The San Diego Padres would love to finish the regular season with a bang and stay home to open the National League playoffs. The Arizona Diamondbacks would just love a chance to play in the postseason.

Neither team has a good chance to do what it really wants, but for one to succeed, it would have to go through the other in the final series of the regular season, which starts Friday night in San Diego.

The Padres (87-72) sit two games behind the Chicago Cubs (89-70) for home-field advantage in the wild-card round with three games to go. The teams are assured of facing off in a best-of-three series that will start on Tuesday.

Chicago threw San Diego a lifeline by losing 8-5 to the New York Mets on Thursday, but the Cubs would have to lose at least twice this weekend when they host the St

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