Cubs’ wild-card matchup set: It’s a best-of-three series against Padres in San Diego

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Cubs finally know which team they’ll play in their National League wild-card series and where the games will be held.

The Padres defeated the Diamondbacks late Saturday to clinch the top wild-card spot (No. 4 seed) in the NL playoffs. Coupled with the Phillies’ loss to the Rays, that locked the Cubs into the second wild-card spot (No. 5 seed), sending them to San Diego for a best-of-three series starting Tuesday.

The Cubs held the head-to-head tiebreaker against the Padres but won’t be able to catch them now. They are two games behind them in the standings with one game left in the regular season: a weather-shifted matchup against the Red Sox on Sunday in St. Petersburg.

The Cubs hold the tiebreaker with the Phillies, so even though the teams could finish with the same record, the Cubs have clinched the No. 5 seed. The Phillies still aren’t assured of a playoff spot. The Diamondbacks could catch them with a victory Sunday against the Padres should the Phillies lose again and would get in as the No. 6 seed, courtesy of a tiebreaker.

The Cubs will have no seeding or potential home-field advantage to play for Sunday and can start drawing up plans for their series against the Padres, the same team they faced — and defeated — in the wild-card round a season ago. That series, however, was played at Wrigley Field.

The Cubs won five of the six games they played against the Padres during the regular season, including a 23-3 blowout victory in the most recent meeting that saw them hit a record-setting eight home runs, including three by Dansby Swanson, who drove in eight runs by himself.