Kershaw dominates as Dodgers advance in playoffs

LOS ANGELES: Mookie Betts hit a two-run double and Clayton Kershaw dominated on the mound as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Milwaukee Brewers 3-0 Thursday to reach the second round of the Major League Baseball playoffs.

The Dodgers swept the Brewers in two games in their best-of-three National League wild card series to line up a meeting with either the San Diego Padres or St. Louis Cardinals.

The Padres rallied late for an 11-9 win to force a decisive game three in that series.

San Diego's Fernando Tatis and Wil Myers became the first pair of teammates to have two home runs in a postseason game since Yankees icons Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in 1932, and the Padres became the first team ever to hit five home runs from the sixth inning on in a playoff game.

Tatis and Manny Machado hit back-to-back-homers in the sixth inning to knot the score at 6-6. Myers followed with a homer in the seventh that put San Diego ahead and Tatis added a two-run homer later in the inning that stretched the lead to 9-6.

The Cardinals trimmed the deficit to one before Myers belted a two-run home run in the top of the ninth.

Paul Goldschmidt led off the bottom of the ninth with a home run for St. Louis but the Cardinals could get no closer.

The Padres and Cardinals will play game three on Friday for the chance to take on the Dodgers.

At Dodger Stadium, Kershaw matched his post-season high of 13 strikeouts over eight innings, allowing three singles and one walk and picking off Luis Urias at first base in the eighth.

Brewers starting pitcher Brandon Woodruff dueled Kershaw, holding the Dodgers to one hit through four innings before Los Angeles broke through in the fifth.

Cody Bellinger and Chris Taylor hit back-to-back singles with one out. AJ Pollock grounded into a fielder's choice to third base and with two outs Austin Barnes singled to score Taylor and bring up Betts, whose double down the third base line scored two more runs.

Elsewhere in the National league, Marcell Ozuna and Adam Duvall each smashed two-run home runs in the eighth inning as the Atlanta Braves blanked Cincinnati 5-0 to advance.

The Braves defeated the Reds two games to none in their opening-round series to book a second-round matchup against either the Chicago Cubs or Miami Marlins.

It was the first post-season series the Braves have won since defeating Houston in the first round of the 2001 playoffs. Since then, Atlanta had dropped nine playoff series plus a wildcard game in 2012.

The Braves, who have not won the World Series since 1995, opened the scoring on Ronald Acuna's run-scoring double in the fifth inning before Ozuna and Duvall added insurance runs in Atlanta's final time at the plate.

In American League action, the Oakland Athletics also ended a playoff drought, rallying for a 6-4 victory over the Chicago White Sox for a 2-1 series win.

It marked the A's first playoff series win since 2006, and snapped their nine-game losing streak in winner-take-all playoff games.