LOS ANGELES – The Dodgers are now in the National League Championship Series, but let’s look back at how they got here, with some highlights and numbers from the exciting five-game NLDS victory over the Padres.

“We won the West, but that team is full. They are stacked,” Kiké Hernández as he drinks celebratory beer from a Gatorade bottle after Friday’s Game 5 victory. “Not just in the rotation, but in the lineup, the bullpen and defense, and the way they run the bases and the way they play the game. It’s a tough team to beat in October.”

But the Dodgers did just that, thanks in large part to Hernández, whose home run accounted for half the runs in Game 5. He had three hits in his two starts during the series.

The key success factor for the Dodgers was the bullpen. The pitching split was grim for the Dodgers in the NLDS, with the rotation allowing 15 runs in 18⅓ innings, a 7.36 ERA that improved greatly with Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s very encouraging five scoreless innings helping win Game 5.

But the bullpen was dominant, with a 2.10 ERA and 27 strikeouts in 25⅔ innings. Four of the six relief runs allowed came in the final two innings of the blowout loss in Game 2. The seven high-leverage relievers – Evan Phillips, Blake Treinen, Ryan Brasier, Michael Kopech, Alex Vesia, Anthony Banda and Daniel Hudson – stood only two runs in 23⅓ frames.

Game 4’s bullpen play went so well that the Dodgers at least considered doing it again in Game 5. They turned to Yamamoto to start after literally hours of discussion and planning over the past few days.

“None of that matters if our pitchers don’t go out there and execute the way they did. They were incredible,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “I mean, they passed the baton to one man. Even if they hear from them before the game, they don’t care when it is, when it is, what inning, what role. We’re going to put a zero. And we saw it again and again.”

The last time the Padres scored in the NLDS was the third inning of Game 3 in San Diego, with a six-run explosion that was the low point of the series for the Dodgers to that point. To that point, the Padres had scored 21 runs in the first 20 innings of the series, and had scored in eight different innings.

San Diego did not score in the final 24 innings of the series.

Dodgers pitchers recorded consecutive shutouts in the postseason for the third time in franchise history, along with Games 2-3 of the 2016 NLCS and Games 1-2 of the 2018 NLDS.

In Game 5, with the series still very much in doubt, Fernando Tatis Jr. batting with two on and one out in the third inning, a real trouble spot for Yamamoto. But he induced a double play, extinguishing the final threat as the Padres finished the series hitless in their last 19 at-bats.

Teoscar Hernández accounted for the Dodgers’ other run in Game 5 with a home run in the seventh inning. During the series, he led the team in hits (six), home runs (two, tied with Mookie Betts) and RBI (seven), continuing his excellent play from the regular season.

“I know I won’t be successful every time those big moments happen,” Hernández said after the match. “But I don’t run away from it, it makes me better in every situation.”

Shohei Ohtani had the huge three-run home run in the second inning of Game 1, setting the tone for a Dodgers offense that responded in every game. But he finished his first postseason series just 4-for-20 (.200/.273/.350), with 10 strikeouts.

The good news for Ohtani is that he won’t have to play Yu Darvish again this season. He went 0-for-6 with three strikeouts against Darvish in the NLDS, and on the season he was 0-for-11 with five strikeouts.

Wins in Game 4 and Game 5 improved the Dodgers’ record in elimination games under Dave Roberts to 13-7 (.650). All other MLB teams since 2016 through this year’s Division Series round are 60-82 (.423) in such games.

Roberts compared the intensity of this series to the Dodgers’ 2020 NLCS against the Braves and even the 2004 Red Sox against the Yankees when he was a player.

“To win this series the way we did, to fall behind a little bit – those guys coming into the postseason had a lot of momentum – speaks to the character of our guys,” Roberts said. “This is right there.”