SAN DIEGO -- Nobody inside Petco Park on Friday night expected the Diamondbacks to go quietly.
While the Padres entered the evening riding high after clinching their third consecutive postseason berth a night earlier, both teams took the field with a purpose: San Diego looking to lock down home-field advantage for the Wild Card Series, and Arizona fighting tooth and nail to keep its season alive.
The Diamondbacks, however, wasted no time swinging for the fences -- literally.
Lars Nootbaar turned on Casey Mize’s opening delivery -- a 90.8 mph sinker -- and drove it deep into right-center field for a leadoff home run, setting off an attack that saw Arizona jump out early and handing San Diego an 11-4 defeat.
Before the game, conversations in the clubhouse made it clear that after Thursday night's champagne celebration in Los Angeles, the focus had immediately shifted to securing home-field advantage. The consensus among the players was simple: punching a postseason ticket was just step one, and the job is far from finished. But for the Padres, that next step quickly turned into a steady uphill climb.
The loss came at a time when the surrounding postseason picture had aligned in San Diego’s favor. Everything the Padres needed across the league to secure the National League’s top Wild Card spot fell into place before first pitch: the Philadelphia Phillies dropped a 2-0 decision to Tampa Bay, and the Chicago Cubs were swept in a Fenway Park doubleheader against Boston. A single victory on Friday would have officially clinched the No. 4 seed, ensuring that October baseball would open in front of a home crowd at Petco Park.
Instead, the urgency belonged entirely to Arizona from the outset.