SAN DIEGO — There was San Diego Padres right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr., with sunglasses on his face and a cigar in his mouth, dancing in the middle of the clubhouse with Padres new co-owner Kwanza Jones.
There was former All-Star center fielder and San Diego native Adam Jones, flying in from Barcelona, Spain, to hang out with shirtless former teammate Manny Machado in the middle of the champagne-soaked, music-blaring, cigar-scented party.
There was Padres starter Walker Buehler with a beer bong, taking turns drinking from it and pouring it on the heads of his teammates.
The Padres, believing this is the best team they’ve built for October in perhaps three decades, danced, partied and sprayed champagne Wednesday night into the wee hours after winning
4-1 to sweep the Chicago Cubs in the best-of-three wild card series.
The Padres talked about their domination of the Cubs, suffocating their high-powered offense to such an extent that the Cubs produced only one extra-base hit in 18 innings. The Cubs became only the third team in the last 100 years to lead MLB in runs scored and then be limited to one or no runs over a two-game span in the postseason, joining the 1983 Baltimore Orioles and the 1940 Cincinnati Reds.
They whispered about this being one step closer to facing their menacing neighbors to the north, knowing the World Series goes through Los Angeles, where the Dodgers have won the last two titles.
And they spoke in reverence about the team they now need to beat to get where they want to go for the first time in their 58-year history: The Milwaukee Brewers, that lovable little team in the Midwest, who just so happened to have won more games than any team in baseball the past two years, 97 games in 2025 and a franchise-record 103 games this season.
Yes, even though the Padres are the hottest team in baseball – winning 19 of their last 22 games and having just swept the Brewers at San Diego's Petco Park in August – the Brewers are going to pose a problem.
Potentially a big one.
"They’re a huge challenge, they’re the best team in baseball," A.J. Preller, Padres president of baseball operations, told USA TODAY Sports. "You look at their record, year in and year out. They’ve got the two-time manager of the year (Pat Murphy), who’s a force in the dugout. They’ve got the No. 1 pitcher in the game (Jacob Misiorowski). Their roster is loaded.
"They’re the best team in baseball for a reason, and it’s going to be a big challenge for us, for sure."
The Brewers, just like the Padres, have yet to win a World Series title in their franchise history, too. They’ve won the NL Central title four consecutive years, five of the last six years, and have reached the postseason seven times since 2018. But they haven’t reached the World Series since 1982.
Now, it will be a matchup of two of the greatest small-market success stories in baseball, beginning Saturday, Oct. 3, in Milwaukee, with the winner awarded a date in the NL championship series against either the Dodgers or the winner of the Philadelphia-Atlanta wild card series.
The Padres, after thoroughly embarrassing the Cubs, now want to make sure the Brewers have a lone postseason series, too, on their road to a brown and gold October.
"Milwaukee has been the best team all year," Padres manager Craig Stammen said. "They just win. That’s what they do. And they do it a little bit different than everybody else. They don’t hit home runs, but they’ve got a lot of speed, a lot of athleticism, and have got a great pitching staff.
"We're going to have to play our best, just like we did against the Cubs, to knock them out."
Certainly, the Padres, with a payroll about $80 million higher than the Brewers, have the bigger and richer stars, living in million-dollar homes on Coronado Island and driving Bentleys, while the Brewers are the blue-collar grinders driving pickup trucks, with their luxury items being a deer stand in the woods.
The Padres have five players on their roster who are earning at least $20 million a year, with three – Tatis, Machado and Xander Bogaerts – having contracts worth at least $280 million. The Brewers have only two players earning $20 million – Christian Yelich and Brandon Woodruff – and Woodruff is injured. Yelich is the only player on the team with a contract guaranteed for more than $95 million.
Yet, year after year, the Brewers are in the postseason, only to be knocked out when the stakes are the highest.
"Obviously, the Brewers are a No. 1 seed for a reason," said Padres DH Gavin Sheets, who hit a pinch-hit, two-run homer in the fourth inning to break open the game. "They're a great team. They've got great arms. We've played them strong all year, and we know what they offer. Obviously, you've got Misiorowski in Game 1, who's a great pitcher.
"Top to bottom, they're a solid, solid team."
The Brewers don’t have the big-time stars, they don’t hit home runs, they won’t dazzle you, but, oh, can they ever play baseball.
"They play a different brand of baseball than most teams we’re used to facing," Padres veteran pitcher Joe Musgrove said. "You know, they move guys over. They play small ball. They play hard. It’s going to be a tough task in front of us because we got a good group in here, and we’re every bit as confident as they are."
The key, says Ruben Niebla, Padres pitching coach and associate manager, is keeping their leadoff hitters off base. Pete Crow-Armstrong, who’ll likely be the unanimous NL MVP winner, reached base only once the entire series, on a walk. Alex Bregman never reached base at all.
Now, it’s up to the Padres’ vaunted pitching staff to make sure they shut down the Brewers’ leadoff hitters, too, before they create havoc on the bases.
"They’re a dangerous team," Niebla said. "It’s their athleticism. The way they play the game, the ability to run, the way they bunt, the hit and run, the way they play defense. The pressure they put on the pitcher.
"We have to control the running game, control the counts, control the leadoff hitter. That’s important, because once their leadoff hitter is on, they’re much more dangerous."
But, of course, what the Padres have more than the Brewers is a world of momentum, playing their best baseball since July 24, going 41-18 to not only win a wild-card berth, but the home-field advantage in the first round as the top wild-card seed.
"Momentum’s the biggest thing in baseball," Padres center fielder Jackson Merrill said. "It doesn’t matter whether it’s a regular-season game or a postseason game. Momentum is everything. We know they’re a good baseball team. They play the game to win. But you know what? We’re a pretty good baseball team, too.
"We know they won a lot of games, but the record doesn’t translate to the postseason, so we’re both going in clean."
The Padres have played with urgency throughout September, fighting just to get into the playoffs, and now with a brief two-day break, they believe they’ll still have all of the momentum on their side.
"We're going to start in Milwaukee, it's going to be just like here," Sheets said, "it's going to be rocking. But I think there's some momentum that gets built when you play these two games. I think you gain a lot of momentum from a series like this."
Besides, the way the Padres are playing these days, anything less than a World Series berth would be a gut-wrenching disappointment. They believe they can beat anyone, at any time, and yes, even those bullies up the I-5 Freeway.
"We’re not done!"’ Padres third baseman Machado said. "We’re not done! We’re going to continue to fight to bring a championship to the city of San Diego."
The Padres' only regret is that Peter Seidler, their beloved late owner who passed away in 2023, is not around to see this.
"He’d be really proud what this team continues to do," Preller said. "He used to always talk about one day the baseball gods will smile upon us. Hopefully, we’re getting closer to that moment."
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Best team in baseball' awaits after Padres finish celebrating wild card win
