At long last! Padres stun Dodgers, reach NLCS

SAN DIEGO — They’ve waited a long, long time for this particular moment of catharsis in San Diego:

The playoffs. The Dodgers. A packed house at Petco Park with everything on the line.

The Padres sure did make it dramatic, didn’t they?

With a furious seventh-inning rally that shook Southern California, the Padres are on their way to the National League Championship Series. The Dodgers — the 111-win juggernaut Dodgers — are headed home, victims of one of the most monumental upsets in postseason history.

Jake Cronenworth’s two-out, two-strike, two-run single was the difference in a 5-3 Padres victory in Game 4 of the NL Division Series on Saturday night — the finishing touch on a wild come-from-behind rally.

Trailing by three, Austin Nola put the Padres on the board with an RBI single off Freddie Freeman’s glove at first base. Ha-Seong Kim cut the deficit to one with an RBI double. Juan Soto tied it with a laser-beam single to right. All of that with no outs.

Then came the drama. Manny Machado struck out. Brandon Drury popped out. The task was in Cronenworth’s hands. With two strikes, Soto trotted to second base, putting two men in scoring position. Then Alex Vesia hung a slider, Cronenworth punched it to center, and Petco Park whipped into a full-on frenzy.

The Padres have finished behind the Dodgers in the standings in each of the last 12 years. In 2022, they finished a whopping 22 games back. Only one team in playoff history had ever won a postseason series against a team it trailed by as much in the standings — the 1906 White Sox over the Cubs.

For much of their 5 1/2-decade existence, the Padres have lived in the Dodgers’ shadow. But they built a contender in 2022, and at the Trade Deadline, they made a series of moves — with precisely this matchup in mind. They’d have to overtake their rivals at some point. It was then that chairman Peter Seidler proclaimed the Dodgers “that dragon up the freeway we’re trying to slay.”

That dragon has officially been slain. The Padres are NLCS bound, where they’ll meet the Phillies.

Game 1 is Tuesday at Petco Park.