The Los Angeles Dodgers will avoid an upset in the NLDS for the third year in a row.
The Dodgers won their first playoff series in the current postseason format with a close 2-0 loss to the San Diego Padres in Game 5 at home on Friday. They lost to wild-card teams in the NLDS each of the past two seasons.
It was Shohei Ohtani's first postseason series win in his MLB career.
On Friday, the Dodgers' Yoshinobu Yamamoto defeated the Padres' Yu Darvish in a historic playoff matchup of Japanese-born starting pitchers, and the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the San Diego Padres 2-0 on home runs from Quique Hernandez and Teoscar Hernandez. did. Advance to the National League Championship Series.
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Enrique Hernández No. 8 of the Los Angeles Dodgers hits a solo home run in the second inning of Game 5 of the Division Series against the Suns, presented by Booking.com, followed by Mookie Betts No. 50, Shohei Ohtani No. 17, Congratulations Teoscar Hernández number 37. Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on Friday, October 11, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Daniel Shiley/MLB Photo via Getty Images)
Yamamoto allowed two hits in five innings for the Dodgers, but left the game after throwing 63 pitches in the decisive Game 5 between the fiercely contested National League West rivals, who faced each other in the Division Series for the third time in five years.
Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers will play as wild cards new york mets The best-of-seven NLCS begins Sunday night in Los Angeles.
The Dodgers won a decisive Game 5 at home for the first time since facing Houston in the 1981 National League District Series after a player strike split the season in half. Boasting the best regular season record in the majors with 98 wins and 64 losses, they succeeded in avoiding elimination in the NLDS for the third consecutive year.
The Padres' big hitters put their season on the line and fell apart. In Game 5, Los Angeles' pitching staff retired the final 19 batters, with three-time batting champions Luis Arraez, Fernando Tatis Jr., Jurickson Profar and Manny Machado going 1-for-14. Ta.
San Diego went scoreless over the final 24 innings of the series, dropping the final two games after taking a 2-1 lead at home.
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Teoscar Hernandez, No. 37, of the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrates after hitting a solo home run against the San Diego Padres in the bottom of the seventh inning of Game 5 of the Division Series at Dodger Stadium on October 11, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Sean M. Huffey/Getty Images)
Yamamoto and Darvish became the first Japanese-born starting pitchers to face off in major league playoff history. Yamamoto, 26, became the fifth rookie in Dodgers history to start in a winner-take-all game.
Darvish, 38, who was Ohtani's childhood idol, allowed a home run to Quique Hernandez early in the game, but then hit 14 consecutive home runs. In the seventh inning, Teoscar Hernández's home run chased Darvish to make it 2-0.
The Padres and Dodgers combined for a total of 26 consecutive batters, the longest streak in a single game in postseason history.
Darvish pitched 6 2/3 innings, giving up three hits and two runs, with four strikeouts and one walk.
Darvish and Ohtani teamed up to help Japan win last year's World Baseball Classic, but they were rivals Friday. Ohtani had three strikeouts, including two innings against Darvish, which he watched in Japan on Saturday morning.
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Jackson Merrill (not pictured) of the San Diego Padres is struck out to end the bottom of the seventh inning of Game 5 of the Division Series at Dodger Stadium on October 11, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. No. 51 Alex Bashear of the Los Angeles Dodgers reacts. (Harry Howe/Getty Images)
The teams combined for 43 points in the first five games of the series, but the winner-take-all finals drew a sold-out crowd of 53,183, including Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James and Hollywood directors. It was a tense pitching game in front of the pitcher. Brad Pitt, Rob Lowe, Bryan Cranston, Jimmy Kimmel.
This will be the Dodgers' 16th appearance in the NLCS, and first since 2021, when they lost to Atlanta in six games.
The Padres enter the offseason with a lot of expectations for next year. They challenged the Dodgers for the National League West title until the final day of the regular season.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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