Padres hold every advantage against Braves, but baseball is a fickle game

On one side of the country Monday, the Atlanta Braves were doused in champagne and beer after 18 innings spent sinking into the physical and emotional equivalent of a cement mixer.

On the other side of the country, one of baseball’s best and most rested teams, with a deep canyon pitching rotation set up for maximum mass impact, was expected.

On one hand, a long plane ride and a tough travel day to face the team with the best record in the game after the All-Star break in a decibel-shattering ballpark that recently sold out for the Whites Sox with 121 losses.

For the other, the Padres, it’s the opposite of everything the team that battled the Mets in the second game of a doubleheader to save its postseason life faced. Advantage, Padres. Clearly. Obviously. Without a doubt. In ways almost too numerous to list.

Then again, it’s baseball. It can be the most fickle and unforgiving sport, a pretzel that bends logic no matter how many feel-good dominoes are lined up.

“Wild day today,” said Padres pitcher Michael King, the team’s starter for Tuesday’s Wild Card Series opener at Petco Park. “…I know the Braves just had a crazy day and we hope to give them a little more craziness.”

The Padres only need to rewind to 2022 to reacquaint themselves with a golden lesson they themselves learned.

They looked the longest of odds in a wild-card series, traveling to face the 101-win Mets and two-time aces Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom with all three games under the hot lights of neighboring New York.

They still won.

This time, however, the advantage is exponentially greater. Not only did the Braves play a day after the rest of baseball unlaced their cleats, they played with the pressure of a season on the line with no days off as a reward before the playoffs turned the volume up to 11 .

“Playing a doubleheader (Monday) definitely doesn’t help them and benefits us in a way,” Padres third baseman Manny Machado said. “But at the end of the day, it’s postseason baseball. Once this match begins, once the lights come on, both teams will face off.

“Do we have the advantage today? Absolutely. But who knows (Tuesday)?

This is rare, if not uncharted, water that the Braves will face.

They emptied the gas tank of the heart and brain in addition to the physical tank, notably in the opening match which pressed their shoulder blades against the wall. The Mets’ 8-7 win included 12 runs over the final two innings causing whiplash.

The tax bill included the use of nine pitchers, two of whom warmed up and pitched in both games.

Then, after the Braves survived the marathon, manager Brian Snitker said that pending NL Cy Young winner Chris Sale should not pitch against the Padres because of back spasms.

The upper counter does not go much higher.

A savvy veteran like Machado, however, knows that the world between the lines can conjure up a sinister sense of humor. Forget the 93 regular season wins. Forget the comebacks, the no-hitter by Dylan Cease, the thrilling triple play against the Dodgers in Los Angeles.

The stars, especially those of baseball, line up some magical nights but not others.

“We can’t give up,” Machado said.

The madness that led to Monday and the fate of four teams that accompanied it — the Braves, Padres, Mets and ousted Diamondbacks — didn’t just necessitate an NL chase that remained close to the end.

It took a hurricane, Helene, to delay two critical matches beyond the final Sunday. It was not only an amazing baseball phenomenon, but also a meteorological phenomenon.

“I’m just watching the game as a baseball fan,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said of Monday’s epic. “Obviously, there is some curiosity about how this affects us. But you know, you just put yourself aside and enjoy the theater.

And what theater it became, as the Mets made their move for the first time and the clawed Braves quickly did the same.

If you’re a Padres fan, you see the countless benefits. If you’re a Braves fan, you see a team riding a wave. Ultimately, both could be right.

“I have no history with it,” Shildt said of the diametrically opposed circumstances affecting the two teams. “I don’t think a lot of people do it. I just know we’re ready to play.

The day started with a trio of teams clinging to each other. The rush hour of storylines was so frenetic, so late, that King was preparing for the top four hitters in each of those lineups this weekend.

Machado shook his head at all this.

“October has certainly begun, huh?” he said.

Tuesday, against the Braves in the din of Petco Park, the schedule will prove him right.