Yoshinobu Yamamoto outdueled Yu Darvish in a historic playoff matchup of Japanese-born starters, and the Los Angeles Dodgers got home runs from Kiké Hernández and Teoscar Hernández to beat the San Diego Padres 2-0 on Friday and advance to the National League Championship Series.
Yamamoto allowed two hits over five innings for the Dodgers before being pulled after 63 pitches in a decisive Game 5 between heated NL West rivals who were meeting in a Division Series for the third time in five years.
Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers will play the wild-card New York Mets in the best-of-seven NLCS starting Sunday night in Los Angeles.
The Dodgers won a decisive Game 5 at home for the first time since taking a 1981 NL Division Series against Houston after a season split into halves following a players’ strike. Boasting the majors’ best regular-season record of 98-64, they successfully avoided a third straight NLDS elimination.
Afterward Kiké Hernández, the Puerto Rican veteran making his eighth playoff appearance with the Dodgers, caused a stir during a televised post-game interview when he was asked: “What is different about this particular team?”
Hernández asked: “Are we live?”
Rosenthal replied: “We’re live.”
Hernández then said: “The fact that we don’t give a fuck.”
The Padres’ big hitters went bust with their season on the line. Three-time batting champion Luis Arraez, Fernando Tatis Jr, Jurickson Profar and Manny Machado were 1 for 14 in Game 5 as Los Angeles pitchers retired their last 19 batters.
San Diego went scoreless for the final 24 innings of the series, dropping the last two games after taking a 2-1 lead back home.
Yamamoto and Darvish were the first Japanese-born starting pitchers to square off in major league playoff history. The 26-year-old Yamamoto was the fifth rookie to start a winner-take-all game in Dodgers history.
Yamamoto handed the ball to a stellar bullpen that carried the Dodgers during the regular season when their starters were hit hard by injuries. Evan Phillips got five outs, fanning Profar and Machado in the seventh before Alex Vesia whiffed rookie standout Jackson Merrill to end the inning.
Vesia was warming up for the eighth when he exited with an injury. Michael Kopech came on and worked a perfect inning before Blake Treinen got three quick outs for his second save of the series.
Tatis grounded out to end it as Kiké Hernández made the play after moving from center field to third base for the ninth.
Darvish, the 38-year-old childhood idol of Ohtani, gave up an early home run to Kiké Hernández, then set down 14 in a row. Teoscar Hernández’s homer chased Darvish in the seventh and made it 2-0.
The Padres and Dodgers combined to retire 26 consecutive batters – the longest streak in a single game in postseason history.
Darvish gave up two runs and three hits in six and two-thirds innings, struck out four and walked one.
Darvish and Ohtani teamed to help win last year’s World Baseball Classic for Japan, but they were rivals Friday. Ohtani struck out three times, including twice against Darvish in a game watched on Saturday morning in Japan.
Ohtani hit a tying three-run homer in Game 1, his playoff debut, but was mostly quiet the rest of the series after becoming the first player in major league history to reach 50 homers and 50 stolen bases in a season.
The teams combined to score 43 runs in the first five games of the series, but the winner-take-all finale was a tense pitching affair in front of a sellout crowd of 53,183 that included Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James and a Hollywood contingent of Brad Pitt, Rob Lowe, Bryan Cranston and Jimmy Kimmel.
The Padres ended the series by not scoring since the second inning of Game 3.
Yamamoto successfully covered first base three times after inducing grounders, making it easier on All-Star first baseman Freddie Freeman who started after missing Game 4 with a sprained right ankle.
The Dodgers led 1-0 on the drive by Kiké Hernández with two outs in the second. It was the 14th career postseason homer for Hernández, who was brought back to the Dodgers this season to make an impact in October.
Whether he makes it with the FCC remains to be seen.
