Padres topple rival Dodgers
Jake Cronenworth hit a tiebreaking, two-run single with two outs in the seventh inning and the Padres rallied past the Dodgers 5-3 on Saturday night to advance to the NL Championship Series for the first time since 1998.
The Padres stunned the 111-win Dodgers with a five-run seventh to win the best-of-five NL Division Series 3-1 in front of a raucous sellout crowd of 45,139 at Petco Park.
“It’s about to be a party out here,” said starting pitcher Joe Musgrove, who grew up a Padres fan in the San Diego suburbs.
“I mean, since I was a little kid we’ve been getting beat up by the Dodgers. But when it comes down to it and the games matter, this team stepped up, from top to bottom.”
The Padres will host the Phillies in Games 1 and 2 of an all-wild card NLCS on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Phillies beat the defending World Series champion Braves 8-3 earlier in the day to win their NLDS in four games.
The crowd roared when Josh Hader, obtained from the Brewers on Aug. 1, struck out Mookie Betts, Trea Turner and Freddie Freeman in succession to end the Padres’ third straight win against the Dodgers. Padres players celebrated wildly on the infield and fireworks went off above the downtown ballpark. Manny Machado and Juan Soto exhorted the fans for more as they all reveled in the middle of a rare San Diego rainstorm.
The Padres last reached the NLCS 24 years ago when they beat the Braves in six games and were then swept by the Yankees in the World Series.
It was a difficult ending for the Dodgers after the best regular-season record in club history and manager Dave Roberts’ prediction during spring training that they’d win the World Series.
“Shock factor, very high. Disappointment, very high. It’s crushing,” Roberts said.
Astros advance: Jeremy Peña and the Astros just kept going. Scoreless inning after scoreless inning, as day turned into night in front of a frenzied crowd in Seattle.
They eventually found a way. That’s how the Astros reached the AL Championship Series for the sixth straight year.
It’s just what they do. Peña homered in the 18th inning, and the Astros beat the Mariners 1-0 on Saturday for a three-game sweep of their AL Division Series.
“These guys, they know not to panic,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said. “They don’t get too excited. They don’t get too down. It means a lot.”
Peña drove a slider from Penn Murfee deep to left-center for the rookie’s first playoff homer, providing the only run in an afternoon full of dominant pitching and empty trips to the plate.
The 18 innings matched the longest game in playoff history and the 6 hours, 22 minutes was the third-longest in time.
Spoiling the Mariners’ first home playoff appearance since 2001, the Astros continued their ALCS streak that began with its 2017 World Series title. Next up is the Yankees or Guardians in Game 1 of the ALCS on Wednesday. The Guardians had a chance to advance Sunday night, but the game ended too late for this edition.