Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched five brilliant innings and Los Angeles homered twice in a 2-0 victory over the San Diego Padres on Friday that propelled the Dodgers into the National League Championship Series.
Two days after fending off elimination, the Dodgers completed a 3-2 victory over the Padres in the best-of-five National League division series and will host the New York Mets in game one of the best-of-seven NLCS on Sunday.
Yamamoto came out on top in a historic duel with San Diego hurler Yu Darvish — the first Major League Baseball post-season match-up between two Japanese-born starting pitchers.
Yamamoto, who struggled during his team’s game-one win, was dialed in. He gave up two hits over five innings with one walk and two strikeouts, throwing 63 pitches — 39 of them strikes.
He allowed back-to-back singles to Kyle Higashioka and Luis Arraez in the third inning but induced Fernando Tatis to hit into an inning-ending double play and retired the last seven batters he faced before he turned it over to the Dodgers relievers — who closed it out without allowing a hit over four innings.
Darvish pitched several strong innings, but he gave up solo home runs to Enrique Hernandez and Teoscar Hernandez, and that was all the Dodgers needed.
Enrique Hernandez crushed a solo shot to left field to put the Dodgers up 1-0 in the second inning, pouncing on a first-pitch fastball from Darvish, who had walked Max Muncy to open the inning before Will Smith hit into a double play.
It was the 14th post-season homer for the 33-year-old Hernandez.
Darvish retired 14 straight batters before Teoscar Hernandez made it 2-0 in the seventh, launching a 420 foot blast into the left field seats.
The Dodgers, the 2020 World Series champions, are back in the league championship series for the first time since 2021.
The victory means Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani will have a chance to battle for a World Series berth.
Ohtani earned two American League Most Valuable Player awards in six seasons with the Los Angeles Angels but is in the playoffs for the first time after jumping to the Dodgers in December in a record 10-year, $700 million deal.
