Take a second and appreciate how improbable this is. Coming out of the All-Star break, the Padres went to Atlanta, got beat up by the Braves in three of four, and left town sitting at 50-53. Nobody was talking about hosting a playoff series. Honestly, it felt like this season was slipping away.

Since then they’ve gone 41-18. And look, things had to go their way. They had to win, and win, and win some more, and the teams around them had to stumble. The Cubs and Phillies held the tiebreakers, so there was no room for error. Saturday night they beat the Diamondbacks 10-7 to lock up the No. 4 seed, and everything broke right. It really did.

Now they get all of it at the best home ballpark in baseball. Every game of the Wild Card Series is at Petco Park, against the same Cubs team that knocked them out at Wrigley last October. PCA or not, and Pete Crow-Armstrong just went 40-40, the Cubs are walking into a wild Petco crowd that will be fully on the Padres’ side.

This is what home field advantage is about. Every pitch, every out, every rally, with 40,000 people making it hard for the other dugout to think. This thing is set up for the Padres to win. Now go do it.