely to be up in the air until the last weekend of the season. There is also a real chance that tiebreakers could come into play: the Padres series against Arizona will determine who wins the tiebreaker between the two teams. San Diego will win all ties against the Braves, Dodgers and Brewers, but would lose on tiebreakers against the Mets and Phillies.

Stay tuned, Padres fans, as things are coming to a head in a hurry in the closing weeks of the 2024 season.

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