SAN DIEGO — (AP) — The San Diego Padres won their first playoff berth since 2006 on Sunday when the Milwaukee Brewers lost 4-3 in 12 innings to the Miami Marlins fish team.
The Marlins-Brewers game ended with the Padres defeating the Chicago White Sox in the second half of the seventh inning. Petco Park’s sold-out crowd of 41,407 rose to cheer for the sealed wild card spot as the final score on the field scoreboard went up.
The Padres were down 2-0 at the time, but Gold River costed a few minutes later.
San Diego leads Philly by two games for the second of three NL wild cards, while Milwaukee is one game for the Phillies.
The Padres won the wild-card series against St. Petersburg. After the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Lewis was swept by the eventual World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the division series.
Before that, they hadn’t made the playoffs since winning the NL West in 2005 and 2006.
It was the seventh playoff berth in franchise history and the fourth since Petco Park opened in 2004. The Padres haven’t played in the World Series since they were swept by the New York Yankees in 1998.
The Padres entered the playoffs this year without thrilling shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr., who was on his left wrist when he was suspended for 80 games by MLB on Aug. 8. The cusp of a fracture. 12 tested positive for performance enhancing drugs.
Heavy hitter Manny Machado, who has led the Padres on offense for most of the season, added Juan Soto from Washington in a blockbuster trade on Aug. 8. 2.
After the tragic collapse of last September cost Jess Tinler his job, the Padres hired veteran manager Bob Melvin.
___
More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP-Sports
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. all rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.