Padres’ season has always been about the postseason

CHICAGO — This past Friday afternoon, before the start of their final regular season series, Padres pitchers and infielders worked on fielding and covering bases in simulated game situations.

The next afternoon, they were back on the infield running through pick-off plays

Teams just don’t do this in September. The Padres did it regularly.

September is April, June is August. Every month is October.

Details matter. Every day.

This is Mike Shildt’s ideal.

“Every clubhouse is full of top-of-the-food-chain, top-1%-in-their-field, physically gifted players,” the Padres manager said. “And so now it becomes about, can you emotionally and mentally focus and bring your talents as consistently as possible on a daily basis over a long period of time.”

So that is the focus in the level of detail with which the Padres prepare. And that is the way Shildt manages.

There is simply no way a baseball team can play at the same level for the entire six months of a regular season and into the playoffs.

Shildt knows that. But he is going to give it a try.

“Something that I believe in firmly (is) that every moment is a competitive moment,” he said.

“And so how you meet that moment sharpens what you do and adds up to your individual statistics and how collectively we compete and win games. And then you normalize that excellence on a daily basis. And then — I feel really strong about this — then it’s just who you are, and then it’s about just going and playing. And if you go play and do what the game calls for and you’re aware of it and you’re present and you’re focused to do it, and we have worked on it appropriately to give you the best chance to do it, then it’s a matter of just going to play. That is regardless of circumstance or game. And then it doesn’t make a moment bigger than any other moment. It’s just who you are.”

For all the days from opening day to the final day of the regular season. With days like this one in mind.

The Padres on Tuesday face the Cubs in Game 1 of the National League Wild Card Series at Wrigley Field.

It’s Sept. 30. But it’s really October.

Every game is important now. Every decision, every pitch, every ball put in play is potentially consequential.

After a long season with plenty of tomorrows, time runs out fast on all but that one team that ends up riding buses through downtown streets.

The pressure is undeniable.

“I’m not going to minimize the importance of the postseason,” said Shildt, who is managing in the playoffs for the fifth time.

But if the Padres carry into the postseason what is drilled into them from the first day of spring training, then it just won’t be a thing.

“There’s no such thing as a big series, because every, every game that we play, we play with full intent,” left fielder Gavin Sheets said. “We obviously know ‘Shildty’ is trying to win every game. And that’s how it should be. Playing for Tony La Russa was the same way. How are we gonna win tonight and we’ll figure out tomorrow. When you have that motto, I don’t think that there’s a team or a series that’s any more important than the other. And then once you get to the playoffs, it’s the same thing. So we won’t change. I think you see some teams change their style when they get to the postseason.”

This is where the early pulling of starting pitchers and mixing and matching relievers and bunting and playing for one run comes into play.

That is who the Padres are.

“You create an identity with your club for what took place to get you here,” Shildt said Monday. “So what took place in the regular season is real. And we’re going to rely on those experiences. Our bullpen has been used in multiple different ways. So there’s not going to be a scenario, really, where they haven’t seen it before. We’ve done a lot of different things to compete that sometimes teams can wait to do in the postseason as far as bunting or moving runners or just (a) different style of play. We’ve normalized that during the regular season and we’re going to draw upon it.”

This is where the idea of being refined by every moment mattering is tested and matters most.

There are no guarantees that being prepared will manifest in wins, let alone in a ring.

The Padres were a victory from winning last year’s NL Division Series and did not score for two games.

“I don’t think there was a more confident group going into (the postseason) last year,” Jake Cronenworth said. “It didn’t work out for us. But it doesn’t mean that we didn’t do what we talk about.”

All the preparation and strategizing didn’t prevent some extended stretches this season in which the Padres played poorly and/or did not win very much. It didn’t mean that every player was at his best every day.

The daily “Ball Talk” sessions and the frequency of the work on the field with players and the hours of meetings each day between staff members, which coaches say is more than they have experienced with other teams, is about minimizing risk and maximizing potential.

“The idea is to stay focused on what you know wins games,” Shildt said.

Game 1 starter Nick Pivetta, who is in his ninth big-league season and his first with the Padres, has noted throughout the year the level of communication and preparation with his new team.

“I think it’s the determination to win,” Pivetta said Monday. “I think with the amount of work that goes in on a daily basis, the amount of group think and chatter that you see.”

All those moments have led to the moments that will unfold in the coming days.

And if they all add up to 13 more victories, regardless of who the heroes are in the four series the Padres have to win to win it all, the success will have been rooted in a philosophy.

“It’s more magnified because you have better teams and less margin for error,” Shildt said of the playoffs. “And the team that plays the cleanest and plays the game the right (way), has the best chance — not the guarantee, the best chance — to win the game. … Because every day is a playoff game. I can promise you — people might think I’m nuts, but it speaks to our preparation — we’re not going to prepare any more.

“I am blessed to have been in a lot of playoffs, managing a fair amount of playoffs in different levels. And there’s not been one playoff game that I’ve gotten to and said ‘I need to do more’ because this game has so much importance or this series or end of a season or against a certain opponent. If I need to do more in those moments that are quote-unquote “bigger moments,” and we understand that they are bigger, they’re more magnified. They are important. I’m minimizing the importance of a playoff game or a series. But I am taking the same approach to it every single day, every single moment, and so then it won’t overwhelm us and we can just go compete.”