It's official: the San Diego Padres have punched their ticket to the 2026 MLB postseason by virtue of taking a 4-2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday night. The Padres have caught fire in the month of September, separating themselves from their biggest competitor for the third Wild Card spot in the NL in the Arizona Diamondbacks.

This latest win over the Dodgers was their 16th in 21 contests in the calendar month of September, and they now have an 89-70 record on the season. They have even zoomed past the Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies in the standings, putting them in a position where, if the season ended today, they would have homefield advantage in the Wild Card round.

It's better late than never for this Padres team that's suffered through a plethora of inconsistencies, particularly on offense, throughout the year.

On Thursday, the Padres opened up the scoring in the sixth inning on a sacrifice fly from Dustin Harris to drive in Ethan Salas. They then padded their lead to four in the top of the seventh as they strung together a few base hits to score a comfortable advantage over the Dodgers.

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But this Dodgers team refused to quit. A balk from the Padres scored a run for LA in the eighth, and Shohei Ohtani brought the tying run to the plate when he drove in Tommy Edman on a double with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. However, Mason Miller locked in and got the final out of the game by inducing a groundout from Mookie Betts, kicking off celebrations for the Padres.

Since the trade deadline, the Padres have posted the best record in MLB at 31-16. And now, they will get a chance to carry over this torrid play into the postseason.

But for the meantime, San Diego will look to finish the 2026 season off on the strongest note possible to seal homefield advantage in the Wild Card round.