Padres Clinch Playoff Spot on Very Rare Play

Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images

September 25, 2024

The San Diego Padres clinched a playoff spot thanks to an incredibly rare play against the Los Angeles Dodgers On Tuesday.

The Padres have had a historical season since the All-Star Break. Each player has significantly heated up as the weeks have passed, culminating in a strong team effort to get a Wild Card spot. On Tuesday, the Friar’s efforts paid off, making not only franchise history, but Major League Baseball history. In the first game of three against their division rival, the Padres won 4–2, clinching a playoff berth from a walk off a triple play.

A Sequence of Events

The nerves were high at Dodger Stadium. In the bottom of the first, Shohei Ohtani hit a line drive down the right field line off Michael King, putting him in scoring position. An error from Xander Bogaerts during the next at-bat allowed him to score giving the Dodgers an early lead. However, the Padres wouldn’t back down, eventually gaining a significant 4–1 lead by the fifth inning and keeping Mr. 50/50 at bay. The score remained the same up until the bottom of the ninth when Robert Suarez was called up to close out the game.

Suarez faced the back end of the Dodger’s batting order starting with Will Smith. He hit a single into left field. Next up was Tommy Edman who also hit a single, this time into right, advancing Smith into scoring position. Next came Enrique Hernández, who singled into center, making the score 4–2. The final batter before the Dodgers went back to the top of their order was Miguel Rojas. If they couldn’t find a way to close out the game now, Ohtani would be up next and have an easy shot at going yard.

On an 0–1 count, Suarez threw a 100mph fastball into the strike zone. Rojas sent it into the ground by third base and then into the glove of Manny Machado. Wasting no time, Machado stepped onto third to get Edman out before firing off to Jake Cronenworth at second base, eliminating Hernández, and finally to Donovan Solano at first to end the ball game. This single play clinched their spot in the postseason in what was already a magical 2024 season.

The Padres Clinch

A triple play is one of the rarest in baseball. Only one other triple play occurred this season in a game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Detroit Tigers. Only 737 have happened since the last 1800s. For the Padres, this is their first triple-play since 2010 and their ninth overall. However, that’s not everything. Never before has a team in Major League Baseball history ever clinched a playoff berth from a walk-off triple play. The Padres are the very first to ever do that, against their rivals no less.

This has been the season of a lifetime for the Padres. No matter what happens next, they have a guaranteed invitation to playoffs, their third invite in the past five seasons.

The Padres have been playing playoff baseball since mid-September. That momentum seems like it will only continue forward into October. Amid such a miraculous season, good things seem to be on sunny San Diego’s horizon.