Yoshinobu Yamamoto and the Dodgers’ pitching staff combines for a shutout and Kiké Hernández and Teoscar Hernández each hit home runs in win over the Padres.
Blake Treinen threw his hands in the sky. His teammates poured out of the dugout and swallowed him near the mound.
Around them, the collective force of 53,000 fans all too accustomed to October frustration and heartbreak roared in delirious unison.
And not for the last time this fall, either.
Not after a nearly flawless performance from their ball club on Friday.
With a 2-0 defeat of the San Diego Padres in Game 5 of the National League Division Series, the Dodgers did more than just eliminate their Southern California rivals and advance to the NL Championship Series.
Staring down a third straight potential NLDS exit, they banded together, shut down the Padres’ powerhouse lineup, and exorcised some maddening recent postseason demons in the process.
In each of the last two years, and three of the last five, the Dodgers had failed to produce a moment like Friday’s.
In 2019, 2022 and 2023, they watched division-winning, 100-win ball clubs crash out of the playoffs in the best-of-five division series round.
Even in 2020, when they won a World Series in that stretch, their NLDS victory came in a neutral-site ballpark in front of zero fans.
This was different. This was catharsis.
“We didn’t come here to win the NL West,” utilityman Kiké Hernández said before the game. “We came to win the World Series.”
For the first time in three years, they finally completed the first step on that championship quest.
