SAN DIEGO -- The Padres look postseason-ready. Dylan Cease looks Game 1 ready. And the San Diego offense looks ready to mash against just about anyone.

Cease outdueled Astros ace Framber Valdez in the series finale Wednesday afternoon -- a 4-0 Padres victory at Petco Park that featured consecutive eighth-inning home runs from Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Donovan Solano. They were San Diego’s first back-to-back-to-back home runs since Chris Gomez, Rickey Henderson and Quilvio Veras did so on Opening Day in 1997.

The win secured a Padres victory in a series that felt like it might have fit better in October than mid-September.

“We beat a really good ballclub that we're probably going to be facing later on,” Machado said. “To go out there and play like we did -- and have Cease go out there and throw the ball like he did -- it's a hell of a day.”

Hmmm. Later on? There’s only one round in which the Padres and Astros could meet later on: the World Series.

“We've always understood what the goal is all year,” Machado said with a knowing smirk. “And it hasn't changed.”

Machado homered twice, including a laser off Valdez to open the scoring on the first pitch of the bottom of the sixth inning. That was enough for Cease, who worked 8 1/3 innings without allowing a run -- and might have pitched a two-hit shutout if not for a Xander Bogaerts error in the ninth.

The Padres can clinch a place in the postseason as soon as Saturday. In the NL West race, they remained 3 1/2 games behind the Dodgers, who won in Miami. On Thursday, the Padres are off, while the other six National League playoff contenders will be in action.

“Obviously, we’re paying attention,” Tatis said. “But the biggest part, for us, is winning every single day.”

The Padres have done plenty of winning lately, especially as their rotation has rounded into form. Over the past eight games (a 6-2 stretch), San Diego starters have combined for a 1.12 ERA with 46 strikeouts.

Cease has been at the forefront. He was dominant in San Francisco last Friday, and he turned that dominance up a notch against Houston. Through eight innings, Jason Heyward’s clean single through the right side was the only baserunner Cease allowed.

Cease, of course, has thrown a no-hitter this season. But that featured a trio of walks. This was a remarkably efficient effort against one of the Majors’ best lineups in a game with playoff implications. Was it possible that this start was … better?

“This was great, too, for sure,” Cease said. “Sometimes you can do kind of the same thing and results vary in baseball. In terms of execution, arguably this was maybe a little bit better.

“But that one was a no-hitter. That’s a special one.”

Nonetheless, the Padres will gladly take this version of Cease with the postseason on the horizon. They’re keeping their sights set on a potential first division title in 18 years. But at the moment, the likeliest path would be a Wild Card Series at Petco Park.

And, if you’re doing the rotation math, Game 1 would fall on Cease’s turn. Surely, that’s no coincidence.

Of course, the Padres could still reshuffle that rotation, particularly if they aren’t playing for much during the final weekend of the regular season. Given the current state of the rotation, they should feel optimistic no matter who pitches.

The same holds true with the offense (raking) and the bullpen (lockdown).

“Everybody saw the level of this series, the games that we played, how everybody was just pushing to their last limit,” Tatis said. “Happy that we won this series. This is how it’s going to be in the playoffs.”

And if these two teams ended up meeting again?

“I think it would be a good World Series,” said Houston’s Mauricio Dubón. “They know who we are, and we know who they are. Good thing we play a best-of-seven in October.”

OK, then! Props to Dubón for saying the quiet part out loud and mentioning the World Series itself.

Machado, meanwhile, wouldn’t go quite so far. But he left no doubt he was thinking the very same thing.

“We're going to see them again,” Machado said. “They're a really good ballclub out there, and how we played these last few days -- it's a little taste of it.”