The Phillies have a World Series cheat code in Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola. The Padres know it.

SAN DIEGO — They know what just happened. At least, their manager does. You could hear it in Bob Melvin’s voice as he laid out the implications on Tuesday night. There are few kinds of pressure like a best-of-seven series. There are none like facing Aaron Nola after losing Game 1 at home.

“They don’t need a message,” Melvin said of his Padres team after watching Zack Wheeler and the Phillies seize command of the National League Championship Series with a 2-0 win in Game 1.

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“[Wednesday] is a big game for us. I know it’s a seven-game series, but when you start out at home, you’d like to try to win that first one. If it doesn’t happen, you certainly feel a little more importance on the second game. We need to come out and swing the bats a little better. It doesn’t get much easier. Their guy [Wednesday] is pretty good, too, but we need to be better with our at-bats.”

This is the crucible that a team like the Phillies forces upon its opponents. They are six wins into the postseason, three wins away from the World Series, and only now are they getting the opportunity to inflict the full weight of their advantage. A best-of-seven series sounds like an awfully long thing when you’ve already won a best-of-three and best-of-five. But when you have Wheeler and Nola in Games 1 and 2, the thing speeds up quick.

We’ve always known that it had a good chance to look this way. Each of the last two years, it was impossible to escape the thought: They sure don’t look good enough to get there . . . but imagine if they do?

You no longer need to imagine. You saw it in their wild-card sweep of the Cardinals: Wheeler followed by Nola, 13 innings of zeroes, two wins on the road. You saw it against the Braves. The Phillies have played seven games this postseason. Wheeler and Nola have started five. On Wednesday, they will make it six out of eight, with a chance to take a 2-0 series lead.

It is a cheat code, one with a long October history, from Spahn and Sain to Pedro and Schilling.

Step 1: Find yourself a starting pitcher who can hang a zero on the scoreboard all by himself.

Step 2: Find yourself another one of those pitchers.

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The Phillies have added a third component with a lineup full of hitters who can manufacture runs on their own. You saw the results in Game 1. Wheeler spent seven innings mowing down the Padres, limiting them to two base runners on 83 pitches. Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber combined to give him one more home run than he needed.

The shot burns hottest when you think about the chaser. After facing Wheeler for seven innings, the Padres get to do it all over in Game 2.

“We feel pretty good any time Nola takes the mound, regardless of up one, down one, any game of the year,” Phillies first baseman Rhys Hoskins said. “But even moreso to come in and win Game 1, kind of punch first against these guys who are also extremely hot. Hand the ball to Wheels today, and then, lucky us, we get to hand the ball to No. 27 [Wednesday].”

Taters and aces. It is a formula that has already taken this Phillies team further than many thought they could go. And the words that catcher J.T. Realmuto spoke after the sweep of the Cardinals continue to ring true: This is a team that everybody should dread facing. In their five starts, Wheeler and Nola have combined to hold opponents to four runs in 32⅓ innings, with Nola having allowed a single unearned run in his last three outings dating back to the regular season clincher.

“I mean, I can’t speak for the other team,” right fielder Nick Castellanos said, “but I know that everybody in a Philadelphia Phillies uniform feels really good about it.”

It is a long series, and a lot can still happen. Even on Tuesday, we saw the limits of starting pitching, as Jose Alvarado flirted with disaster before closing down the ninth inning. A 2-0 series lead would still leave Ranger Suárez and Noah Syndergaard facing the Padres’ lineup full of mashers in the cozy confines of Citizens Bank Park.

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Even then, though, look what lies ahead in Games 5 and 6. That’s the thing about having a couple of aces this time of year: even when they are not on the mound, their presence looms like a ghost. The Padres were seeing them after Game 1. Now it’s Nola in Game 2.