Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres Play MLB’s Fastest Playoff Game in 28 Years

The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres’ heated showdown in the NLDS finally came to a head on Friday night, and it didn’t take very long to determine a winner.

While Los Angeles scored first and never looked back, San Diego stayed within striking distance until the very end. It was a close contest all the way through, it’s just that Game 5 was less like a marathon and more like a sprint.

From first pitch to final out, it took just 2 hours and 26 minutes for the Dodgers to lock down their 2-0 win and advance to the NLCS for the seventh time in the last 12 years.

As noted by MLB.com’s Sarah Langs, it marked the fastest winner-take-all postseason game across all of MLB since Game 7 of the 1996 NLCS. That game between the Atlanta Braves and St. Louis Cardinals took 2 hours and 25 minutes to complete.

There were 78 winner-take-all games played between Game 7 of the 1996 NLCS and Game 5 of the 2024 NLDS, none of which were completed as quickly.

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The pitch clock, introduced in 2023, surely attributed to the shortest October showdown in nearly three decades. Beyond that, though, the Dodgers and Padres were able to wrap up Game 5 so quickly thanks in part to their stellar pitching – or their stagnant bats, depending on who you ask.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed just two hits and one walk across 5.0 scoreless innings. Evan Phillips, Alex Vesia, Michael Kopech and Blake Treinen then combined for 4.0 perfect innings to close it out.

San Diego didn’t get a scoreless start out of Yu Darvish, but he did give up just three hits and one walks in 6.2 innings of work. Jason Adam then gave up one hit, while Tanner Scott retired the one batter he faced in the eighth.

The two teams combined to hit .109 on the night, making Kiké Hernandez and Teoscar Hernández’s solo home runs all the more critical.

Now, the Dodgers will move onto the NLCS to face the New York Mets. That series is set to start Sunday at 8:15 p.m. ET.

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