Padres continue September slog with loss to White Sox

CHICAGO — The Padres came to Rate Field for the final series of 2023 and completed an empty sweep of the White Sox to end what was almost without question the most disappointing season in franchise history.

Almost two full years later, on the verge of making the postseason, the Padres returned to the ballpark that is home to one of baseball’s worst teams and continued to play like a team that seems bent on disappointing in its own spectacular way.

“If we want to do what we want to do,” Jake Cronenworth said, “we gotta start playing better baseball.”

The brand of baseball they played in Friday’s 4-3 loss to the White Sox was alarmingly familiar.

The Padres’ starting pitcher put them in a hole the offense could not get out of.

“It’s not a good recipe for consistent winning baseball,” manager Mike Shildt said. “… It comes back to similar ingredients — going out and not being able to get early leads and getting some crooked numbers on the board. … We’ve got to continue to take consistent at-bats and be able to do that throughout the game.”

The loss was the Padres’ 15th in their past 24 games and their eighth in their past 14 games against losing teams.

While the Padres are virtually guaranteed to make the playoffs, doing anything but exiting the postseason quickly will take them playing far better than they have for going on a month.

With eight games remaining in the regular season, they have a five-game cushion over any team that could knock them out of playoff position. And they could still clinch a postseason berth as soon as Sunday.

That will require not only help elsewhere but the Padres winning the next two days.

And winning has become an elusive quest.

The Padres have won two of their past seven series, both against the Rockies, who are the only team with a worse record than the White Sox.

“I can’t wait for the playoffs,” Luis Arraez said. “But we have to win first.”

This slide follows a stretch in which the Padres won seven of their eight series and got to a season-high 18 games above .500.

Since then, they have been plagued at different times by a variety of issues, including different players slumping at the plate.

But their starting pitching has continually put them in a bad position.

Friday was the 11th time in the past 32 games the Padres trailed after the first inning. They are 1-10 in those games.

This time, it was Miguel Vargas’ two-run homer off Dylan Cease that did the early damage.

It was the fourth straight game the Padres’ starter has allowed at least one run in the first inning and the fourth consecutive game the starter allowed a home run in the first inning.

“We know we’re capable of coming back,” Shildt said. “Made a push tonight.  We just are having trouble consistently getting into the rhythm of the game and getting our footing. You know, it’s kind of inexplicable, the first-inning damage we’re giving up. But it’s happening, and we’ve got to figure out a way to change our trajectory on that. We’ve got to figure out a way to get on top of the game and play with a little more rhythm and be able to get a lead and add on and have some shutdown innings and bring the game home with (the) back end (of the bullpen). I am confident it’s going to happen, but it needs to happen soon.”

After White Sox starter Davis Martin (7-10, 4.03) got through the Padres’ first seven batters on 20 pitches, Cronenworth lined a ball softly into center field with one out in the third inning, and Fernando Tatis Jr. and Arraez singled with two outs to halve the lead.

The Padres tied the game in the fourth on Jackson Merrill’s double and Ryan O’Hearn’s single, though they also left runners at the corners who had reached those spots with one out.

The White Sox, who had lost six straight and scored more than two runs in one of those games, took the lead again with two runs in the bottom of the fourth when Cease (8-12, 4.64) hit two batters and surrendered two singles, all with two outs.

“I was trying to go in and I just missed,” Cease said of the two left-handed batters he plunked with fastballs. “Yanked it a little bit. … It ended up costing us.”

Cease, who was helped by his fielders making nice plays when the White Sox ran into outs at third base in both innings they scored, ended up finishing six innings while allowing just four hits and walking three along with the two hit batters.

Ramón Laureano’s one-out double and his steal of third base in the sixth was followed by a groundout by Gavin Sheets that got the Padres to 4-3 in the sixth inning. But they got one hit the rest of the way, as three White Sox relievers retired nine of the Padres’ final 10 batters.

“Came back tonight,” Cronenworth said. “Had some opportunities, didn’t cash them in. We need to win games.”