Padres' Nightmare Playoff Road to World Series: Worst Possible Matchups In Every Round

With just two weeks remaining in the MLB regular season, the race for the playoffs is starting to get very interesting. As things stand right now, the San Diego Padres are in possession of the final National League Wild Card spot. There’s still plenty of baseball left to be played, and a lot can change between now and the end of the regular season, but let’s be optimistic for a second and assume the Padres are able to punch their ticket to October.

Unfortunately for San Diego, that would only be the beginning. As the projected No. 6 seed in the National League, the Padres would have a brutal road ahead of them if they want to make it all the way to the World Series. There are a handful of teams they could potentially face, but if everything breaks the wrong way, the Friars could have one of the toughest playoff paths imaginable.

Wild Card Round: @ Atlanta Braves

The Padres’ path would likely begin against the winner of the NL East, which at the moment is looking like it will be the Atlanta Braves.

On paper, that might not be the worst possible matchup for San Diego. The Braves obviously have plenty of talent, but I actually like the way the Padres match up with them. If San Diego can find a way to steal a game against Chris Sale and put themselves in position to win the series, I think they have a legitimate chance to get through Atlanta. Of course, that’s where things would get considerably more difficult.

Division Series: vs. Los Angeles Dodgers

The nightmare truly starts in the NLDS. After potentially taking down the Braves, the Padres would likely have either the Milwaukee Brewers or Los Angeles Dodgers waiting for them. And if there’s one thing we know about October baseball, it’s that pitching tends to become even more important when the games matter most. Unfortunately for San Diego, both of those teams have plenty of it.

Let’s start with the Dodgers, because they currently sit as the No. 2 seed in the National League. If the Padres enter the postseason as the No. 6 seed, that would put Los Angeles directly in their path in the NLDS. In case you weren’t aware, the Dodgers are pretty good.

Their lineup is led by the unicorn himself, Shohei Ohtani, but he certainly isn’t the only problem San Diego would have to deal with. Kyle Tucker has started to heat up, while future Hall of Famers Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts give Los Angeles two more terrifying bats to worry about. And somehow, the pitching staff might be even scarier.

After acquiring Tarik Skubal at the trade deadline, the Dodgers’ rotation became absolutely ridiculous. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, and Skubal give Los Angeles four true frontline starters to throw at opposing lineups in a playoff series. The Padres obviously know the Dodgers better than almost anyone, and San Diego has proven it can compete with Los Angeles. But if they have to face their division rivals in the NLDS, they’ll have very little margin for error. And if they somehow manage to pull it off? Well, things wouldn’t exactly get easier.

National League Championship Series: vs. Milwaukee Brewers

If the Padres are able to knock off Los Angeles and prevent the Dodgers from winning a third consecutive World Series, they would likely have the Milwaukee Brewers waiting for them in the NLCS. That might be an even worse matchup.

Milwaukee feels like a team that was built specifically for October baseball. Jacob Misiorowski has emerged as, arguably, the most dominant pitcher in the sport, but he’s hardly the only arm the Brewers can throw at a team. Logan Henderson has broken out as a rookie, and he looks like a future star (if he's not there already), and Kyle Harrison has taken a huge step forward this year. That's not a fun trio of pitchers to face, but a big part of the reason Milwaukee has had so much success this year is because of their rotation.

The offense is more than capable of holding up its end of the bargain, too. The Brewers have scored the second-most runs in baseball over the course of the season, with Jackson Chourio, Brice Turang and William Contreras leading a lineup that has consistently found ways to score.

They’re also playing some ridiculous baseball right now. Milwaukee has scored at least eight runs in six of its first 10 games in September, and the Brewers currently own the best run differential in baseball. The best team in the league by run differential is also playing some of its best baseball of the season at exactly the time you’d want to be peaking. That’s a scary combination.

World Series: Likely An AL East Contender

Of course, if the Padres somehow survive Atlanta, Los Angeles and Milwaukee, they would still have one more series standing between them and a championship. They’d have to take on the best the American League has to offer.

Maybe that’s the Rays. Maybe it’s the Yankees. Maybe another team emerges over the final couple weeks and runs the table. At that point, though, I don’t think it matters nearly as much. If the Padres can somehow make it through the Braves, Dodgers and Brewers, they’ll have already proven they can beat anyone. They would have survived the three toughest possible opponents in the National League, and confidence would probably be through the roof. The problem is getting there in the first place.

The Padres already have the odds stacked against them just to reach the postseason, and their projected path to the World Series certainly won’t do them any favors. If everything goes according to the current projections, San Diego could have to beat the Senior Circuit's three division winners just to earn a trip to the Fall Classic. Unfortunately, there isn’t much the Padres can do about it. They still have to take care of business over these final two weeks just to get into the postseason. If they do, they’ll have to embrace the challenge and hope their best baseball is still ahead of them. Because if this nightmare path becomes reality, there won’t be any easy series waiting for them.

Are you optimistic about the Padres right now?

Are you optimistic about the Padres right now?

• Are you optimistic about the Padres right now? Required
  

  
• Save

See All Padres Polls >