San Diego Padres First-Place Clinch Scenario San Diego's traditional magic number (relative to first-place Los Angeles) is 58 + 65 - 52 + 1 = 72. San Diego's first-place clinch number is 66. San Diego must win 66 more games (118 total) to clinch first place. If San Diego wins 66 more games, their final win total will be at least 118. The table below shows the best case scenario for each of the other teams if San Diego wins all 66 of their remaining games. For each team, the table shows the current record (number of wins (W) and losses (L)) and the number of games that team has left to play (GL) in the regular season. Taking the schedule of games left to play into account, the 'Losses to San Diego' column gives the minimum number of games that each team will lose to San Diego if San Diego wins 66 more games. Assuming that a team wins all of its remaining games except for the games it loses to SanDiego, the resulting maximum number of wins is shown in the 'Maximum W' column. Team W L GL Losses to San Diego Maximum W Los Angeles 58 39 65 6 - 0 = 6 117 San Francisco 52 45 65 7 - 0 = 7 110 Arizona 47 50 65 6 - 0 = 6 106 Colorado 22 74 66 7 - 0 = 7 81 The table above shows that if San Diego wins 66 more games (118 total), then they will finish the season in first place in the division. To see that San Diego's first-place clinch number cannot be less than 66, consider the following scenario in which San Diego wins 65 more games (117 total) but does not finish in first place: Team W L PCT GB Los Angeles 118 44 0.728 0.00 San Diego 117 45 0.722 1.00 San Francisco 73 89 0.451 45.00 Arizona 65 97 0.401 53.00 Colorado 39 123 0.241 79.00 To construct the scenario, we start with the current standings in the division: Team W L GL PCT GB Los Angeles 58 39 65 0.598 0.0 San Diego 52 44 66 0.542 5.5 San Francisco 52 45 65 0.536 6.0 Arizona 47 50 65 0.485 11.0 Colorado 22 74 66 0.229 35.5 Next, we show how the remaining series of games in the division play out in the scenario: Arizona currently has 4 wins against Colorado and 2 losses. Arizona wins 7 additional games against Colorado and loses 0. Arizona wins the series 11 games to 2 Los Angeles currently has 4 wins against Arizona and 3 losses. Los Angeles wins 6 additional games against Arizona and loses 0. Los Angeles wins the series 10 games to 3 Los Angeles currently has 6 wins against Colorado and 0 losses. Los Angeles wins 7 additional games against Colorado and loses 0. Los Angeles wins the series 13 games to 0 Los Angeles currently has 4 wins against San Francisco and 2 losses. Los Angeles wins 7 additional games against San Francisco and loses 0. Los Angeles wins the series 11 games to 2 San Diego currently has 3 wins against Arizona and 4 losses. San Diego wins 6 additional games against Arizona and loses 0. San Diego wins the series 9 games to 4 San Diego currently has 5 wins against Colorado and 1 losses. San Diego wins 7 additional games against Colorado and loses 0. San Diego wins the series 12 games to 1 San Diego currently has 2 wins against Los Angeles and 5 losses. San Diego wins 5 additional games against Los Angeles and loses 1. San Diego wins the series 7 games to 6 San Diego currently has 4 wins against San Francisco and 2 losses. San Diego wins 7 additional games against San Francisco and loses 0. San Diego wins the series 11 games to 2 San Francisco currently has 3 wins against Arizona and 4 losses. San Francisco wins 5 additional games against Arizona and loses 1. San Francisco wins the series 8 games to 5 San Francisco currently has 5 wins against Colorado and 2 losses. San Francisco wins 6 additional games against Colorado and loses 0. San Francisco wins the series 11 games to 2 Arizona wins 10 games agains teams outside the division and loses 30. Colorado wins 17 games agains teams outside the division and loses 22. Los Angeles wins 39 games agains teams outside the division and loses 0. San Diego wins 40 games agains teams outside the division and loses 0. San Francisco wins 10 games agains teams outside the division and loses 29. Combining the current standings with the wins and losses from the scenario results in the final standings listed above. # San Diego Padres' magic number # San Diego's magic number # Padres' magic number # MLB Playoff Race