Here's one thing that hasn't changed in 2020: the Dodgers will play in the postseason.\n\nThe Dodgers clinched an eighth consecutive playoff berth Wednesday with a 7-5 win over the Padres at Petco Park, combined with losses by Colorado and Milwaukee.\n\n• Box score\n\nThe Dodgers just didn't know it. Los Angeles prides itself on thinking through every scenario, but it claimed to have overlooked this one.
\"I think it caught us all by surprise -- we were so focused on winning the series,\" said manager Dave Roberts, who has been insistent that any and all clinchings are worth celebrating, even eight in a row, as the Dodgers' string continues. \"I think word will travel on the plane. But it should be celebrated, for sure.\"\n\n• Rivalry stirring, but West still runs through LA\n\nThat said, Roberts conceded this clinching is \"different\" than all the others.
\"I just found it out five minutes ago,\" Roberts said. \"We still have a lot of baseball to play, but it's a credit to those guys in the clubhouse.\"\n\n• How they got there: LA's 8th straight berth\n\nWith home runs from
While the clinching was an overriding goal, the series rubber match also doubled as a lab experiment, as the Dodgers pulled a late pitching switch. Instead of starting
After losing the chippy series opener to the upstart Padres, the Dodgers looked more like themselves in the following two wins. And their pitchers held NL MVP Award candidate Fernando Tatis Jr. to a 1-for-12 nightmare.\n\n\"We just attack, let them make the mistakes,\" said May. \"We find a spot and we just exploit it, and I feel like we did a very good job of it in this series.\"
\n\n \n\nIt was the Dodgers' second bullpen game in their last four contests, third in the last five and there's another on tap for Friday. That's no accident in an age of postseason openers and bulk pitchers and exploiting matchups and gamesmanship. Last week, starter
Among them is the likelihood of going through the postseason without left-handed reliever
\n\nRoberts also reported that Pollock left the game in the sixth inning with a hamstring cramp that he said was not serious, but he also said he was unsure if Pollock would play on Thursday in Denver.