Padres clinch top spot in NL Wild Card standings

PHOENIX — It’s official: Postseason baseball is back at Petco Park.

Game 1 of the National League Wild Card Series in San Diego is slated for Tuesday.

The Padres beat the Diamondbacks, 5-3, on Friday night at Chase Field, San Diego’s 92nd victory of the season. That mark ties the 1984 club for the second-highest total in franchise history. Only the 1998 team that won 98 games had more. (Both of those clubs reached the World Series.)

More importantly, the Padres’ victory in the series opener — combined with the Mets’ loss in Milwaukee — ensured San Diego will finish as the top Wild Card in the NL. That spot comes with home-field advantage in a best-of-three Wild Card Series, running Tuesday through Thursday.

“That’s nice — going back home where everyone is excited with the season we’ve had,” said shortstop Xander Bogaerts. “No better way than to have that opportunity to [play in the postseason] at home, in front of our people.”

Of course, the Padres might have to wait as late as Monday to learn their opponent. It could be these very Diamondbacks, who are currently one percentage point behind the Braves and Mets in what’s now a three-team race for the final two spots.

It could also be the Braves or the Mets — who are slated to finish the season with a doubleheader on Monday, making up two games that were postponed this week due to inclement weather.

In any case, those three teams will spend the next few days scratching and clawing for their place. The Padres, meanwhile, can take their foot off the gas.

“We’ll still get after it these next two days,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “These games matter, so we want to be reflective of the integrity of the whole race. But we also want to make sure we’re taken care of, and we’ll set up our pitching for Tuesday.”

The Padres had Michael King lined up to start the regular-season finale on Sunday. Now he’ll be skipped — and potentially lined up for a Wild Card Series start. The Padres’ options are plentiful.

They lined up King, Dylan Cease and Joe Musgrove against the Dodgers this week. Yu Darvish followed by allowing three runs over 5 1/3 innings on Friday in Arizona. Based on recent performance, Darvish seems likeliest to be bumped from that rotation (potentially lined up to start Game 1 of the NL Division Series).

“It may be a difficult decision for a manager to make,” Darvish said, through interpreter Shingo Horie. “But I think it’s actually a good thing to have for a manager.”

With the win, Darvish tied Hiroki Kuroda for the most combined victories in the Majors and Nippon Professional Baseball by a Japanese-born pitcher, with 203. Darvish spoke afterward of the impact Kuroda had on his career — the way Kuroda reached out to him when he was struggling in his first season, and the way he always remembered that and attempted to pay it forward with his fellow Japanese big leaguers.

On Friday, Darvish was staked to a 4-0 lead before he even took the mound. It was quite a response from the Padres, who had watched the Dodgers celebrate the division title in Los Angeles on Thursday.

In the immediate aftermath, the Padres vowed to move past that disappointment quickly. And they backed it up.

“Guys posted, hungry,” Shildt said. “[Home-field advantage] is a nice accomplishment for the organization and for the club, and it lets us set up our situation with our pitching and get the regulars off their feet a little bit.”

There aren’t many regulars who aren’t dealing with some manner of bumps and bruises at this point. Among them, Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. But the most intriguing lineup decision will be Luis Arraez.

Arraez sits five points ahead of Shohei Ohtani in his quest for a third straight batting title. He’s also dealing with a balky left knee and has dealt with a left thumb injury for most of the summer.

Shildt said the staff would talk with Arraez about his playing time. Arraez, who is sitting on 199 hits, told Bob Scanlan of PadresTV, “I’ll be ready to play. … I’m here to play baseball.”

Of course, bigger games lie ahead — in San Diego.

“It feels amazing,” Arraez said. “We want to play in front of the beautiful crowd in San Diego at Petco Park. We have great fans there, and they support us. They deserve it.”