Padres Not Sure Where Future Holds

The San Diego Padres woke Saturday morning knowing they were in Phoenix but not knowing where they go next--or when.

They could know by tonight--or they may not know until Monday or Tuesday. No wonder that the first thing General Manager Kevin Towers did Saturday morning was hit the treadmill in the health club at the team hotel.

“Great for stress,” he said by phone.

The Padres play their final regular-season game against the Arizona Diamondbacks tonight.

They won the NL West, but know only that they will open their division series in either Houston or Atlanta on either Tuesday or Wednesday.

It all depends on who the wild card is. The rules prevent a division champion from playing a wild card from their same division in the first round. Thus, the Braves can’t play the New York Mets, and the Houston Astros can’t play the Chicago Cubs. If the Cubs or the Giants are the wild card, they will open against the Braves in Atlanta, while the Padres open in Houston. If the Mets are the wild card, they will open in Houston while the Padres travel to Atlanta.

A two-way tie for the wild card would require a playoff Monday. A three-way tie would require playoff games on Monday and Tuesday.

The Padre opener--be it Houston or Atlanta--is scheduled for Tuesday, but it may have to be delayed until Wednesday.

“At this point,” Towers said before Saturday’s games, “it looks like there will be a playoff and we’ll be spending an extra night or two [in Phoenix]. We may even work out at our spring training complex [in nearby Peoria]. I don’t think we have a preference who we play, but it would help to know so we can start preparing. We know we’re facing either Randy Johnson [in Houston] or John Smoltz [in Atlanta], but that’s two different lineups [because Johnson is left-handed and Smoltz is right-handed].”

It’s also akin to the frying pan and the fire. Towers laughed.

“True,” he said. “I don’t know how much you have to prepare for Smoltz and Johnson. You just have to have your bats ready.”

That has been a problem recently. The Padres, through Friday, were 8-14 in September and had scored four or fewer runs in 17 of their last 19 games, including 11 in a row. They were seventh in the league in runs through Friday and 12th with an average of .254.

“The key thing is that since the series with the Cubs in San Diego [Sept. 14-17] and we were pretty much eliminated [from the competition for best record and home-field advantage in the playoffs] our attitude has been, ‘Let’s get our people healthy,’ and that’s what we’ve done. This is the healthiest we’ve been, and that’s a plus. It may also be an omen that we haven’t been hitting that well. Maybe it means we’ll start in the playoffs.”

The Padres played a series of tight games with the Braves and Astros, finishing 4-5 against each. If there’s a major difference, Towers said, it’s the speed factor in Houston, a disadvantage for San Diego.

“We’re more of a station-to-station team,” he said, “and on the AstroTurf that’s tough. But if we play good baseball and get good pitching, we can play with anybody and we can beat either team. The one thing I feel sure about is the series will go five games no matter who we play, it’s that balanced, and I would include the three wild-card teams in that as well.”

The Padres may be in travel limbo today, but consider the Giants’ itinerary if they were to survive a three-way tie: Denver today, New York on Monday, San Francisco on Tuesday and Atlanta on Wednesday. They would welcome it, of course.