Bob Melvin didn't care where, or so he said.
That much, of course, was plenty believable as the Padres drew closer to Friday's wild-card series.
"I would like to know; I would really like to know," the 60-year-old manager said Tuesday afternoon. " … I think (traveling secretary) T.J. Lasita would like to know. That's the guy that has the toughest job right now."
Hours later, the Padres' destination had crystalized.
A 6-2 win over the San Francisco Giants, powered by six shutout innings from Sean Manaea and Wil Myers homering in a two-hit game, coupled with the Phillies' loss in Houston, secured the NL's No. 5 seed for the Padres. They will leave after Wednesday's season finale for New York for a best-of-three series against the Mets, the top wild-card team after losing the NL East to the Braves.
The games will be played Friday, Saturday and, if necessary, Sunday at Citi Field, where the Padres won two of three games immediately after the All-Star break in July.
All of that is to say that Wednesday's game is merely a formality before the team finalizes its postseason roster.
Whatever role Manaea ends up with, he at least has momentum after his struggles forced him from the rotation this month. His velocity increasing with time off and the shape of his breaking stuff improving via bullpens between appearances, Manaea has allowed one run over his last 10 innings after spinning six shutout innings of one-hit ball Tuesday to win his last start of the season.
Manaea walked one batter, struck out six and threw 50 of his 66 pitches for strikes in dismissing the Giants.
The Padres led 1-0 via Manny Machado's third-inning single when they batted around in a four-run sixth inning after starter Alex Cobb (5 IP, 1 ER) exited, highlighted by Ha-Seong Kim's two-run double to left.
Austin Nola and Wil Myers also singled in runs in the inning and Myers added a homer in the eighth, his 64th as a Padre at Petco Park and two more than Machado as the all-time leader.
Robert Suarez struck out two in a perfect seventh to extend his scoreless streak to 13 1/3 innings.
Luis Garcίa allowed two runs on two hits, a walk and a hit batter in the eighth and Nick Martinez pitched a scoreless ninth.
Kim, Nola, Machado and Brandon Dixon all had two hits.
Trent Grisham was 1-for-4 with three strikeouts and a stolen base.
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