ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The final month of the season began with the Padres playing as they have from the start.

They beat the Rays, 4-3.

That is by no means beside the point, considering the time of year and the playoff race in which they are engaged.

But how the Padres cobbled together the winning run in the ninth inning and the win as a whole was very much on brand.

It began with Jake Cronenworth’s walk, the Padres’ 10th of the game.  Manny Machado moved Cronenworth to third with a single. Tyler Wade replaced Cronenworth and scored on Xander Bogaerts’ fly ball to center field.

Robert Suarez worked around a one-out walk and single to record his 30th save.

Throughout, really, the manner the Padres went about winning was a reminder of why they are in the position they are, tied for the National League’s top wild-card spot at the start of the day.

It was the latest confirmation of how they were built and what they believe. It was the kind of baseball they played even when the losses were as plentiful as the wins but that they always maintained would eventually lead to what they have become.

They were relentless enough. They ran, they hit a home run, they moved runners with bunts and fly balls.

And, perhaps most appropriately, they scored their 29th victory in a game in which they were tied or trailing in the seventh inning or later, their 18th victory earned in their final at-bat and their 29th victory in a game in which they lost a lead.

Last season, they had 18 victories secured in the seventh or later, eight earned in their final at-bat and 18 in games in which they lost a lead.

The Padres’ 19th one-run victory (as compared to nine last year) was harrowing.

Early on, the Padres kept making Rays starter Ryan Pepiot throw pitches — 23 in the first, 24 in the second, 20 in the third — and finally broke through for three runs in the fourth.

Jackson Merrill’s 21st home run provided two of those runs.

After Xander Bogaerts led off the inning with a single, Jackson Merrill launched a fastball Pepiot has been getting by hitters all season, at 95 mph and near the top of the strike zone, 421 feet over the center field wall.

David Peralta followed with a single and moved to second base when Luis Campusano walked. That was the end for Pepiot, who threw 89 pitches in his three-plus innings.

With Cole Sulser pitching, a sacrifice bunt by Mason McCoy moved Peralta to third. The Rays intentionally walked Luis Arraez before Jurickson Profar sent a fly ball to the track in left field to score Peralta.

The Rays came back from 3-0 to tie the game, as Dylan Cease’s command evaporated and Jason Adam’s command never showed up in the bottom of the sixth inning.

The right-hander, who to that point had allowed a walk and a single, threw 10 consecutive balls to start the inning and then allowed a single that loaded the bases and ended his day.

Adam, who was feted with a video tribute and ovation during Friday’s game at the ballpark he played from 2022 until the Padres acquired him in a July 28 trade, replaced Cease and with his third pitch hit Junior Caminero to bring in a run.

A double play grounder by Josh Lowe brought in the second run and moved a runner to third. But with two outs, the Padres had a chance to escape with the lead.

That did not happen, as a breaking ball bounced in front of and then past Campusano, the Padres catcher, and all the way to the backstop, allowing Brandon Lowe to run in from third.