The San Diego Padres clinched a postseason berth with a walk-off extra-innings win over the Milwaukee Brewers at Petco Park, Monday and the Friar Faithful were left to wait and wonder to see how Padres Manager
Mike Shildt would address his lineup for the remainder of the regular season.
San Diego ran out a skeleton crew of a roster for the next game with Manny Machado, Jake Cronenworth, Jackson Merrill and Fernando Tatis Jr. (illness) getting the day off. It appeared the Padres were going to begin resting players to prepare for the postseason. With that being said, San Diego still had homefield advantage to play for and the Padres still had a chance to host the Wild Card Series until the Chicago Cubs clinched homefield with a win over the St. Louis Cardinals, Saturday.
The San Diego lineup resembled more of the lineup the Friar Faithful have become accustomed to in the final game of the series with Milwaukee and the first game of the series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. It seemed Shildt was in agreement with Padres fans that they should continue to play their starters in an effort to improve their seeding. With the Cubs clinching prior to the start of the second game against the Diamondbacks, Shildt was able to take the foot off the proverbial gas and allow Machado to get some extra rest.
San Diego has two games to play and with nothing to gain, it will be interesting to see how soon the stars get off their feet depending on the game situation. Of course, Shildt still has the chance to reach 90 wins for the season, as has been the case each season he’s managed, if San Diego can sweep Arizona, but I don’t think he will chase wins at the cost of resting for the postseason.
