Padres Dodgers Recap: San Diego's 5-1 Win Seizes Wild-Card Lead

The San Diego Padres walked out of Dodger Stadium on Wednesday night with a 5-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers and sole possession of the top National League wild-card spot. Manny Machado homered and drove in three runs, and San Diego cut its magic number for a playoff berth to one, according to Reuters.

Fernando Tatis Jr. collected three hits, and five San Diego relievers combined for 5 2/3 scoreless innings to close out the win. Bradgley Rodriguez earned the decision to move to 4-3, striking out three over two innings of relief. The victory was San Diego's 14th in its past 16 games, though only its fourth in 12 Padres Dodgers meetings this season. At 88-70, the Padres are one win away from reaching the postseason in three consecutive seasons, something the franchise has never done.

Wednesday's script was one San Diego has followed through most of its late surge: early power from the middle of the order, then a bullpen that gave nothing back. Ray's 3 1/3 innings were the only frames in which Los Angeles seriously threatened, and Morgan's escape from the bases-loaded jam in the fourth kept the lead intact.

The fourth and fifth innings decided it

Machado gave San Diego a 2-0 lead in the fourth, crushing a first-pitch sinker from Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto over the center-field wall for his 29th home run of the season. The blast traveled 409 feet and scored Dustin Harris, who had been hit by a pitch leading off the inning, the Associated Press reported. Yamamoto had retired nine of his first 10 batters before the Padres got to him, in what the AP noted was his final regular-season start.

The Dodgers threatened in the bottom half, loading the bases with nobody out. Robbie Ray got Max Muncy to fly out, then gave way to David Morgan after 3 1/3 innings. Morgan surrendered a sacrifice fly to Tommy Edman that cut the lead to 2-1, then struck out Shohei Ohtani to end the threat. The Dodgers closed the gap when Teoscar Hernandez scored on Edman's fly, which came on Morgan's first pitch, according to the AP.

San Diego stretched the lead in the fifth on a play that started with a bunt. Yamamoto fielded Dustin Harris's bunt with runners on first and second and threw off target to third base, his second career throwing error, allowing Ethan Salas to score. Machado followed with a shallow sacrifice fly to right-center, and the Padres led 4-1.

The final run came in the ninth. Samad Taylor walked, stole both second and third on consecutive pitches from reliever Blake Treinen, and came home on a single from Freddy Fermin.

Ohtani's return produces little

Ohtani was back in the Dodgers lineup after recovering from knee and biceps injuries, but the night gave him little to show for it. He went 1-for-4 with a single, a walk and two strikeouts, going down swinging with the bases loaded to end the fourth and flying out to the center-field wall later in the game. The fourth-inning strikeout turned on a challenge: Ohtani appeared to take ball four on a 3-1 pitch before Salas challenged the call successfully, and Morgan got him swinging at a 3-2 sinker. The loss ended Los Angeles' 11-game home winning streak and dropped the Dodgers to 97-61.

Yamamoto took the loss to fall to 14-9. He allowed four runs, two of them earned, on five hits over six innings, struck out four and walked one. Andy Pages and Teoscar Hernandez each had three hits for Los Angeles.

Around the league, the chasers helped out

The Padres did not build their lead alone. In Wednesday's other action, the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-1 behind early home runs from Brice Turang and Christian Yelich, while the Miami Marlins edged the Chicago Cubs 3-2, with Esteury Ruiz's hustle producing the go-ahead run in the seventh, Reuters reported in its nightly roundup. Both losses kept Chicago and Philadelphia a game behind San Diego, and the Phillies' magic number to clinch a playoff berth sits at two.

What the wild-card race looks like now

San Diego sits one game ahead of both the Chicago Cubs and the Philadelphia Phillies, who are each 87-71, for the top NL wild-card position. The top wild-card spot carries home-field advantage throughout a best-of-three Wild Card Series, the AP noted. The Padres would have clinched a playoff berth Wednesday if not for Arizona's 5-3 win over Colorado; instead, they need one win or a Diamondbacks loss to lock up a third straight postseason trip.

The head-to-head ledger still favors Los Angeles, which has taken eight of the 12 meetings this season, but the standings no longer do. With the top wild-card spot in San Diego's hands and one win standing between the Padres and a third straight October, the club controls its own finish.

For the full game account, see Reuters' report on the win and the AP's recap. For more Sports stories, see the site's Sports topic page.