Yoshinobu Yamamoto and the Dodgers beat the Padres 2-0 to advance to the NLCS

                    Los Angeles Dodgers #18 Yoshinobu Yamamoto (RHP) held the San Diego Padres scoreless in five innings.                                                                                                               Photo by Mark Hammond/BNS.

LOS ANGELES, CA - Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched five scoreless innings, allowing two hits, and Enrique Hernandez and Teoscar Hernandez, each with solo home runs, helped the Dodgers advance to the NLCS by beating the Padres 2-0.

Everybody knows to make it to the World Series, you have to have great pitching, and the bullpen for the Dodgers has delivered, with Evan Phillips (RHP) coming in for Yamamoto, pitching 1.2 innings, Alex Vesia (LHP) pitching 0.1 inning, Michael Kopech (RHP) pitching 1.0 inning, and the closer, Blake Treinen (RHP) pitched 1.0 inning to pick up the save.

The Padres and their fans must be shaking their head with Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., David Peralta, and Jake Cronenworth on the roster, and we are held scoreless in twenty-four innings!

The only two hits of the game for San Diego were Luis Avarez and Kyle Higashioka.

"We talked about this series. It was going to test us, and we fought," said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. "We didn't relent, not once, and I just couldn't be more excited for this ballclub."

                              Los Angeles Dodgers #8 Enrique "Kiki" Hernandez (CF-3B) solo home run over the center-field wall.                                                                                                               Photo by Mark Hammond/BNS.

The Dodgers scored first in the bottom of the second inning after Enrique "Kiki" Hernandez hit a monster solo home run over the center-field wall to give them a 1-0 lead.

"Inside those doors, inside those walls, we don't really care," Kiké said. "And that's where, like, not giving a damn comes into play of, 'I don't care what anybody says, I don't care what it looks like, we're all in this together.' We believe in each other and we're going to do whatever it takes to win a ballgame."

                                       Los Angeles Dodgers #37 Teoscar Hernandez (LF) solo home run over the left-field wall.                                                                                                                                Photo by Mark Hammond/BNS.

Los Angeles' second run of the game came in the bottom of the seventh inning when Teoscar Hernandez launched a solo home run over the left-field wall, and that would be all they would need to make it back to NLCS since 2021.

"I haven't been a part of as much adversity as this ballclub has had," Roberts said. "And not one time have we made an excuse or given ourselves an out to not win 11 games in October. And that's a credit to the character of the guys, the coaches, the front office, getting a lot of depth that we've had to tap into. I've never believed in a group of guys more than this group. I really haven't."