Fernando Tatis Jr. ripped an RBI double in the bottom of the 10th inning Friday night as the San Diego Padres nipped the visiting Chicago White Sox 3-2, reducing their magic number for earning a playoff berth to three.
With pinch runner Brandon Lockridge serving as the automatic runner at second, Tatis lined an 0-1 offering from Justin Anderson (1-2) to the gap in right-center. It was his second game-winning hit in his career, both this month.
Adrian Morejon (3-2) pitched a clean top of the 10th inning, with automatic runner Bryan Ramos getting thrown out at the plate by second baseman Tyler Wade on Dominic Fletcher’s grounder.
San Diego (88-66) maintained a two-game lead on the Arizona Diamondbacks, who won 7-4 in Milwaukee, for the National League’s top wild-card spot. The Padres also stayed four games behind the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West.
Meanwhile, Chicago fell to 36-118, two losses away from tying the 1962 New York Mets for the single-season record in the major leagues’ modern history. The White Sox, who have lost three straight, will have to win seven of their final eight games to avoid 120 defeats.
One strike away from his 34th save, San Diego closer Robert Suarez instead endured his sixth blown save as Chicago rallied to tie the game in the ninth. With the Padres up 2-0, Gavin Sheets worked a two-out walk, and Lenyn Sosa blasted a two-run homer to left, his sixth of the year.
The homer cost San Diego starter Joe Musgrove a win. He sailed through six scoreless innings for the second straight start, allowing just four hits and no walks while fanning nine.
White Sox starter Garrett Crochet was even more dominant in his four innings, permitting only one hit and whiffing eight with no walks. Crochet has struck out 203 hitters in just 142 innings over 31 starts.
San Diego scraped together two runs against reliever Gus Varland in the sixth. After Varland retired the first two hitters, Jurickson Profar and Manny Machado singled to put runners at the corners.
Machado swiped second before Jackson Merrill looped a two-run double to right-center, just out of the reach of diving right fielder Fletcher.
