This story was excerpted from AJ Cassavell’s Padres Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Eighteen games to go. It's crunch time, and the Padres must make some difficult decisions on their pitching staff. Their playoff fate might hinge on it.

For five months, the Padres played the long game, often letting their starters pitch deep into games to preserve their bullpen, while frequently employing a six-man rotation.

On paper it's paid off. They enter the stretch run with a healthy rotation and a fresh bullpen -- the polar opposite of where things stood at this point a season ago.

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"Last year, at this point in the season, our bullpen was beat [down], and the quality was starting to drop," said starting pitcher Joe Musgrove. "That's because we obviously didn't have any starting pitching healthy. We're in a lot better of a situation both starting and bullpen-wise."

It's time to put that to good use. Here's how the Padres can do so:

1. Rely on the bullpen 
Pierce Johnson is healthy. Josh Hader is starting to look like Josh Hader. Tim Hill has evolved into a serious lefty weapon. That should give the Padres some leeway to use Nick Martinez and Adrian Morejon as multi-inning options earlier in games. On a given night, if a starting pitcher is struggling, it's no longer wise to let him work through it. The Padres have options. They should use them.

2. Use the final off-day to reshuffle 
The Padres have two more off-days on the schedule -- each of the next two Mondays. If they want, they can use those off-days to reshuffle their rotation.

I think they should avoid doing so this coming Monday. It’s important the Padres avoid riding their starters too hard down the stretch, lest they experience a drop-off in stuff. Let each starter reap the benefits of this Monday’s off-day. But the following Monday … it’s time to reset the rotation. There will be nine games left at that point. That’s when the Padres should line their starters up optimally for the final homestand (and, they hope, a three-game Wild Card Series). If that means skipping a struggling Sean Manaea or Mike Clevinger, then so be it.

3. Don't be afraid of a bullpen day 
This is not 2021. The Padres are not going to employ multiple bullpen days per week. But say they’ve reached the final weekend of the season, and they’re faced with the option of using a struggling starter or a Martinez/Morejon piggyback, with each working through the order one time. It might tax the bullpen a bit. But they’ve avoided that all season. If there were ever a time to ride the relief corps hard, it’s now.