LOS ANGELES — Yoshinobu Yamamoto outdueled Yu Darvish in a historic playoff matchup 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 on Friday night and advance to the National League Championship Series.
Yamamoto allowed two hits over five innings for the Dodgers before being pulled after 63 pitches in a decisive Game 5 between heated rivals who were meeting in an NL Division Series for the third time in five years.
The Dodgers will play Pete Alonso and the New York Mets in the best-of-seven NLCS starting Sunday night in Los Angeles.
It will be the 16th NLCS appearance for the Dodgers in franchise history, the second most by any team since the round began in 1969.
The Dodgers won a decisive Game 5 at home for the first time since taking a 1981 NL Division Series against Houston after a season split into halves following a players’ strike. Boasting the majors’ best regular-season record of 98-64, they successfully avoided a third straight NLDS elimination.
The Padres’ big hitters went bust with their season 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 last 19 San Diego batters were retired.
The Padres’ two hits tied the second fewest in a winner-take-all game all-time. The only team to have fewer hits was the 2022 Mets in the wild-card round against the Padres (1).
San Diego went scoreless for the final 24 innings of the series, dropping the last two games after taking a 2-1 lead back home.
Yamamoto and Darvish were the first Japanese-born starting pitchers to square off in major league playoff history. The 26-year-old Yamamoto was the fifth rookie to start a winner-take-all game in Dodgers history.
ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.