Padres slug 3 HRs to top White Sox

SAN DIEGO -- Jake Cronenworth turned on a Dylan Cease slider, deposited it in the right-field seats, circled the bases and practically skipped onto home plate. The Padres led the White Sox, and Petco Park had whipped into a frenzy that wouldn’t let up any time soon.

Within moments, two time zones away in Milwaukee, the Marlins’ Bryan De La Cruz shot a two-run single off lights-out Brewers closer Devin Williams, capping a ninth-inning rally that put Miami on top for good.

The Brewers lost. The Padres won -- a statement 5-2 victory Saturday night over the White Sox and their Cy Young hopeful. And just like that, San Diego’s magic number to clinch its place in the postseason is down to 1.

• Box score

“You can feel we’re getting close to something really special,” said Juan Soto, who had the first of three Padres homers in the game.

What a night for the Padres. What a remarkable 25-30 seconds, really -- a bonkers series of events taking place in two ballparks about 1,700 miles apart.

“Things change quickly,” said Padres manager Bob Melvin. “That’s the great thing about this time of year.”

Suddenly, the Padres’ quest for the postseason no longer feels like a matter of “if.” It feels more like a matter of “when” and “where” and “who?”

Here’s the “when”: The Padres can clinch their spot in the playoffs as soon as Sunday with either a win over the White Sox or a Brewers loss to the Marlins. They’re also closing in on the second Wild Card spot, with their magic number to finish ahead of Philadelphia down to 3. That would mean a trip to the East Coast next weekend to face either the Mets or the Braves, whichever of those two fails to win the NL East.

Here’s how the Padres’ playoff picture is shaping up:

Magic number: 1 (for a postseason berth), 3 (for second Wild Card)
Standings update: 87-71 (second for NL Wild Card)
Games remaining: 4
NL Wild Card: The Padres lead the Phillies by two games and the Brewers by three
Tiebreakers: The Padres own the tiebreaker over Milwaukee; the Phillies own the tiebreaker over the Padres; in the event of a three-way tie, the Phillies and Padres would reach the playoffs, with the Phillies seeded ahead of the Padres

At this juncture in the season, of course, the Padres are not concerned with how they win games. They’ll take any wins they can get. But Saturday’s was about the best they could’ve hoped for. If the Padres are going to make the most of their October, this is the formula they’re going to have to ride: Quality starting pitching and some big-time exploits from the heart of their lineup.

Sure enough, Mike Clevinger pitched six innings of one-run ball, allowing a leadoff home run to Elvis Andrus and nothing after that. It has been a grind of a season for Clevinger, who returned from Tommy John surgery in May. He has dealt with injuries and illness and has spent most of the year pitching through some right knee trouble. But he saved perhaps his best start of the season for when his team needed it most.

“It means the world to help this team get there,” Clevinger said. “They put a lot of faith in me, from the trade to the extension while I was going under the knife. It's what you play for, these moments right here. This is awesome.”

In the meantime, the Padres got the offense they needed from the heart of their order, with their 2-3-4 hitters all going deep. Soto launched a game-tying solo shot off Cease in the bottom of the first inning. Then Cronenworth put the Padres on top in the sixth.

From the on-deck circle, Cronenworth had glanced at the right-field scoreboard and noticed the Marlins had runners on second and third in the ninth. Then he popped a two-run homer into those right-field seats, and when he got back to the dugout, he checked the scoreboard again and saw a 4-3 Marlins lead.

An inning later, Manny Machado delivered the exclamation point -- a booming solo home run off the facing of the second deck in left. The Padres’ bullpen took care of the rest. And, on a night Milwaukee blew a ninth-inning lead, it was former Brewers closer Josh Hader who slammed the door.

Now, the Padres are close. They reached the postseason in 2020, but celebrated in an empty Petco Park. They haven’t clinched a playoff spot in a full 162-game season since ’06 and haven’t done so in San Diego since ’05.

“It was definitely different in '20,” Cronenworth said. “A sixty-game season, no fans -- it was kind of just us. To do it in front of the home crowd would be really special.”

They’ll get four more chances. But they don’t plan on letting the champagne sit on ice past Sunday.