What unfolded at Petco Park on Friday night was not a particularly well-played baseball game, which is to be expected given that the 2024 White Sox were involved.

But the Padres are on their way to the playoffs.

Friday would not slow that advance. In fact, it would bring it two steps closer.

But a 3-2 win in 10 innings over arguably the worst team in Major League history also put them in a troubling dilemma.

Before Fernando Tatis Jr. won the game with a double that brought Brandon Lockridge home from second base, closer Robert Suarez made the walk-off win necessary when he allowed a two-out, two-run homer to Lenyn Sosa in the ninth inning.

It was the third time in his last six appearances that he allowed a home run in the ninth inning to tie or lead, and the fifth time in his last ten appearances that he allowed at least one run.

The Padres have to decide if now is the time to use Tanner Scott as closer or hope that Suarez sorts things out.

“It’s something we’ll consider,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “We have three good guys on defense and we’ll continue to look at it. … I think he’s got to be able to mix something different into the right-handers on occasion.”

Suarez said: “These are things that happen in a game. At the end of the day, we won the game. That’s all that matters.”

Because Tatis stepped up and threw reliever Justin Anderson’s second pitch into the gap in right field, the Padres were finally able to celebrate in front of their loyal fans and pour champagne on the carpet in their own locker room.

With eight games left in the regular season, any combination of Braves wins and losses that adds up to three games now puts the Padres away from securing a postseason berth, meaning it could happen as soon as Sunday’s home finale.

After the Padres got rid of Garrett Crochet—or, more accurately, after Crochet reached his innings limit for the evening—they looked roughly like the team that leads the major leagues in batting average.

Three hits with two outs broke a scoreless tie in the sixth inning, when singles by Jurickson Profar and Manny Machado were followed by Jackson Merrill’s long-range double to shallow right-center field against a recoiling outfield.

Up to this point, the Padres had played roughly the way a team needs to play to lose to the White Sox, who, at 36-118, are just two losses away from matching the Mets’ 1962 MLB record of 120 losses in a season.

The White Sox put runners on the corners in the first inning when shortstop Xander Bogaerts made an error with two outs. In the fifth inning, they hit a double on a grounder down the line that Machado beat with a backhand play at least 8½ times out of 10. And in the bottom of the fifth inning, Bogaerts was caught at first after a drive to second base.

But already in the first inning, the Padres moved closer to the playoffs, because at that point the Braves’ loss to the Marlins was finally decided.

The Mets suffered a heavy loss in Philadelphia, falling one game behind the Diamondbacks, who won in Milwaukee, and remain two games behind the Padres in the race for the National League’s top wild-card spot.

Until the ninth inning, it was a game with mostly good pitching, which was to be expected since Crochet and Joe Musgrove were on the field as starters.

Musgrove finished with six scoreless innings, allowing just three hits and striking out nine before Jason Adam and Scott each went a scoreless inning. Adrián Morejón went a scoreless first inning in the 10th inning.

After four innings, Musgrove had allowed six strikeouts and two hits. And he was the second-best pitcher in the game.

It had been a while since a visiting pitcher had played better than Crochet on the Petco Park mound, and that was while he was on the field on Friday.

The left-hander struck out the team in the second and fourth innings and had a total of eight strikeouts in four innings, which he completed with only 52 pitches.

Fortunately for the Padres, however, he is working with strict restrictions.

Crochet, who was widely considered the best pitcher in the major leagues for two months earlier this season, is in his first season as a full-time starter. And because he surpassed his previous innings high long ago, the White Sox have reduced his workload over the past two months.

He has thrown no more than 57 pitches in his last six starts and has pitched no more than four innings in his last twelve starts (as of July 6).

He hadn’t shown the same dominance in his limited role, posting a 5.89 ERA in 36⅔ innings in his 11 starts before Friday’s game. But he struck out Tatis and Machado twice each and didn’t allow a single hard-hit ball to enter play. Jake Cronenworth’s third-inning single was the Padres’ only hit against him.

The Padres scored nine more hits against the six relievers who followed Crochet, the last of which sealed two more wins over the White Sox, and a Braves loss in the next two days would secure them a playoff spot.

“It would be beautiful,” Tatis said of winning at home. “That’s what we want. Of course, baseball is always tricky, but we’ll figure it out and find a way to get it done as quickly as possible.”

Originally published: September 20, 2024 at 21:41