Inside The Padres

Breaking: Padres Clinch Playoff Berth With Amazing Game-Ending Triple Play

You have to see it to believe it.
J.P. Hoornstra|
Sep 24, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; San Diego Padres second baseman Jake Cronenworth (9) is greeted by center fielder Jackson Merrill (3) after hitting a two run home run against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the second inning at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images
Sep 24, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; San Diego Padres second baseman Jake Cronenworth (9) is greeted by center fielder Jackson Merrill (3) after hitting a two run home run against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the second inning at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images | Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

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San Diego Padres

The San Diego Padres had backed themselves into a corner Tuesday night in Los Angeles.

With runners on first and second base and none out, Padres closer Robert Suarez was tasked with pitching to Dodgers shortstop Miguel Rojas in an unenviable predicament. Leading 4-1, Rojas could tie the game with one swing of the bat. More realistically, so could the man on deck: Shohei Ohtani.

Pitching coach Ruben Niebla visited the mound to check with his embattled closer, who carried a 9.00 September ERA into the situation. Did Niebla tell Suarez to induce a game-ending triple play to leave Ohtani stranded in the on-deck circle, or did the baseball gods intervene?

Either way, the Padres secured a playoff berth Tuesday in completely implausible fashion.

On Suarez's second pitch, Rojas grounded a scorching 97-mph shot to third baseman Manny Machado, who stepped on third base. The relay to second base just beat Kiké Hernandez; the slow-footed Rojas was then thrown out at first. Just like that, the game was over.

The Padres will enter the postseason with no worse than the National League's third Wild Card berth. They can still clinch the NL West by sweeping the Dodgers and winning at least two of their final three games.

It's all possible by virtue of one of the most improbable finishes to a game the Padres have played all season.

According to the Society for American Baseball Research, it's the first game-ending triple play since 2021, when the New York Yankees accomplished the feat to beat the Oakland A's.

Of all the 24 game-ending triple plays in baseball history, none came in a clinching game, per the Elias Sports Bureau.

San Diego trails Los Angeles by two games in the NL West race with two more games to play at Dodger Stadium this week.

Suffice it to say, the way the series opener ended just ratcheted up the tension at Chavez Ravine.

More Padres News: Padres' Potential Postseason Game 1 Starter Becomes More Clear

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J.P. Hoornstra
J.P. HOORNSTRA

J.P. Hoornstra is an On SI Contributor. A veteran of 20 years of sports coverage for daily newspapers in California, J.P. covered MLB, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Los Angeles Angels (occasionally of Anaheim) from 2012-23 for the Southern California News Group. His first book, The 50 Greatest Dodgers Games of All-Time, published in 2015. In 2016, he won an Associated Press Sports Editors award for breaking news coverage. He once recorded a keyboard solo on the same album as two of the original Doors.

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