لوس أنجلوس — amidst the stench of champagne and the plume of cigar smoke, it was hard to realize that these San Diego Padres weren't supposed to be here. Two months and one day ago, the Padres were three games under .500 with a paper-thin rotation, a thoroughly underwhelming offense and a bullpen that couldn't make up for it all. A freefall seemed inevitable. What followed instead was a dazzling, unforeseen surge that culminated Thursday night in a raucous visiting clubhouse at Dodger Stadium, where the Padres celebrated their third consecutive trip to the playoffs.

"We found a way," a bobbing, sunglass-wearing Fernando Tatis Jr. said after a 4-2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers. "We found our groove, and here we are."

The Padres went from a 50-53 record to winning 39 of their next 56 games. During that stretch, their rotation was bolstered by the additions of Robbie Ray and Casey Mize, their offense rallied around the resurgences of Tatis and Jackson Merrill, and their bullpen, fronted by Mason Miller and Adrian Morejon, finally had the space to showcase its dominance.

"We've been here, so we're battle tested," Padres general manager A.J. Preller said. "We've played a lot of big games. You've got to have big-time performers to play in October. We've got a lot of them."