LOS ANGELES (AP) — Yoshinobu Yamamoto defeated Yu Darvish in a historic playoff game 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 Friday and advance to advance to the National League Championship series.

Yamamoto allowed two hits in five innings for the Dodgers before being pulled after 63 pitches in a decisive Game 5 between heated NL West rivals meeting in a Division Series for the third time in five years.

Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers will play the wildcard New York Mets in the best-of-seven NLCS on Sunday evening in Los Angeles.

“We’re ready for the next level, and it’s clear the Mets are playing great baseball,” Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts said.

The Dodgers won a decisive Game 5 at home for the first time since winning an NL Division Series against Houston in 1981, after a season split in two following a players’ strike.

With the Majors’ best regular-season record of 98–64, they successfully avoided a third straight NLDS elimination.

“We’ve had a lot of injuries, a lot of ups and a lot of downs. We fight, we fight and we keep going,” said Dodgers star Mookie Betts. “All season long, everyone’s been saying the Dodgers win the World Series, the Dodgers win the World Series. And we get to this series and suddenly we’re the underdogs.

The Padres’ big players went bankrupt when their season was 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 the Los Angeles pitchers retired their final 19 batters.

San Diego’s high-powered lineup went scoreless through the final 24 innings of the series, losing the final two games after taking a 2-1 lead at home.

“I think stunning is appropriate,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said.

Yamamoto and Darvish were the first Japanese-born starting pitchers to face each other 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 great bullpen that carried the Dodgers during the regular season when their starters were hit hard by injuries. Evan Phillips got five outs and fanned 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 left with an injury. Michael Kopech came on and worked a perfect inning before Blake Treinen got three quick outs for his third career postseason save and second of the series.

With that, the NL West champions stormed out of the dugout for hugs and then headed back to their club pants for another celebration.

“Anytime you smell like champagne, it means you’re doing something good,” Betts said.

Tatis grounded out to end it when Kiké Hernández made the play after moving from center field to third base for the ninth.

Darvish, Ohtani’s 38-year-old childhood idol, gave up an early home run to Kiké Hernández and went on to put down 14 straight. Teoscar Hernández’s homer chased Darvish in the seventh to make it 2-0.

The Padres and Dodgers combined to retire 26 batters in a row – the longest single-game streak in postseason history.

Darvish gave up two runs and three hits in 6 2/3 innings, striking out four and walking one. He fell to 0-5 in elimination matches – four of which were quality starts.

“I loved Yu again. Had them off balance. A few swings caught him. Other than that he was really good,” said Shildt.

Darvish and Ohtani teamed up to help Japan win the World Baseball Classic last year, but on Friday they were rivals. Ohtani struck out three times, including twice against Darvish in a game watched Saturday morning in Japan.

Ohtani hit a three-run tying run in Game 1, his playoff debut, but was largely silent the rest of the series after becoming the first player in Major League history to reach 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a season .

The teams combined to score 43 points in the first five games of the series, but the winner-take-all finale was a thrilling pitching affair in front of a sellout crowd of 53,183, including Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James and a Hollywood contingent of Brad Pitt, Rob Lowe, Bryan Cranston and Jimmy Kimmel.

The wildcard Padres ended the streak by not scoring since the second inning of Game 3. They became the first team to lead 2-1 in a best-of-five series and failed to score in the final two games to score.

Yamamoto successfully covered first base three times after inducing grounders, making it easier for All-Star first baseman Freddie Freeman, who started after missing Game 4 with a sprained right ankle.

The Dodgers led 1-0 on a fly by Kiké Hernández with two outs in the second. It was the 14th career postseason home run for Hernández, who was brought back to the Dodgers this season to impress in October.

Los Angeles avoided elimination in San Diego with an 8-0 victory in Game 4 to force the deciding game home, where fans throwing balls and trash on the field caused a 12-minute delay in a loss in Game 2. announcer warned fans in the middle of the fifth Friday not to throw objects or go onto the field.

NEXT

The Dodgers are heading to the NLCS for the 16th time overall and first since 2021, when they lost to Atlanta in six games. Los Angeles fell 4-2 to the Mets during the regular season.

The Padres enter the offseason with a lot of promise for next year. They challenged the Dodgers for the NL West title until the final days of the regular season.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB