LOS ANGELES – It wasn’t because they were partying.

In reality, there were no visible signs that the Padres had slashed and soaked carpet after clinching a playoff spot here on Tuesday.

The nightclub was once again just a place of work.

Almost immediately after the Padres’ departure, a cleaning crew arrived at the visitors’ clubhouse at Dodger Stadium and was finished around 2 a.m. When the Padres arrived Wednesday, there was virtually no remnant of the party, which formed a small lake of champagne and beer in the center of the room.

“We had fun,” manager Mike Sheldt said Wednesday afternoon. “Most of the celebratory drinks were on the floor, on people’s clothes, or in their eyes. … We recognized the achievement and are now ready to come back for it.”

The Padres were clearly no worse off for taking a few hours to celebrate what months of hard work had accomplished. Not only did the surrounding area look like nothing had ever happened, but the Padres players and coaches milled about like it was any other Wednesday.

“It’s a new day,” Jake Cronenworth. “I have to find a way to win.”

They tried and came back from two deficits.

But they faced a Dodgers team that, while it may be chic (and accurate) to point out its myriad deficiencies, entered Wednesday with the best win percentage in the major leagues and features Shohei Ohtani.

Adrián Morejón’s presumptive National League MVP win in the sixth inning tied the game and was the third run he contributed to on Wednesday, and the Dodgers secured a 4-3 victory.

That meant the Padres’ chances of winning the National League West were all but gone.

To win the division, the Padres will now most likely need to win all four remaining games and the Dodgers will need to lose three of their remaining four games. The only other scenario in which the Padres could also win the division would be to win three games, assuming one of them is Thursday’s series finale against the Dodgers and the Dodgers are defeated in Colorado this weekend.

“As far as fate goes, it’s a little out of our hands,” Shildt said afterward. “We still have a chance.”

What made the Padres increasingly likely was to win the NL’s top wild-card spot, and they remain 3½ games ahead of the Diamondbacks and Mets in that pursuit.

Ohtani began his disastrous night with a walk leading off the bottom of the first, went to second on a slider by Dylan Cease that bounced in front of the plate and then off catcher Elías Díaz’s glove, scoring as Teoscar Hernández scored a single on the other way to right center field with two outs.

Dodgers starter Jack Flaherty walked Manny Machado to start the second inning, and Jackson Merrill followed with a double that cleared the short wall in the right field corner. Machado scored on Xander Bogaerts’ single and Merrill grounded out to right by Cronenworth.

However, unlike Tuesday, the Dodgers came back.

After Cease retired nine of 10 batters to get two outs in the fourth inning, a double by Tommy Edman, a single by Gavin Lux, a walk by Miguel Rojas and a double by Ohtani made it 3-2.

With two outs in the top of the fifth, Fernando Tatis Jr. sent a fastball from Flaherty from an estimated 448 feet to the top of the left field stands to tie the game.

Both starting pitchers were done after five innings. Flaherty had thrown 100 pitches and Cease 97.

Jeremiah Estrada started the bottom of the sixth with Will Smith and Tommy Edman before shutting out Lux and taking advantage of Merrill making a jumping catch on a line drive from Andy Pages.

Morejón took on Ohtani and gave the starting signal.

The Padres walked once in three of the last four innings but got no hit after Tatis’ home run.

They close out the series here on Thursday before wrapping up the regular season with a three-game set in Phoenix against the Diamondbacks.

“We’re just going to move forward,” Tatis said. “We still have a chance. We’ll just take what we have left. We will definitely bring the same energy tomorrow and keep it up.”

Originally published: September 25, 2024 at 9:58 p.m