Dodgers clinch 11th NL West title in last 12 years with 7-2 win over Padres

The Los Angeles Dodgers have clinched their 11th National League West title in the last 12 years with a 7-2 win over their divisional rival in the San Diego Padres. 
It’s also the twelfth year in a row that they’ve made the playoffs, far and away the longest streak amongst current teams and third only to the 1991 to 2005 Atlanta Braves and the 1995 to 2007 New York Yankees in Major League Baseball history.
As it stands, the Boys in Blue currently have a 95-64 record, which has them tied for the most wins in MLB this season. It will be, however, their first campaign in which they didn’t pass 100 wins (excluding the shortened-2020 season) since 2018. 
It came down to Thursday night for the Boys in Blue, who have already locked up a playoff spot. It was a much closer race than they’re accustomed to compared to recent years, with both the Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks nipping at their heels in the race for the division title. 
A highly-anticipated matchup between the Dodgers and Padres — separated by just three games to start the series — was every bit of the playoff atmosphere that was expected with just a week until October baseball officially starts. 
Tuesday night’s game saw their lead shrink when San Diego, on the back of a three-RBI night from Jake Cronenworth and a dominant performance on the mound from Michael King, turned an improbable triple play to secure the 4-2 win. Wednesday’s game was also a nail-biter, but the Dodgers were able to come back from a deficit to top the Padres 4-3 and inch closer to yet another NL West title. 
Thursday was a bit different with both sides scoreless through four innings. However, in the fifth the Padres batted in the game’s first run and scored once again on a sacrifice fly in the sixth.  
Down two, catcher Will Smith opened the floodgates with a two-run homer to center field in the bottom of the seventh. With momentum, the Dodgers snatched the lead away from the Padres by batting in three more runs before heading back to the dugout. 
LA extended their lead and never looked back in the bottom of the eighth with a two-run homer from outfielder Andy Pages.
This season was just another in what has been a dominant run over the better part of the last decade. On top of their NL West titles, they’ve had multiple players earn major awards, a list that will inevitably include baseball’s first ever 50-50 club member in Shohei Ohtani come season’s end. 
It was all but confirmed that the Dodgers would storm to an early divisional lead to start the year, which they did, but they’ve met staunch competition in their divisional rivals throughout the season, leading them to the narrow margin of victory come Thursday. 
Somehow, they bolstered what was already an incredible lineup when they signed Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani to his 10-year, $700 million contract in the offseason. They also inked fellow Japanese star pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto and traded for proven ace Tyler Glasnow from the Rays, adding to their deep starting rotation. 
Injuries played a major factor in the campaign though, with every single starting pitcher ending up on the injured list at some point, an issue still plaguing the team as October looms. Currently they have key players like Clayton Kershaw, Dustin May, Glasnow, Tony Gonsolin and River Ryan still on the IL with no expectations to pitch come playoffs. 
It all seems par for the course for the Dodgers though, who have continued to thrive while wading through a slew of injured players. They were able to pull a number of MLB-ready minor leaguers throughout the year, using them in every which way to stake their claim as NL West champs. A run of similar seasons has seen them consistently earn their spot in October, while fielding an array of different players than they started the year with.
They’ve fought their way to the World Series three times in recent years, winning once in 2020 over the Tampa Bay Rays. Since then however, their playoff run has been inexplicably disappointing, with back-to-back first round exits in the National League Division Series, most recently to the Diamondbacks, who stunned them with a three-game sweep on their way to their own World Series berth.
Despite some considerable roster turnover since their title, with key pieces like Cody Bellinger, Corey Seager and Justin Turner ending up with different teams, they’ve still been able to continue their lengthy string of success with free agent signings, trades and a deep minor league system that continues to produce star players on a yearly basis. 
The Boys in Blue have three more games to round out the season as they head to Denver to take on the Colorado Rockies. After that, they’ll have a first-round bye as they await their first opponent of the postseason, who will play each other in the wildcard round. 
If the season ended today, they would wait be facing either the Padres or New York Mets after they play a best-of-three series to see who moves on to the NLDS.