San Diego Padres eliminate New York Mets, advance to NLDS

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The San Diego Padres punched their ticket to the NLCS with a 6-0 victory over the New York Mets in the third game of the National League Wild Card series.

In the first game of the series against New York, the Padres hit four homers, but struggled to score in the second game against Jacob deGrom, who gave up only two runs in six frames.

The Padres needed Musgrove to come through in the biggest start of his career after the Mets scored in the second game. Musgrove relied on his arsenal of weapons to keep the Mets at bay. Pete Alonso hit the only hit of the game for the Mets against the Padres. Musgrove allowed no runs while striking out five people and walking one.

Chris Bassitt had little room for error, but the Padres offense took advantage of every opportunity they got early in the game.

San Diego's offense began to come gradually. First baseman Josh Bell and second baseman Ha-Seong Kim were the first to score from a single by catcher Austin Nola. Trent Grisham, who's led the Padres offense in the Wild Card games with two homers, hit a line drive to center field that scored Kim in the fourth.

Bassitt allowed three runs on three hits, three walks and two strikeouts while leaving the game.

The third baseman drove in Jurickson Profar with a line drive single to right field in the fifth to make it a four run game. In the eighth, Juan Soto scored Kim and Grisham by singling to left field off of the other team's player. The six runs from the Padres were enough to get them into the playoffs.

In the bottom of the sixth, Mets manager Buck Showalter requested a substance check on Musgrove as pictures of his ear appeared online. Musgrove's ear was dug up by thempires and they didn't find anything that was in violation of rules.

The Padres will play in the division series for the second year in a row, with the only other appearance coming in 2020 when they lost to the Dodgers. The Dodgers went 14-5 against the Padres. The Dodgers scored 847 runs, while the San Diego Padres scored 705 runs. The Dodgers had the lowest teamERA in baseball, while the Padres had the highest.

The Padres made some big moves at the trade deadline, and the stakes are high. In August of this year, the Padres had to deal with the aftermath of the 80 game suspension of Fernando Tatis Jr., who tested positive for a performance enhancer.

The Padres have made significant financial investments in several players, expecting them to contend for a World Series title, but results have fallen short. The Padres haven't made the playoffs since A.J. Preller became president of baseball operations four years ago.