The Latest Breaking News from Josh Bell

It was not the start to the postseason that three-time Cy Young award winner wanted.

SAN DIEGO —At the end, it was easy.

PHOENIX — The Padres worked and worked before it ultimately worked for them.

We are three weeks away from the start of the playoffs, with the first game of all four wild-card series scheduled back-to-back-to-back. You can be sure that MLB will market the event as baseball’s version of the first day of March Madness. (Fall Frenzy, anyone?) But regardless of how well…

SAN DIEGO — Suddenly, Petco Park is struggling to hold baseballs.

Jorge Alfaro did it again.

SAN DIEGO — They call it shoving.

LOS ANGELES — The path of a pitcher returning from Tommy John surgery is rarely straight and pointing north. It usually zigs and zags, lunges forward and lurches back, with encouraging stretches of dominance offset by shaky moments of self-doubt.

SAN DIEGO — It's OK, too, to score just enough and let Yu Darvish do his thing.