SAN DIEGO - There's no secret how the Padres will try to win their first National League West title in 19 years.

By leveraging Major League Baseball's best bullpen into enough victories over the final 41 games, the Padres believe they can outpace a Dodgers club that trails them by a game going into Friday's series opener in Los Angeles.

The prize: a first-round playoff bye … if the West champion also surpasses either the Central champion (likely the Brewers) or the East champion (likely the Phillies).

The West runner-up has a very good chance, as things stand now, of landing one of three wild-card playoff spots.

If any team can bullpen its way past the Dodgers in the 162-game marathon - and perhaps do it again in October - it's the Padres.

Labeled by Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora a

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