LOS ANGELES -- While the outcome on the field was disappointing, the Dodgers still came away from Thursday with something to celebrate.
Before first pitch of an eventual 4-2 loss to the Padres, the Dodgers clinched one of the top two records in the National League and a first-round bye in the postseason when the Braves fell to the Reds. Hours later, the loss to San Diego confirmed that L.A. (97-62) would enter the postseason as the No. 2 seed in the National League, behind No. 1 Milwaukee (100-59).
"It took the last week of the season to not have a series to be playing for something, essentially," manager Dave Roberts said. "But we want to finish playing good baseball."
The Dodgers will have home-field advantage in the best-of-five NL Division Series, which begins on Oct. 3.
In their back-to-back championship seasons, the Dodgers earned a bye in 2024 but were unable to bypass the Wild Card round in '25. With the bye in hand again in '26, they know they'll have to win 11 postseason games to pull off a three-peat, which would be the first in the Majors since the 1998-2000 Yankees.
"We've had byes in previous years and not done well, we've been Wild Card and done well. I think it's all random," said starter Tyler Glasnow, who had a season-high 11 strikeouts while allowing three runs in 6 1/3 innings. "It's a bit comforting, I guess, to have a bye, but I think any situation we're in, we're gonna play well."
The bye is more a need than a luxury for the Dodgers, who have several players who are dealing with lingering injuries, such as Freddie Freeman, who dealt with right patellar tendinitis earlier this month. They also have multiple players who have recently returned from the IL, such as Shohei Ohtani and Andy Pages. Having an additional five days off can help L.A. get closer to full strength before its title defense begins in earnest.
"We played really good baseball for six straight months, and we get rewarded for that," Freeman said. "So we’ll take it in, rest up and get ourselves ready to go for [NLDS Game 1].”
The Dodgers' potential opponents for the NLDS remain up in the air. As the No. 2 seed, they will play the winner of the NL Wild Card Series hosted by the NL East-champion Braves. The Wild Card standings are tight, with the Padres, Cubs and Phillies currently in the three spots. The D-backs are on the fringe of the race, but still hanging around going into the final weekend.
The Padres, who punched their postseason ticket with their win on Thursday, were the first contending team the Dodgers had played since facing the Braves in Atlanta at the end of August. L.A. went 8-5 against San Diego in the season series, but lost two of the final three regular-season games against its divisional rival in what could be a postseason preview.
The series loss continued a potentially concerning trend for the Dodgers, who went 36-36 against teams with .500 records or better this season.
"Once you get to the postseason," Roberts said, "it is a different season. … I think we've seen many times over that the regular season, the win-loss really doesn't project what the postseason will look like."
The Dodgers will not face another team with a winning record in the regular season, as they will close out their slate against the Giants (65-94). Even so, they'll have some key developments over the final weekend.
Ohtani, who notched two hits in his second game back from the IL -- including a 106.8 mph RBI double off Padres closer Mason Miller -- will continue to make up for lost time by stacking at-bats. Tarik Skubal and Blake Snell will make their final regular-season tuneups. Edwin Díaz, who had his fourth scoreless outing since coming off the IL, will finalize his case for the postseason bullpen. The Dodgers will also get a brief look at Dalton Rushing as they decide how to round out their bench.
The Dodgers' final three games may not matter for postseason seeding, but they are still an opportunity to build momentum that can carry through the bye week and into the NLDS.
"Doesn’t matter who we’re playing [in the NLDS] or what we’ve done against those teams," Freeman said. "It’s all out the window come [next] Saturday. It’s ‘game on’ there. But play good baseball so we can have some positive things going into the off week.”