While the San Diego Padres chase home-field advantage for the first round of the National League playoffs, the Chicago White Sox continue their increasingly futile fight to keep the 1962 New York Mets in the record books.
The two teams and their opposite paths converge in San Diego this weekend for a three-game series that starts Friday night.
The Padres (87-66) will enter Friday with at least a two-game lead over the Diamondbacks and the Mets for the NL’s top wild-card spot. Both Arizona and New York play later Thursday.
San Diego is also four games behind the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West entering Friday.
The Padres continue to look the part of a team that could go places in October. San Diego took two of three in a home series with the American League West-leading Houston Astros earlier this week.
Dylan Cease pitched 8 1/3 shutout innings in Wednesday’s 4-0 win. Third baseman Manny Machado went deep twice, leaving him one home run away from his third straight 30-homer campaign.
“That’s Manny Machado,” Padres right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. said. “That’s what he does.”
Tatis, Machado and Donovan Solano clubbed three straight homers in a nine-pitch span leading off the bottom of the eighth inning on Wednesday.
San Diego has 105 home runs this season at Petco Park, a single-season record for their 20-year-old stadium.
The Padres are also getting excellent pitching of late, allowing three runs or fewer in six of their last eight games.
Joe Musgrove (6-5, 4.23 ERA) will try to keep that run going in the series opener after spinning a gem Saturday night in an 8-0 win at the San Francisco Giants. The right-hander worked six scoreless innings, allowing only three hits and fanning eight without a walk.
In three career appearances against Chicago — two out of the bullpen — Musgrove has whiffed nine without allowing a run in 7 1/3 innings.
Meanwhile, the White Sox will send their lone All-Star to the mound, left-hander Garrett Crochet (6-12, 3.78).
Crochet’s last start came on Friday, a 2-0 home loss to the Oakland Athletics. He allowed three hits and a run with no walks and four strikeouts over four innings.
Crochet has thrown just one inning in his career against San Diego, fanning two of the three men he faced. His workload has been cut back over the season’s second half as Chicago tries to keep him healthy for 2025 and beyond.
The White Sox (36-117) are coming off a 4-3, 13-inning loss Wednesday at the Los Angeles Angels in a game that saw them squander three one-run leads.
Chicago is four defeats away from setting the all-time major league record for most losses in a single season. After their three games against the Padres, the White Sox host the Angels for three games before playing their final three at the Detroit Tigers.
“We get the same question every day,” Chicago interim manager Grady Sizemore said. “We’re focused on just one series at a time, one game at a time. Everything else is irrelevant right now. We’re just trying to get better and win games.”
The teams ended the 2023 season in Chicago, where San Diego scored a three-game sweep.
