Padres feel Peter Seidler’s presence on triple play that ends win over Dodgers, secures playoff berth – San Diego Union-Tribune

LOS ANGELES — Here, in this place where he practically grew up and against the team he grew to want to beat more than any other, the Padres felt the presence of the man whose initials inside of a heart they have worn on their hearts all season .

“I really feel like Peter Seidler was right there tonight, because that was a pretty fitting ending to that game,” Mike Shildt said of the late Padres chairman.

They did seem to believe Tuesday’s 4-2 victory over the Dodgers, which got them one important step closer to the championship Seidler vowed to bring to San Diego, was influenced from above.

In particular, the ending — a grounder by Miguel Rojas, fielded by Manny Machado and thrown to Jake Cronenworth and then on to Donovan Solano for the first triple play in the history of Major League Baseball to end a game that clinched a postseason berth.

“He’s been with us all year,” Manny Machado said. “He’s shining upon us. He’s smiling down, enjoying this victory with us, enjoying the celebration. How much better than in a tough situation with (Shohei) Ohtani in the on-deck circle and we turn a triple play to end the game against one of the best teams in baseball? I mean, he’s looking upon us.”

A TRIPLE PLAY! TO SECURE A SPOT IN THE POSTSEASON! UNREAL! pic.twitter.com/NfbCRgt0Y6

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) September 25, 2024

After the result of a replay review was announced, confirming that closer Robert Suarez had been bailed out and that the Padres will be playing in October for the third time in five years, Padres players gathered for a low-key celebration on the infield.

Lockers covered by plastic and several dozen bottles of champagne awaited them in the visitors’ clubhouse.

That celebration left portions of the floor ankle deep in alcohol.

The Padres have a way to go before realizing the dream set forth by Seidler, the team’s chairman up until his death in November.

But with Tuesday’s victory at Dodger Stadium, the ballpark built under the direction of Seidler’s grandfather, Walter O’Malley, after he moved the Dodgers from Brooklyn, there was elation.

The Padres were 50-50 on July 19 and have an MLB-best 41-16 record since then. They endured the worst start of Machado’s career as he struggled while coming back from offseason elbow surgery. They were without Fernando Tatis Jr. for 2½ months while he rehabbed a leg injury. Starting pitchers Joe Musgrove and Yu Darvish missed significant time.

“Tough things taste better at the end,” Machado said as champagne and beer ran like a waterfall off every part of his body.

In beating the Dodgers for the eighth time in 11 meetings this season, the Padres moved within two games of the National League West leaders with two games remaining in this series and five games left in the regular season.

To a man, they spoke of a job not yet finished. Should they win the next two games in this series and sweep the Diamondbacks, they will win the National League West for the first time since 2006.

“We clinched and we got baseball tomorrow,” Jackson Merrill said. “My mind is on tomorrow. We’ve got to win two more. I want this division. I think everyone in here wants this division. We can have fun tonight, but we’ve got to come and bust our ass tomorrow.”

With a postseason berth in hand, the Padres are now pushing for a bye in the first round.

“We’re done yet,” Tatis said. “…Party and come back and work hard.”

There was no restraint shown on the amount of alcohol poured on each other. But there was far less guzzling than in 2022. Dylan Cease, who will start Wednesday’s game, did not drink a drop.

“I want to win tomorrow,” he said.

On a night that began with a buzz in the air before the visitors quieted the 50,000-plus spread around the massive ballpark, the Padres engineered their 38th comeback victory of the season.

They took a 2-1 lead on Jake Cronenworth’s two-run homer in the bottom of the second and added two runs in the fourth inning when Cronenworth doubled in a run and Xander Bogaerts drove in another with a single.

Michael King allowed just an unearned run in five innings before five relievers closed out the Padres’ 91st victory.

The Dodgers went up early when Ohtani hit King’s first pitch down the right field line, where it bounced on the grass and then into the seats beyond the short wall in the corner, and then scored when Bogaerts’ sailed a throw on a Mookie Betts grounder over diminutive first baseman Donovan Solano and into the camera well next to the Padres’ dugout. That gifted Ohtani, who had stayed at second, home and put Betts on second.

After Freddie Freeman lined out, Teoscar Hernández singled to move Betts to third before Max Muncy flied out to shallow left field.

The defense (and Betts) then helped out King.

On a 1-2 pitch to Will Smith, Hernández took off for second and stopped about 10 feet short of the bag when catcher Kyle Higashioka’s throw arrived in front of him. Betts took a couple steps toward home at that point before retreating — but not in time to beat the throw from Cronenworth and tag by Manny Machado.

Cronenworth’s two-out homer over the short wall in right followed by Jackson Merrill’s one-out single.

Two innings later, Bogaerts helped atone for his gaffe, and Cronenworth made Dodgers pitcher Landon Knack pay for one.

Just when it seemed Jurickson Profar’s lead-off double might go for naught after Machado struck out and Merrill flied out, Bogaerts singled past diving Dodgers shortstop Miguel Rojas to make it 3-1.

Boagerts went to second base on a balk by Knack, when the rookie stepped off the rubber to throw to first base and had to hold up because Freeman was not covering the bag. Two pitches later, a double by Cronenworth drove in Bogaerts.

Padres pitching took over from there.

King was at 54 pitches through two innings before getting through the third inning on 10 pitches and the fourth on 15.

Adrián Morejón was warming up as King began the bottom of the fifth.

King got Rojas on a groundout and Ohtani on a fly ball to left field that Profar, playing back, ran up 74 feet and dove to catch. The inning ended when Merrill leaped to catch a drive by Betts near the top of the wall in center field.

Morejón got two quick outs to start the bottom of the sixth before a single and a walk. That brought Mike Shildt from the dugout to replace Morejón with Jeremiah Estrada, who got Tommy Edman to pop out on one pitch.

With the left-handed-hitting Ohtani due up third in the bottom of the seventh, lefty Tanner Scott was next up.

That prompted the Dodgers to go with pinch-hitter Kiké Hernández, who bats from the right side. He lined a single into left field before Miguel Rojas grounded into a double play and Scott struck out Ohtani on three pitches.

Jason Adam retired Betts, on another diving catch by Profar and Freddie Freeman before Teoscar Hernández doubled. Muncy ended the inning with a fly ball to left field.

The Dodgers got a run on three straight singles off Suarez before the final outs were made in a moment.

“You watch that triple play, you think about Peter,” said president of baseball operations AJ Preller, the architect of the roster. “That’s the only way it could have ended. We’re all doing this for Peter Seidler, the Seidler family.”

Originally Published: September 24, 2024 at 9:58 pm