MLB power rankings: October or bust? – San Diego Union-Tribune

MLB power rankings: October or bust?  San Diego Union-Tribune

How the Padres are stacking up with the best teams in Major League Baseball The Padres have a five-game cushion on a wild-card spot with six games left in the season. They’ve won five in a row, they’re tied with the Dodgers for the most wins in September (14) and they lead the majors this month in homers (29), slugging (.506) and OPS (.858). They are even tied with the Cubs in the standings and can clinch a home-field advantage in an NL Wild Card Series if they have a better week than Chicago. Only two hurdles remain as they look to shave their postseason magic number down from 2: Three games at Dodger Stadium and one last home series against a Diamondbacks team hoping to keep their season on life support at least into the weekend.

“We’ve had a good run of baseball,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “Sometimes you take it for granted. You feel like we should be winning all these games, but that’s not the case. The teams we’ve played over this last stretch have played us very tough, and we’ve just been able to stick to our guns and play tight baseball, winning baseball, and we’ve come out on the good end of it a lot of times. “A lot of it’s been our offense,