LOS ANGELES – Known for a top of the order filled with MVP performers, the Los Angeles Dodgers threw a curveball and advanced to the National League Championship Series on the back of their pitching staff.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched five shutout innings, Enrique Hernandez and Teoscar Hernandez hit home runs and the Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres 2-0 in Game 5 of the NL Division Series on Friday.
The Dodgers will play host to Game 1 of the NLCS against the New York Mets on Sunday.
Yamamoto (1-0), who was not named the Dodgers’ official starter until late Thursday, gave up two hits and one walk. He struck out two while throwing 63 pitches.
Los Angeles relievers Evan Phillips, Alex Vesia, Michael Kopech and Blake Treinen combined to set down every batter over the final four innings. Treinen pitched the ninth and earned his second save of the postseason.
The Padres had a 2-1 series lead but did not score a run over the last 24 innings.
“You can have whatever plan or script people can talk about, but it comes down to the players,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who used eight pitchers in a bullpen game to win 8-0 at San Diego on Wednesday. “Those guys made plays, made pitches and made us all look good. From Yoshi today to the bullpen. If you’re talking about a series MVP, it’s our bullpen, clearly.”
Los Angeles exacted revenge on its NL West rival that won the season series 8-5 and came out on top in the 2022 NLDS between the same teams. The Dodgers advanced to their sixth NLCS in the past nine seasons and a league-best 16th NLCS in franchise history.
Padres right-hander Yu Darvish (1-1) gave up two runs on three hits over 6 2/3 innings after winning Game 2 of the series, also at Los Angeles. It was the first-ever playoff matchup between pitchers born in Japan.
“Knowing how good we were as a team together, looking back at the season, it really hurts,” Darvish said through an interpreter.
Enrique Hernandez gave the Dodgers a 1-0 lead in the second inning with a towering home run deep into the left field seats. He hit 12 home runs in 126 regular-season games this year, and he now has 14 home runs in 75 career playoff games.
“I’ve said it a lot, these are the games we’ve been dreaming of as kids,” Enrique Hernandez said. “I got spoiled very early in my career to get the experience and get the opportunity to do this a lot. I think this is my ninth postseason now. It gets a little easier as you do it over and over again. It allows you to realize that it’s the same game. The intensity and the importance of the game gets a little enhanced.”
Yamamoto made just four starts at the end of the regular season after returning from a three-month absence caused by a shoulder injury. With a fastball that reached 98.2 mph, after he averaged 95.5 in the regular season, Yamamoto gave up just a pair of singles, although Manny Machado hit two fly balls against him to the right field warning track.
“I mean, we just didn’t hit. We didn’t hit and score some runs,” Machado said. “They did a tremendous job on the other side, on the pitching side. You have to give credit where it’s due. We just couldn’t string along hits. We had some opportunities, we couldn’t (push) through and we fell short.”
Teoscar Hernandez made it 2-0 in the seventh inning with a home run to left off Darvish, his second of the series.
“We always stay positive,” Teoscar Hernandez said about needing two consecutive victories to advance. “We know that we have the ballclub that can come from behind. Obviously we didn’t have the result that we wanted in those two games that we lost, but we kept our minds in the same spot that we have at the beginning of the series.”
Vesia struck out the lone batter he faced, Jackson Merrill, to end the top of the seventh and was set to pitch the eighth but departed with an undisclosed injury without facing a batter. Kopech needed just nine pitches to get through a perfect eighth.
Roberts said Vesia left with pain in his side and was hopeful it was a cramp and not an oblique injury. Vesia is set to undergo an MRI exam.
–Doug Padilla, Field Level Media
