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Xander Bogaerts, David Peralta and Elias Diaz all homered as the San Diego Padres sent the visiting Chicago White Sox to the brink of modern major league history with a 6-2 victory on Saturday night.

Left-hander Martin Perez (5-5) improved to 3-0 in nine starts with San Diego, permitting one run on two hits and three walks in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out six. Four relievers took care of things from there, with Tanner Scott getting the last five outs for his 22nd save of the year.

Chicago starter Chris Flexen (2-15) yielded eight hits and four runs in five innings, walking two and fanning three. The outcome dropped the White Sox to 36-119 in 2024, putting them one setback away from matching the 1962 New York Mets for the most losses in a single season in modern big-league history.

Chicago had a chance to completely erase a 4-1 deficit in the eighth after getting a run when Bryan Ramos drew a bases-loaded walk while facing Jason Adam. But Scott came in and got Dominic Fletcher to ground into an inning-ending double play to spoil the rally.

Diaz added insurance in the bottom of the eighth with his first homer as a member of the Padres and his sixth overall of the year, a two-run shot to left-center.

The Padres (89-66) still hold a two-game lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks for the National League’s top wild-card spot. San Diego is also 3 1/2 games behind the first-place Dodgers in the NL West. Los Angeles was scheduled to play the Colorado Rockies later Saturday.

Bogaerts gave San Diego a 2-0 lead in the second when he pounced on a cutter and drilled it an estimated 426 feet to left-center for a two-run shot. It was Bogaerts’ 11th homer of the year.

Peralta made it 3-0 in the fourth, cracking his eighth homer of the season an estimated 393 feet. The Padres’ fourth run scored an inning later, as Jackson Merrill followed Jurickson Profar’s leadoff double with a one-out RBI single.

Lenyn Sosa got the White Sox on the board in the sixth with a single that plated Luis Robert Jr.

–Field Level Media