Ethan Salas’ challenge overturned a ball-four call to Shohei Ohtani in the Padres’ 2–1 win over the Dodgers Wednesday; David Morgan then struck Ohtani out with the bases loaded. San Diego clinched a playoff berth and will host the Cubs in a Wild Card series starting Tuesday.
The Padres added two runs in the fifth after Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s throw on Dustin Harris’s bunt attempt went into left field; Manny Machado followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 4–1. San Diego won Thursday as well, taking two of three in Los Angeles.
The article reports San Diego went 17–11 since August and was 17–6 with baseball’s best offense since September. Fernando Tatís Jr. had 25 home runs after going homerless in the first two months of the season; Machado hit 29 despite a .215 batting average.
