With NL West Title Out of Reach, Padres Shift Focus to Playoff Picture

The Padres may have clinched a playoff spot in Los Angeles, but they still had to watch the Dodgers take the division title.

L.A. won the National League West on Thursday by rallying to beat the second-place Padres 7-2 with a five-run outburst in the seventh inning.

A sellout crowd of 52,433 packed Dodger Stadium for the finale of the crucial series between the top two teams in the division.

The Dodgers took two of three from the Padres, who head to Arizona for a wild-card clash with the Diamondbacks, while L.A. will play Colorado to conclude the regular season.

Winning their 11th division title in 12 seasons earned the Dodgers a first-round bye in the postseason. The Padres will play in the first round, but their opponent will be determined this weekend.

Manager Mike Shildt said he was “very disappointed” at missing the goal of winning the NL West, but also ready to shift his attention to making a deep playoff run.

“Now we refocus and we got the team to do this,” he said.

The Padres led 2-0 Thursday as Joe Musgrove pitched six shutout innings.

But the Dodgers got to him in the seventh. Musgrove gave up a leadoff walk to Max Muncy. and catcher Will Smith followed with a 426-foot blast to center, tying the game at 2-2. It was the Dodgers’ first home run of the three-game series.

Pinch-hitter Kiké Hernández, facing Padres reliever Tanner Scott, singled and took second when Andy Pages reached on catcher’s interference by Kyle Higashioka. Shohei Ohtani singled and Hernández scored, while Ohtani was safe at second on Fernando Tatis Jr.’s throwing error.

Pages and Ohtani scored on Mookie Betts’ RBI single to make it 5-2. Pages added a two-run, two-strike, two-out homer in the eighth.

Scott (9-6) took the loss, allowing three runs and three hits in two-thirds of an inning.

Musgrove and Walker Buehler had dueled through four scoreless innings before the Padres struck in the fifth on Luis Arráez’s RBI groundout to first for a 1-0 lead.

Evan Phillips replaced Buehler in the sixth and gave up back-to-back singles to Jurickson Profar and Manny Machado. Both moved up on Jackson Merrill’s sacrifice bunt and Profar scored on Xander Bogaerts’ sacrifice fly to center for a 2-0 lead.

The Padres have yet to name their starters for the Arizona series.