LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Dodgers won the National League West on Thursday night by defeating the second-place San Diego Padres 7-2 with a five-run burst in the seventh inning.

The Dodgers hadn’t won at home since the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, when cardboard cutouts replaced fans in the stands. The last time fans attended a crucial home game was in 2018.

A sellout crowd of 52,433, including former Dodgers star Manny Ramirez, filled Dodger Stadium for the finale of the deciding series between the division’s top two teams.

The Dodgers took two of three games from the Padres and traveled to Colorado to play three games at the end of the regular season.

Their 11th league title in 12 seasons earned them a first-round bye in the postseason.

The Dodgers improved to 95-64 and will open the playoffs Oct. 5 at home in the best-of-five NL Division Series.

Will Smith hit a tie-breaking two-run home run off Joe Musgrove to open the Dodgers’ opener. Musgrove had held them scoreless for six innings as the Padres took a 2-0 lead.

Musgrove gave up a leadoff walk to Max Muncy. Smith followed with a 426-foot shot up the middle, tying the score at 2-2. It was the Dodgers’ first home run of the three-game series.

Pinch-hitter Kiké Hernández singled and took second when Andy Pages reached after catcher interference from Kyle Higashioka. Shohei Ohtani singled and Hernández scored on an error, while Ohtani was safe at second on a throwing error by Fernando Tatis Jr.

Pages and Ohtani scored on a single from Mookie Betts to make it 5-2.

Pages added a two-run, two-strike, two-out home run in the eighth.

The rally against the Padres was dampened by an injury to All-Star slugger Freddie Freeman, who left the game after clumsily trying to avoid Luis Arraez’s tackle at first base and breaking his right ankle at second of seven bases rolled over. Freeman grabbed his lower right leg before limping off the field.

However, the Dodgers said after the game that Freeman did not suffer any structural damage to his ankle and expected him to be ready for the NLDS.

Information from Alden Gonzalez of ESPN and The Associated Press was used in this report.