SAN DIEGO — What unfolded Friday night at Petco Park was not a particularly well-played baseball game, which you would half-expect considering the 2024 Chicago White Sox were involved.

But the San Diego Padres are headed to the playoffs.

Friday would not slow that march. In fact, it would get them two steps closer.

But a 3-2 victory in 10 innings over what is quite possibly the worst team in major league history also left them with a troubling quandary.

Before Fernando Tatis Jr. won the game with a double that scored Brandon Lockridge from second base, closer Robert Suarez made the walk-off victory necessary when he surrendered a two-out, two-run homer in the ninth inning.

It was the third time in his past six appearances he has given up a game-tying or go-ahead homer in the ninth and the fifth time in his past 10 appearances he has allowed at least one run.

The Padres will have to figure out if now is the time they go to Tanner Scott as their closer.

But because Tatis came up and lined the first pitch from reliever Justin Anderson to the gap in right field, the Padres could yet end up celebrating in front of their faithful and soaking their own clubhouse’s carpet with champagne.

With eight games remaining in the regular season, the Padres are now any combination of victories and Braves losses that add up to three from clinching a postseason spot. That means it could happen as soon as Sunday’s home finale.

Once the Padres got rid of Garrett Crochet — or more accurately, once Crochet hit his innings ceiling for the night — the Padres offense was at least able to show life.

Three two-out hits broke a scoreless tie in the sixth inning when singles by Jurickson Profar and Manny Machado were followed by Jackson Merrill’s flared double to shallow right-center field against an outfield that was playing back.

To that point, the Padres were playing about the way a team must play to lose to the White Sox, who, at 36-118, are two losses away from tying the 1962 Mets’ MLB record of 120 losses in a season.

The White Sox got runners to the corners in the first inning when shortstop Xander Bogaerts made a two-out error. They got a double in the fifth inning on a grounder down the line that Machado makes a backhanded play on at least 81/2 times out of 10. And in the bottom of the fifth, Bogaerts was picked off first after making a move for second.

But while the Padres were still in the first inning, they got closer to the playoffs, when the Atlanta Braves' loss to the Miami Marlins was completed.

The New York Mets lost big in Philadelphia, which meant they dropped a game behind the Arizona Diamondbacks, who won in Milwaukee. The Diamondbacks beat the Brewers to remain two games behind the Padres in the race for the top National League wild-card spot.

It was, until the ninth inning, a well-pitched game, which could be expected when the starters were Crochet and Joe Musgrove.

Musgrove ended up finishing six scoreless innings, allowing just three hits and striking out nine before Jason Adam and Scott worked a scoreless inning apiece.

But four innings in, Musgrove had six strikeouts and had allowed two hits. And he was the second-best pitcher in the game by a wide margin.

It had been some time since a pitcher was finer on the Petco Park mound than Crochet was for as long as he was allowed to go Friday.

The left-hander struck out the side in the second and fourth innings and had eight strikeouts in all over four innings, which he completed in just 52 pitches.

Fortunately for the Padres, though, he is working with strict limits.

Crochet, who for two months earlier this season was widely considered the best pitcher in the major leagues, is in his first season as a full-time starting pitcher. And having long ago passed his previous innings high, the White Sox have curtailed his workload the past two months.

He has not thrown more than 57 pitches in any of past six starts and had not gone more than four innings in his past 12, dating to July 6.

He had not exhibited the same dominance in the limited role, having posted a 5.89 ERA in 362/3 innings in his 11 starts entering Friday’s game. But he struck out Tatis and Machado twice apiece and did not allow a single hard-hit ball to be put into play. Jake Cronenworth’s single in the third inning was the Padres’ lone hit against him.

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