The Los Angeles Dodgers' D will avoid upsets in the NLDS for the third year in a row.
with a tight 2-0 victory After defeating the San Diego Padres in Game 5 at home on Friday, the Dodgers won their first playoff series in the current postseason format. They have lost to wild-card teams in the NLDS in each of the last two seasons.
Shohei Ohtani's first MLB postseason win.
The Dodgers' Yoshinobu Yamamoto defeated the Padres' Yu Darvish in a historic playoff matchup featuring Japanese-born starters, and the Los Angeles Dodgers scored home runs from Kike Hernandez and Teoscar Hernandez on Friday to beat the San Diego Padres 2-0 and advancing to the play-off series of the National League Cup.
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Enrique Hernandez #8 of the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrates after hitting a solo home run in the second inning during Game 5 of the Division Series between the Suns presented by Booking.com with Mookie Betts #50, Shohei Ohtani #17 and Teoscar Hernandez #37 on October 11 in Los Angeles California, 2024 Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on Friday. (Photo by Daniel Shire/MLB via Getty Images)
Yamamoto allowed the Dodgers two hits in five overs before being pulled after 63 pitches in the deciding fifth game of the bitter NL West rivals, who met in a division series for the third time in five years.
Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers will play as a wild card New York Mets The best-of-three NLCS tournament will begin Sunday night in Los Angeles.
The Dodgers won the decisive Game 5 at home for the first time since the season was cut in half after a players' strike against Houston in the 1981 NL Division Series. Boasting a majors-best regular season record of 98–64, they successfully avoided NLDS elimination for the third time.
The Padres' biggest players are fighting for their season. Three-time batting champion Luis Ariz, Fernando Tatis Jr., Jurickson Proffer and Manny Machado were 1-for-14 in the fifth as Los Angeles pitchers retired their final 19 batters.
San Diego did not score points for the final 24 rounds of the series, losing the last two games after taking a 2-1 lead at home.
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Teoscar Hernandez #37 of the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrates after hitting a solo home run against the San Diego Padres during the seventh inning of Game 5 of the Division Series at Dodger Stadium on October 11, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
Yamamoto and Darvish are the first Japanese-born starting pitchers in major league playoff history. Yamamoto, 26, became the fifth rookie in Dodgers history to start a winner-take-all game.
Darvish, 38, Ohtani's childhood idol, gave up an early home run to Kike Hernandez and went on to record 14 straight wins. Teoscar Hernandez's homer chased down Darvish in the seventh to make it 2-0.
The Padres and Dodgers combined to retire 26 consecutive batters, the longest single-game streak in postseason history.
Darvish gave up two runs and three hits in 6 2/3 innings, striking out four and walking one.
Darvish and Ohtani combined to help Japan win last year's World Baseball Classic, but they were competitive on Friday. On Saturday morning, Ohtani had three hits, including two hits against Darvish.
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Alex Vecia #51 of the Los Angeles Dodgers reacts after being hit by San Diego Padres' Jackson Merrill (not pictured) to end the seventh inning of Game 5 of the Division Series at Dodger Stadium on October 11, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Harry Howe/Getty Images)
The teams combined for 43 runs in the first five games of the series, but the winner-take-all finale was a thrilling affair in front of a sellout crowd of 53,183, including Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James and the Hollywood contingent. Brad Pitt, Rob Lowe, Bryan Cranston and Jimmy Kimmel.
The Dodgers are headed to the NLCS for the 16th time overall and the first time since 2021, when they lost to Atlanta in six games.
The Padres enter the offseason with many commitments for next year. In the final days of the regular season, they challenged the Dodgers for the NL West title.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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