SAN DIEGO _ It is a silly notion, really.
It's August. The Padres are in last place and will finish there.
This is most definitely not the playoffs, of course.
But the Padres' six victories in their past 10 games _ including Sunday's 9-3 win over the formerly National League East-leading Philadelphia Phillies _ have come against teams that are positioned to be in the postseason.
And, let's face it, that's as close as the Padres are going to come _ or have been for most of the past dozen years _ to meaningful baseball played after April.
It's all they have.
So when the going got rough, the Padres got delusional. And they went from playing bad to playing good.
They approached their seven-game road trip to play the Cubs and Brewers as if it were a playoff series. Actually said it out loud.
Lo and behold, the team that went 5-20 in July began August by winning four of seven. Champions of the Midwest, they were.
Then they came home and knocked the Phillies out of first place in the NL East by taking two of three.
"Guys are seeing if they have focus on today ... they can go out and beat anybody," manager Andy Green said before the middle game of this series. "We want them to take that confidence from the road trip and carry it on the rest of the season."
They played Sunday like a team that believes, not only playing well but overcoming their gaffes.
Travis Jankowski singled twice and walked, stealing second base all three times. His doing so in the first inning and going to third on Eric Hosmer's grounder allowed him to score on Hunter Renfroe's double-play grounder. Jankowski later swiping second and then third (his fourth stolen base of the game) allowed him to score on another Renfroe grounder.
Freddy Galvis hit a grand slam in the third inning, and he was part of a three-run eighth inning that featured his single, Christian Villanueva's walk, a sacrifice bunt by Cory Spangenberg, sacrifice fly by A.J. Ellis and an RBI grounder by Hosmer.
The Padres scored four or more runs for the eighth time in their past 10 games, something they had not done over a 10-game stretch all season.
Rookie pitcher Joey Lucchesi (6-6) had his best game without his best stuff, battling his lack of control early to spread two hits and three walks over six scoreless innings.
Jose Castillo pitched a scoreless seventh and was relieved by Phil Maton after issuing two one-out walks in the eighth. Maton got what seemed to be a double-play grounder to shortstop that Spangenberg threw wide of first on the turn, allowing one run to score. Maton then allowed back-to-back doubles to Nick Williams and Carlos Santana that made it 6-3 before he struck out Asdrubal Cabrera.
Kazuhisa Makita, recalled from Triple-A earlier in the day, pitched the ninth.
The Padres ran themselves out of a promising second inning when Austin Hedges misread a passed ball and was caught in a rundown between third base and home plate.
The Padres loaded the bases again with two outs in the third, and this time Galvis sent a 2-2 sinker from Jake Arrieta (9-7) over the wall in center field.
Renfroe ran in on a line drive on which he should have retreated, chased down the ball and threw out the runner at second base for the first out of the fifth.
It's what winning teams do, which is what the Padres are trying to become.
Not so much for now as for later.
The remaining seven weeks (42 games; 26 percent) of this season is about more than wins and losses for a team that is 48-72 and 18 games back in the NL West.
There is no point in merely playing for victories. And there will likely be plenty of defeats still to come. As every Padres follower was reminded in June, a season is much longer than short periods of success.
The Padres plan to roll out four rookie starting pitchers with frequency _ and possibly with more to come.
This isn't about carrying any supposed momentum based on victories into next season but carrying the strength of confidence and experience of playing winning baseball into 2019 and beyond.
To that end, what continued on Sunday was important.
