Baseball fans in San Diego have been waiting a long time to party like this and the Padres were more than happy to finally oblige.
What made it so much sweeter was that they toppled the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers, the best team in the majors this year and one that had beaten up on the Padres regularly for the better part of two seasons.
Jake Cronenworth hit a tiebreaking, two-run single with two outs in the seventh inning and San Diego rallied past the Dodgers 5-3 Saturday night to advance to the NL Championship Series for the first time since 1998.
Petco Park shook and the sellout crowd of 45,139 roared when Josh Hader struck out Mookie Betts, Trea Turner and Freddie Freeman in succession to end the Padres’ third straight win against the Dodgers.
