A three-run rally in the bottom of the eighth inning Sunday lifted the San Diego Padres to a 4-2 win over the visiting Chicago White Sox, moving the winners within a victory of a National League playoff spot and the losers into a tie for history of the worst kind. Chicago (36-120) equaled the 1962 New York Mets' single-season loss total, the worst in modern MLB history. One loss in the final six games will evict the Mets from the record books.
How the White Sox lost this one was on brand for their season. Ahead 2-1 with six outs left to get, they instead gave it up in a hurry. Donovan Solano doubled to lead off the inning and pinch hitter Luis Arraez doubled against reliever Fraser Ellard (2-3) to plate pinch runner Tyler Wade.
Brandon Lockridge pinch-ran for Arraez and got to third via a wild pitch, then scored easily on Jurickson Profar's sacrifice fly to right that snapped the tie. Fernando Tatis Jr. capped the inning with a solo homer to left-center, his 20th of the year.
Jeremiah Estrada (6-2) pitched a clean eighth inning for the win as San Diego improved to 90-66, marking its first 90-win season since 2010 and the fifth in franchise history. The Padres moved three games ahead of the Arizona Diamondbacks, a 10-9 loser in Milwaukee, and the New York Mets, who beat Philadelphia 2-1, for the NL's top wild-card spot. The Padres are three games behind the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West.
San Diego, whose magic number to clinch a playoff spot fell to one, start.