LOS ANGELES – It didn’t happen as often when the Padres were here this season as it did every other season for more than a decade.

But Randy Newman’s “I Love LA” played Thursday night after the finale.

This time the T-shirts were wheeled onto the field in bundles. And while many Padres players lingered in the visitors’ dugout after a 7-2 loss, the Dodgers celebrated their eleventh National League West title in twelve years.

“No disappointment,” said Manny Machado. “We had a great season. We’re in the postseason and we’ll see them in a few weeks.

The Padres beat the Dodgers more times than they lost to them and made things tougher for them than most years. The Padres won eight of their thirteen meetings this season. They were 3-3 at Dodger Stadium, a venue where they were 30-67 the previous eleven seasons.

But the end of the story was the same old story.

The decisive victory came on the strength of a five-run seventh inning, a two-run homer by Will Smith against Padres starter Joe Musgrove that tied the game 2-2, and then three runs against Tanner Scott, made with three singles and a catcher’s interference. .

The Padres were in third place, eight games behind the Dodgers on July 19. They are 41-18 since then, winning nine of 11 games to come within two games of the Dodgers with a win here Tuesday.

“Give it a good try,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “…Came up short. but we move on.”

The Padres, who now play the Diamondbacks in the final three games of the regular season, have the sole focus of fighting to retain the NL’s top wild card spot and the home series that comes with it.

None of the three teams competing for the two available wild-card spots played Thursday.

So the Padres, who clinched a playoff spot on Tuesday, are three games ahead of the Mets and Diamondbacks. The Braves are one game behind those teams.

New York and Arizona are the ones who have a chance to overtake the Padres. They can fend off the Diamondbacks with one more win, and they need a combination of wins and Mets losses that add up to two to ensure the Mets stay behind them.

“Huge,” Machado said of the upcoming series at Chase Field. “The season is not over yet. We still have three games to go against a very good team. They have to win games. We have to win games. So we’re going to go out and play postseason games (for) three games.”

Even after losing the last two days, the Padres won the season series for the first time since 2010. Maybe it’s finally a rivalry now.

“We’re getting closer,” Musgrove said.

But the Dodgers still rule the West because, despite whatever vulnerabilities they may have, their offense remains a deep and dangerous force.

Musgrove got through six scoreless innings Thursday with a 2-0 lead and had not allowed a run in three starts (18 innings) before walking Muncy and having a 3-1 fastball launched into the middle of the zone by Smith at a projected 426 feet. to midfield.

Scott came in trailing by one and only got an out after Kiké Hernández singled, Andy Pages reached on catcher interference, Shohei Ohtani drove in Hernández with a single and Mookie Betts drove in Pages and Ohtani with a single.

A two-run homer by Pages completed the scoring.

The Padres had at least one man on three of the first four innings before taking a 1-0 lead in the fourth on David Peralta’s one-out walk, a ground-rule double by Kyle Higashioka and a groundout to right by Luis . Arraez bringing in Peralta.

Dodgers starter Walker Buehler ended the inning, but was replaced by Evan Phillips early in the sixth.

The Padres scored a run off Phillips, as singles by Jurickson Profar and Manny Machado were followed by a sacrifice bunt by Jackson Merrill and a sacrifice fly by Xander Bogaerts.

“We have an ultimate goal, right?” Shildt said. “Scratched, scratched and fought. But now we are refocusing, and we have the team to do it. Excited about what’s emerging in our window, not in the rearview mirror. It’s a bit of a disappointment. We’ll shake this off, and we’ll be ready to play in Arizona, and we’ll be ready to pursue the ultimate goal.

Originally published: September 26, 2024 at 9:41 PM