Shohei Ohtani worked his magic Wednesday as the Padres fell to the Dodgers 4-3, moving Los Angeles within a victory of clinching the division.
Ohtani singled in the go-ahead run before stealing his 56th base of the season in the sixth inning. His two-strike, two-out single to center off Adrián Morejón scored Will Smith, who drew a leadoff walk, making it 4-3.
The teams kept trading leads but the Padres’ luck ended in the ninth.
With two outs, Michael Kopech walked Jake Cronenworth to put the tying run aboard. Brandon Lockridge ran for Cronenworth and stole second, but Donovan Solano struck out swinging on a 101-mph fastball to end the game as Dodger Stadium fans whooped and embraced the playoff atmosphere.
Kopech earned his 15th save. Alex Vesia (5-4) got the win, while Padres reliever Jeremiah Estrada (6-3) suffered the loss.
The Dodgers increased their lead over the second-place Padres to three games with four to play, while reducing their magic number to two. L.A. needs a win in Thursday’s series finale to earn its 11th division title in 12 years.
Both teams already have clinched postseason berths, but the Friars have to win Thursday to have any hope of taking the National League West title.
“We’re playing for the division, it’s a little bit out of our hands as far as the destiny goes (but) we still have a shot at it, for sure,” said manager Mike Shildt.
The Padres’ five-game winning streak ended a night after they celebrated making the postseason with a game-ending triple play on their biggest rival’s field.
The Dodgers struck early, and Ohtani, the National League Player of the Week for his otherworldly game a week ago, was front and center. Teoscar Hernández’s two-strike, two-out RBI single scored the superstar, who walked and took second on Dylan Cease’s wild pitch in the first.
Xander Bogaerts had an RBI single and Cronenworth followed with an RBI groundout as the Padres quickly took a 2-1 lead in the second.
The Dodgers scored the tying and go-ahead runs with two outs in the fourth. Gavin Lux had an RBI single and Ohtani’s double hit the Padres bullpen gate in right as the sellout crowd of 52,310 chanted “MVP! MVP!”
But a 448-foot shot from Fernando Tatis Jr. — longest by a Padre this season — tied the game at 3-3 with two outs in the fifth. It was his seventh homer in his last 13 games and Tatis, who hits L.A. hard, particularly at Dodger Stadium, flung his bat away and took a long look as it sailed out of the park.
Yet with Tatis and Machado, along with Jurickson Profar coming up in the eighth, reliever Blake Treinen mowed them down 1-2-3, retiring Tatis on a flyout and logging called third strikes on Profar and Machado.
Pitching in the finale are two starters going in opposite directions – Joe Musgrove (6-5, 3.95 ERA), who has thrown six scoreless innings in three of his four outings this month and the Dodgers’ Walker Buehler (1-6, 5.63), who is still looking for his second win of the regular season.