When it comes to making sense of September baseball, go easy. September can deceive like a knuckleball.

Case in point: The best of Padres clubs stunk up most of September and then lit up the National League playoffs.

When September began in 1998, the Padres led the NL West race by miles, yet still looked as intent and sharp as they had all year.

That Tuesday night show featured Greg Vaughn hitting his 46th and 47th home runs, each off Mets starter Hideo Nomo. Tony Gwynn whacked three hits. Steve Finley homered. “Hells Bells” sounded, and Trevor Hoffman quickly bagged his 45th save.

The Padres stood 90-49.

From Sept 2 onward, things changed. Playing a lot of C- baseball, the Padres lost 13 of 20 games before winning the season’s last contest.

Some skeptics trotted out the notion that

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