Padres seal MLB post-season spot

The San Diego Padres are back in the MLB post-season for a franchise-record third consecutive year after a 4-2 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday.

Now, they want to win a World Series for the first time, having been there twice only to lose.

Manny Machado fielded Mookie Betts’ groundout to third base for the final out in the victory over the Dodgers that clinched a playoffs berth and the celebration was on.

The Chicago White Sox’s Miguel Vargas and Munetaka Murakami celebrate after their MLB game against the Kansas City Royals in Kansas City, Missouri, on Thursday.

Photo: AP

“I was feeling nice,” Machado said in the cramped visitors’ clubhouse, his bare chest soaked with a mix of beer and Champagne. “We’re clinching.”

The Padres (89-70) partied inside and then went out on the Dodger Stadium field in matching black T-shirts to pose for photographs.

It is to be their third straight post-season as a wild-card team.

From left, the Cleveland Guardians’ Steven Kwan, Angel Martinez and Chase DeLauter celebrate after clinching an MLB post-season spot following their game against the Boston Red Sox in Boston on Thursday.

Photo: AP

“I’ve never won a championship,” Machado said. “I know what winning looks like. It takes a whole village to do it and we’ve been showing it this year. There’s been a lot of guys contributing in so many ways. It’s awesome to see it being done.”

Fernando Tatis Jr stole two bases for the fourth time this season and extended his on-base streak to 18 games with a walk in the fourth against the Dodgers. He was two for three with an RBI.

“Let’s celebrate,” he screamed above the din in the darkened clubhouse. “We’re here for a reason. We’re ready to compete. We’re here for the long run.”

The San Diego Padres’ Manny Machado, left, and Jackson Merrill celebrate after securing an MLB playoffs spot following their game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on Thursday.

Photo: William Liang / Imagn Images Warning: Excessive consumption of alcohol can damage your health

The Padres made franchise history under rookie manager Craig Stammen, a surprise pick by general manager A.J. Preller to replace Mike Shildt, who suddenly retired less than two weeks after the Padres were eliminated by the Chicago Cubs 2-1 in the wild-card round last season.

The 42-year-old Stammen was hired less than three years after retiring as a player despite having no coaching or managerial experience at any level. He has been with the organization since 2017 and is best known for starting the deciding Game 3 of the 2020 Wild Card Series against the St Louis Cardinals, who at the time were managed by Shildt. He pitched 1-2/3 innings as the first of nine pitchers the Padres used in the 4-0 win, which clinched their first post-season series victory since 1998.

The Padres popped half a game ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers on May 18 after Michael King struck out nine and Miguel Andujar hit a solo homer off Yoshinobu Yamamoto in a 1-0 win at Petco Park on May 18, but they lost the next night and fell behind the two-time defending World Series champions by double digits by late June.

They were 48-48 at the All-Star break and in third place in the division and have gone 41-22 since then. They came up with a “pitching chaos” game plan to get them through a difficult period with their rotation, which is still thin without Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove, who have missed the whole season. Nick Pivetta only recently returned from a long stint on the injured list.

Pivetta fired 4-2/3 scoreless innings on Thursday in his eighth career start against the Dodgers, allowing four hits and striking out seven.

Perhaps the biggest pickup of the off-season was first baseman Ty France, who was signed to a minor-league free-agent deal and made the team out of spring training, his second stint with the Padres. He is from West Covina, California, and played for Tony Gwynn at San Diego State. He has hit a career-high 21 homers and played solid defense.

“I still felt like I had a lot left in the tank and a lot to offer to a team,” France said. “Very grateful and fortunate that it’s here.”

In Kansas City, Missouri, Miguel Vargas had two hits and two RBIs, Kyle Teel homered and David Sandlin delivered six strong innings as the visiting Chicago White Sox routed the Royals 9-1 on Thursday to clinch an American League playoffs berth.

Chicago are back in the post-season for the first time since 2021 after enduring three straight 100-loss seasons. The White Sox remained a game behind the AL Central-leading Cleveland Guardians.

Chicago hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over Cleveland. Whichever one of those two teams fails to win the division will wind up as the third AL wild-card team.

In Boston, Angel Martinez’s second-inning home run was all visiting Cleveland needed for a 1-0 win over the Red Sox to clinch their third consecutive playoffs berth.

In Chicago, Nico Hoerner ripped a go-ahead RBI single in the sixth inning, while Matthew Boyd tossed seven strong innings to help the Cubs clinch a playoff berth with a 2-1 victory over the Miami Marlins.

Chicago’s Pete Crow-Armstrong walked to lead off the first inning and promptly stole second base to become the seventh player in MLB history to record at least 40 homers and 40 stolen bases in a single season.

Seiya Suzuki belted a solo homer in the fifth inning to highlight his two-hit performance for the Cubs, who salvaged the finale of their three-game series with Miami.

Chicago are in the second NL wild-card spot, one game behind San Diego.

In Philadelphia, Jake Bauers’ RBI single in the eighth inning plated the go-ahead run for the Milwaukee Brewers, who reached the 100-win mark for the first time in franchise history with a 5-1 win against the Phillies.

When the Dodgers fell to the Padres later, the Brewers clinched the top record in the major leagues.

Philadelphia remained in an NL wild-card spot, but the Phillies could not drop their magic number to clinch from two.