Clubhouse chatter: What the Padres cherish about postseason baseball

The calm before the storm.

That, more than the champagne, more than the baseline introductions, more than the weight of each pitch, is what Joe Musgrove appreciates most about postseason baseball.

He’s had some time to think about it.

Musgrove won a World Series game and ring as a reliever with the Houston Astros in 2017. He won his first postseason start with the Padres with a gem at Citi Field in 2022. He started the dragon-slaying game against the Dodgers that postseason and last year pitched until his elbow gave out in the team’s wild-card win over the Braves.

The weight of it all hanging in the balance on the eve of Game 1 of a series is something worth shooting for as he pushes to make himself available following last October’s Tommy John surgery.

“The games are a blast, but anybody can say that,” Musgrove said. “Playoff baseball feels different. But I think it’s the way you feel outside of the field. Waking up the morning of, you’re a little more excited to get on the first bus, maybe. I guess my favorite night is the night before the first playoff game — batting practice. When you’re on the field, it’s nighttime. We usually don’t hit BP that late. It’s kind of getting dark out. It’s colder. Everyone’s in hoodies, and you’ve got all your new playoff gear on.

“I think there’s something about the calm before the storm.”

Jake Cronenworth agreed.

There’s something about the opportunity to take it all in before you go to work, whether you’re playing the Dodgers in front of a sold-out crowd at Petco Park or playing in hostile environments as he has in New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia during the Padres’ last two postseason trips.

“Just the atmosphere,” Cronenworth said. “Not just here, which is amazing as we’ve seen, but even on the road, I think it’s a cool thing. Every team has its own unique environment that’s toward their stadium and toward their team, and I think that’s what makes the playoffs so special. Philly was awesome. Dodger Stadium is always a great road environment (and so is) New York.

“That’s what makes baseball so special.”

Those emotions are especially heightened for 39-year-old Yu Darvish on his start days. He’s made 13 postseason starts dating back to a wild-card start for the Rangers against the Orioles in 2012. Darvish said he can’t wait for the butterflies; they mean a goal was achieved.

“The excitement and the nervousness of the day I pitch, I really like that feeling,” Darvish said. “That’s my job, and that means we’re playing in the postseason, too. That’s what we want.”

The 32-year-old Ryan O’Hearn didn’t play in a postseason game until the Orioles’ rebuild pushed that team onto that stage in 2023. He has yet to win a game in the playoffs, so for now, all he can speak about is what hangs in the balance between the lines.

“Just how much tension and emphasis there is on every pitch,” O’Hearn said. “Every pitch matters. It can be mentally exhausting as a player, but in such a good way. … You’re locked in on every single pitch. At any time, the game can change.”

No one in the Padres clubhouse would deny that — “The crowd, the energy in every game; every pitch matters,” catcher Elías Díaz said — but that’s also what makes each victory so rewarding.

Nick Pivetta, too, appreciates a charged atmosphere. But the sense of shared accomplishment that accompanies a ticket to October baseball is what he took away from his experience with the Red Sox in 2021.

“For me, I think it’s achieving a group-set goal in an individualized sport,” Pivetta said. “I think seeing my teammates happy and satisfied. Just the accomplishment of what it would be like to win a World Series, I think it’s more for my teammates than for myself.”

Of course, there’s nothing like the sweet taste of victory or the burning in your eyes if you head into a celebration without goggles.

That is what postseason baseball is all about.

“The champagne when you win,” said shortstop Xander Bogaerts, a World Series winner with the Red Sox in 2013 and 2018. “Every round, that satisfaction. As a team, you earned it.”