SAN DIEGO — At 1:27 p.m. Sunday, the out-of-town scoreboard in right field at Petco Park was updated to reflect a result that had just gone final more than 2,000 miles away. Atlanta 5, Miami 4. The Padres thus learned they could not clinch a postseason berth until Tuesday at the earliest.
Then, with no visible change in collective demeanor, they went on to observe what has become a familiar routine.
They came back from a deficit. They won, maintaining the majors’ highest success rate in the second half. They secured the franchise’s first 90-victory season since 2010. A record-breaking crowd did not seem to care that it came at the expense of a team that made the worst kind of history.
“People talk about scoreboard watching, and I understand it. The scoreboard I watch is at home in left-center. It’s our scoreboard. It’s about what we do,” manager Mike Shildt said after the Padres rallied in the eighth, prevailed 4-2 and handed the Chicago White Sox their 120th loss.
“Those players on the field, they got to the big leagues by getting it done on the field, and that’s what this is about. It’s about us taking care of our business, and we’re not looking for anything other than what we can control.”
And the Padres (90-66) still control something potentially seismic. Sunday’s result in San Diego, combined with a subsequent walk-off in Los Angeles, kept the Padres three games behind the Dodgers. Tuesday, the two teams will meet in a series in Chavez Ravine that could all but decide the National League West. The Dodgers have won the division in 11 of the past 12 seasons. The Padres have not won it since 2006. More than a possible first-round bye is at stake.
“We want it,” Jurickson Profar said. “We’re going there and bringing our ‘A’ game.”
We swept and did our laundry today 😌 pic.twitter.com/fUv4Oa4RdQ
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) September 22, 2024
The Padres did not require that level of performance against the White Sox. San Diego’s regular-season home finale drew the 56th sellout of the year (and brought the club’s single-season attendance record to 3,314,593). The White Sox, on their way to all-time ignominy, lost the 56th game in which they led.
Amid a three-game sweep, the supposedly hapless visitors still managed to push the Padres. Shildt was compelled to deploy multiple high-leverage relievers in each win. White Sox right-hander Sean Burke, making his second big-league start, threw six innings of two-hit ball in the series finale. Chicago took a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the eighth before Luis Arraez delivered a tying pinch-hit RBI double, Profar supplied a go-ahead sacrifice fly and Fernando Tatis Jr. homered for insurance.
Against a famously overmatched opponent, the need for such dramatics would have been more troubling if the Padres weren’t already 36-21 in comeback games, 47-41 against above-.500 teams and an MLB-best 39-17 since the All-Star break. Now, they are a 90-win club for the first time in the decade-long tenure of general manager A.J. Preller.
“A.J. deserves a lot of credit. But our players ultimately get the credit,” Shildt said. “They’re the ones out there executing. But it’s a very complete roster. We’ve been able to demonstrate how to win games a lot of different ways. We do play a lot of close games; we’ve been able to execute and be on top of most of them.”
After last season’s historic failures in high-leverage situations, few people outside the organization predicted that the Padres would turn things around in such convincing fashion.
“That’s something that we worked for since Day 1 in spring training,” Profar said. “Very happy that we’re showing it. A lot of people didn’t believe in us, but we trusted each other and kept building every day.”
Just six months ago, the Padres gathered on their home field to honor the life of late owner Peter Seidler. Late Sunday afternoon, the players lingered on the same field, applauding the type of crowd that didn’t consistently fill Petco Park until Seidler spent unprecedented sums of money trying to bring San Diego its first major sports championship.
“This is what Peter built. We’re just taking care of it,” Tatis said. “We’re definitely doing it for him on the front line. But these fans are showing up, the city. It’s just a beautiful time right now in San Diego.”
The Padres must take care of more business to ensure postseason baseball returns to this city. They hold a three-game lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks in the race for the National League’s first wild card, a berth that would come with home-field advantage against the second wild card team. San Diego will conclude the regular season next weekend with three games at Chase Field.
But, first, a potentially seismic series at Dodger Stadium awaits. A division title remains within reach.
“Los Angeles and Arizona, it’s gonna prepare us for the playoffs,” Profar said.
“Everybody knows we’re ready to play baseball, we’re ready to win this division,” Arraez said. “We’ll go to L.A. and compete with those guys. We just need to continue to play hard and then stay together. If we stay together and stay healthy, we can do a lot of good things.”
“It’s been an amazing year playing in front of these fans,” Manny Machado said. “And we’re gonna continue to play in front of them for the next couple weeks and hopefully the next month and a half.”
(Photo of Jurickson Profar tossing his bat after hitting a solo home run: Denis Poroy / Getty Images)
