Padres secure playoff spot with game-deciding triple play

LOS ANGELES – The San Diego Padres clinched a playoff spot Tuesday night when they sealed a 4-2 victory over the National League West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers.

After missing the playoffs last year, Manny Machado and the Padres secured the eighth playoff spot in franchise history and are guaranteed at least a wild card with five games left in the regular season.

The Padres are chasing their first division title since 2006 and are two games behind LA with two games remaining in their series at Dodger Stadium. San Diego already holds the tiebreaker with an 8-3 record in head-to-head matches this season.

With the Padres leading by three runs in the ninth inning on Tuesday night, Kiké Hernández hit an RBI single that cut the Dodgers' deficit to 4-2 and put runners on first and second base.

Miguel Rojas hit a bouncer to Machado at third base, and Machado stepped on the bag before going around the horn and making a triple play that ended the game.

It was the third triple play to end a game in the last 30 years and the Padres' first since June 10, 2010 against the New York Mets.

San Diego – which has the best record in the major leagues since the All-Star break at 41-17 – became the first team in MLB history to secure a playoff spot with a game-winning triple play.

The Padres (91-66) have surpassed 90 wins for the first time since 2010 and are planning to win their first World Series title to honor Peter Seidler, the owner who died last year at age 63.

Seidler had close ties to the Dodgers. He was the grandson of Walter O'Malley, who owned the Brooklyn Dodgers and moved them to the West Coast in 1958, and the nephew of Peter O'Malley, who inherited the team along with Seidler's mother, Terry.

San Diego received a wildcard in 2022 and knocked the Mets and Dodgers out of the playoffs before losing to Philadelphia in the NL Championship Series.

ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.