Padres News: All-time attendance record, White Sox history, Nick Ahmed

After completing their sweep of the hapless White Sox, the San Diego Padres find themselves playing for a lot in the last week of the season. Not only are the Padres very close to clinching a playoff spot with a healthy buffer in the NL wild card race, but they have a real chance of running down the Dodgers in the NL West, especially with a three-game set coming up against LA with the Padres owning the tiebreaker over the Dodgers.

Unfortunately, the Padres weren't quite able to pop the champagne over the weekend as the Braves and Mets won on Sunday, but the odds are looking very good that San Diego will lock up a playoff berth in the coming days.

Padres set all-time franchise record for attendance in 2024

With all of the bad news early in the offseason for the Padres, few would have expected fans to be as excited about this team in 2024. However, adding Dylan Cease and Luis Arráez early on as well as a stellar overhaul of their bullpen at the trade deadline has energized Padres fans and has the team poised for a deep playoff run. The numbers bear this out as the team announced over the weekend that the Padres set an all-time single-season attendance record.

Unfortunately, the Padres' last two series are on the road, so we won't get to see Petco Park packed again until the playoffs (hopefully, no jinxes here). However, don't be surprised if LA and Arizona have a lot of Padres fans showing up as they are big time series against division rivals with playoff implications.

Padres call up Nick Ahmed to bolster infield

With just a handful of games left, the Padres are not leaving anything to chance and want to have as much depth as possible. Over the weekend, the Padres decided to recall infielder Nick Ahmed and, to make room, they placed Mason McCoy on the IL with a back issue.

How much playing time Ahmed will receive is an open question. The Padres' infield is in a pretty good spot even with Ha-Seong Kim out with an ailing shoulder. However, McCoy's injury combined with Ahmed's well-earned reputation as a defensive wizard despite his age could make him an ideal defensive replacement late in games.

Padres just helped the White Sox make some unfortunate history

Everyone is well aware of how bad the White Sox have been this year, which is why Padres fans were excited to see them on the schedule late in the season. The team has been run exceedingly poorly and Chicago has traded away basically everyone of value except Garrett Crochet. And it got worse for them. The Padres' sweep of the White Sox over the weekend made history as Chicago has now tied the 1962 Mets for the most losses in a single season since 1900 with 120.

While there aren't enough games left for the White Sox to set the all-time record for losses (the 1899 Cleveland Spiders lost 134 games), this has still been an embarrassment of a season. Heads need to roll and Chicago truly needs to rebuild from the ground up to even sniff contention again, but Padres fans are just glad that the White Sox donated some late-season wins their way in the middle of a tight playoff race.

More from Friars on Base