It’s early, but these Padres are still bound for playoffs

The three games between the Padres and Dodgers, starting tonight, will attract sellout crowds to the East Village and draw national attention.

For the Padres, it’s an incredibly fun time.

There’s a hunger to Padres crowds that coincides with the team finally being capable of mustering a six-month run and fans reveling in just being able to attend a ballgame. It’s a baseball Mardi Gras, right down to the gold bejeweled “Swagg Chain” Manny Machado bestows on teammates.

Against the Dodgers, who won’t be as jittery as the Reds team that exited San Diego with broom burns, the Padres can perform with a loose, enjoy-the-moment confidence for a variety of reasons but none bigger than this one:

Whether they beat L.A. or not, the Padres are playoff-bound.

The outlook would be less assured if the Pads dwelled in the American League or Bud Selig and friends hadn’t introduced a second wild card in 2012.

Simply, the Padres (42-32) are too talented not to grab one of the two wild cards, should the surprising Giants (46-26) or Dodgers (44-27) outrun them to the West title.

Because of an ability cushion that also includes the No. 6 farm system in Baseball America’s rankings, if the Padres do fall short in the West — a race far too close to comfortably project — it’s there for them to claim the other wild card and find rejuvenating rest leading up to that elimination game.

If Yu Darvish still pitched for the NL Central co-leading Cubs, the San Diego outlook wouldn’t be so sunny. Sending Darvish to the Padres for four rookie-ball prospects and Zach Davies signaled the Cubs (40-32) aren’t pulling out the stops this year. With an offense that’s 11th of 15 in runs scored, the Brewers (40-32) share first with the Cubs. So, the Central runner-up shouldn’t outpace the Pads.

The NL East, where the Mets (36-29) are the lone team without a losing record, is even less of a threat to wild-card contenders thanks partly to Atlanta (32-36) losing an ace and top hitter for the season.

Matching the Dodgers

Beating the bottom-feeding Dodgers head to head won’t be as hard as matching their 16-1 record against Arizona, Colorado and Pittsburgh, against whom the Pads are 13-9 with 13 games to go against the MLB-worst Snakes (20-53).

When healthy, Fernando Tatis Jr. gives San Diego a build-around star whose dominance at Dodger Stadium in April recalled Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn’s in-game hitting clinics there in 1994.

“Wherever the Dodgers put their outfielders, Tony would still find the grass,” said former hitting coach Merv Rettenmund.

Wielding his “Seven Grains of Pain” ash bat, Gwynn hit .542 (13-for-24) with five doubles in the seven games at L.A. En route to batting .394 for a season that Selig and Co. nixed in August because of labor strife, Gwynn batted .514 against Dodgers pitching.

Further foreshadowing Tatis, the usually polite Mr. Padre needled a Dodgers leader when he repeatedly and loudly asked manager Tommy Lasorda why he didn’t give more starts to Gwynn’s brother, Chris, a former Dodgers first-round pick.

“I’ll never forget how Tony lit up the Dodgers that year — he was fi-yah,” Rettenmund said.

Tatis put his stamp on the rivalry at Chavez Ravine in amasssing five home runs, eight runs and three stolen bases to send the Padres to three victories in four games.

If he didn’t spit in the general direction of the Dodgers dugout on a home run trot, as teammate Trent “Swaggy Grish” Grisham did after rounding third base, Tatis nevertheless enlivened the journey with teasing gestures.

Hours before a game, Tatis exchanged barbs on social media with Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer after Bauer accused him of sneaking a peek at a ham-handed catcher to anticipate the location of a pitch.

“Tranquilo hijo,” Tatis, 22, replied in a tweet.

Calm, son. FernanDiego’s message to chill could’ve applied to the “Sky Is Falling ” crowd the Padres’ summoned with their recent 4-13 stumble. While it was driven mostly by a garden-variety hitting slump, one that was neither scary nor fatal, the detour probably felt worse given the team’s sprint in the 60game season last year.

The fall wasn’t as steep as a 4-19, June tumble the 1996 Padres overcame to win the West by a game over L.A. In comparison, these Padres haven’t matched four ’96 regulars — unanimous MVP Ken Caminiti, two-way star Steve Finley, Gwynn and the still underrated Wally Joyner.

Get back to me if the Pads’ stingy run-prevention crew — second in the NL — comes a cropper with serious injuries or if capricious former Selig aide Rob Manfred revokes the second wild card (a safety net that would’ve allowed the 2007 and 2010 Padres to reach the playoffs, giving the Pads four postseason teams in seven years).

A postseason berth is this team’s to lose.