Padres 4, Dodgers 2: A 4-0 Seventh, and a Third Straight October

Glasnow had 11 strikeouts. San Diego still clinched.

September 24, 2026 - Los Angeles - Tyler Glasnow struck out 11 through 6 1/3. The San Diego Padres still scored four, none of them on homers, and beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-2 at UNIQLO Field at Dodger Stadium. Dustin Harris's sacrifice fly in the sixth scored Ethan Salas. Three singles in the seventh made it 4-0. That was enough for a third straight postseason, the first three-year run in franchise history.

Clear. 74 degrees. Wind 4 mph out to right. First pitch 7:10 p.m. Attendance 53,027. The game lasted 2 hours, 51 minutes. San Diego had six hits. Los Angeles had seven. Nobody made an error.

Nick Pivetta threw 4 2/3 scoreless: four hits, one walk, seven strikeouts, 87 pitches, 59 strikes. He hit Teoscar Hernández and threw a wild pitch. He did not give up a run. Yuki Matsui (the win) inherited a runner in the fifth and threw a scoreless inning of his own. Jason Adam needed five pitches for a perfect sixth.

Three singles, a balk, and Miller in the ninth

Glasnow left with two on and one out in the seventh, three hits, three earned, two walks, 91 pitches. Justin Wrobleski inherited both and let them score. Austin Hays singled Jackson Merrill home, a grounder that Mookie Betts deflected off Max Muncy. Salas singled Xander Bogaerts home. Fernando Tatis Jr. singled Sung-Mun Song home. 4-0.

Adrian Morejon walked Betts to start the eighth. Freddie Freeman singled Betts to third. Hernández struck out. Kyle Tucker flied out. Miguel Rojas flied out, and Betts scored on a balk. 4-1. Mason Miller (the save) struck out Andy Pages, retired Hunter Feduccia, then threw a wild pitch on a strikeout of Tommy Edman. Edman reached first. Shohei Ohtani doubled him home, his 26th double. 4-2. Betts grounded to Manny Machado. October was official.

The MLB recap put the clinch in the larger year: 11th in the National League in late July, an eight-game losing streak, a bullpen-and-matchup rotation the club called pitching chaos, then a Deadline that kept the group together. Thursday was the night the math closed. San Diego is 89-70. Los Angeles is 97-62 and already in.

Six hits were enough

Tatis went 2-for-3 with a walk, an RBI, and two stolen bases. Salas went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run. Betts went 3-for-4 with a double, a walk, and the balk run. Ohtani went 2-for-5. Freeman went 2-for-4. The Dodgers left traffic everywhere and scored twice, once on a balk and once on a double after a wild-pitch strikeout.

Evan Phillips and Edwin Díaz each threw a scoreless inning after the seventh. It did not matter. The Padres had the four they needed. Miller and Morejon are the back of a bullpen built to shorten October. Pivetta gave them a clean start to do it.

A year that spent July looking like a sell-off ended Thursday with champagne in Los Angeles. The Dodgers still have the better record. The Padres have a third straight ticket, and a 4-2 that did not need a homer to get there.

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) put San Diego at 9 team fantasy points, eighth on the slate. Pivetta had 14.66 pitching FP. Glasnow had 18.33 pitching FP in a loss. Adam had 8. Miller had 7. Tatis had 7 hitting FP. Los Angeles finished at minus-1.

Fantasy points measure the night under platform scoring rules. Share prices also move with traders through dynamic pricing. They are related. They are not the same number.

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*Sources: MLB.com schedule; MLB Gameday wrap; ESPN scoreboard; ESPN box score; AthX Engine daily scoring. Information only; not financial advice.*