Good morning from New York,

Last night felt important.

“Huge,” Fernando Tatis Jr. said afterward. “Absolutely huge.”

The Padres needed a victory. They got it on a big stage.

“This was a test, playing a good team like this deep in September,” Manny Machado said.

Even the manager who navigates almost every one of a season’s 162 games with the belief it must be won — and certainly did last night — acknowledged what was in the air at Citi Field last night.

“Felt like a playoff game,” said Mike Shildt, who pulled Pivetta in the fifth inning and gave a three-run lead to his rested bullpen.

The Padres will be playing in the actual playoffs.

Last night’s 7-4 victory over the Mets served to further close the gap between inevitable and certain.

The Padres could clinch a postseason berth as

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