Padres eliminate Dodgers, advance to NLCS for 1st time since 1998

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Jake Cronenworth hit a tiebreaking, two-run single with two outs in the seventh to help the San Diego Padres beat the Los Angeles Dodgers and advance to the NL Championship Series.

The Padres stunned the Dodgers with a five-run seventh to win the best-of-five NL Division Series and advance to the NL Championship Series.

The starting pitcher, who grew up a Padres fan in the San Diego suburbs, said it was going to be a party.

The Dodgers have been beating us up since I was a kid. The team stepped up when the games mattered.

San Diego will host Philadelphia in the first and second games of the NLCS. The defending World Series champion Atlanta Braves lost to the Philadelphias in the NLCS in four games.

The crowd roared when Josh Hader struck out three of the four runners he faced to end the game. fireworks went off above the downtown ballpark as Padres players celebrated wildly on the infield The fans were in the middle of a rare San Diego rainstorm when the players exhorted them for more

The last time the Padres reached the NLCS, they lost to the New York Yankees in the World Series. A group of players from that team watched from a suite, including a Hall of Fame closer.

The Dodgers had the best regular-season record in franchise history and manager Dave Roberts predicted that they would win the World Series.

It was very high. It was very disappointing. Roberts said it was crushing. The guys gave everything they had for the entire season. The good thing about baseball is theunpredictability, and the bad thing is the same thing.

I can't say anything will make it better. We didn't think we'd be in this situation.

It's the second biggest betting upset in a playoff series over the last ten seasons, as the Padres were a +190 favorite to win the series. The Washington Nationals defeated the Astros in the World Series.

The game was delayed for 31 minutes by showers at the start and then again in the eighth as the grounds crew worked on the pitcher.

San Diego broke through against the Dodgers' relief in the seventh after left-handed pitcher Tyler Anderson had dominated the Padres.

Jurickson Profar drew a leadoff walk, took third on Trent Grisham's single and scored when Austin Nola's infield single glanced off Freeman's glove at first base. Kim Ha-seong's double inside the third base line was followed by a tying single to right by Yency Almonte, who had taken the loss.

With two outs and the crowd on its feet, Cronenworth hit a single to center off local product Alex Vesia to give the Padres the lead and then punched the air with his right fist as he made his way to second base. After sliding home head first, he jumped up and cheered.

It took a team effort to beat a good team.

After the first rain delay, fans were excited to see Musgrove pitch his hometown Padres into the playoffs.

Anderson held the Padres to two hits through the first five frames.

The Dodgers led 2-0 at the end of the third. With one out, Betts walked and Turner hit a grounder past third baseman Machado, which moved Betts to third. The Braves won the World Series last year and they brought in both of them with a double by Freddie.

The bases were loaded in the seventh and Will Smith hit a sacrifice fly, but Tim Hill stopped the damage.

The Dodgers will not have a sense of purpose. They won the NL West for the ninth time in 10 years and finished 22 games ahead of the Padres.

During the regular season, the Dodgers went 14-5 against the Padres and won all six of the series. The first time a team lost a playoff series after not losing a series to that team during the regular season was in this case.

We got hot at the right time after these guys dominated us. Musgrove said that they wanted to give the fans so bad that they decided to unite the group. It's nice.

Musgrove was trying to win the series. On Sunday, he dominated the New York Mets at Citi Field, allowing just one hit and one walk in seven frames in a 6-0 win that sent the Padres to the NLCS.

The AP contributed.