Dodgers Fail to Sweep Giants, Lose Ground in NL West Race With Padres Win

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The Los Angeles Dodgers dropped the final game of their four-game series against the San Francisco Giants, keeping their magic number at three and allowing the San Diego Padres to claw themselves one game closer to them in the NL West.
The Dodgers have already clinched a spot in the postseason, and now need just any combination of three wins or Padres losses to clinch their fourth consecutive NL West title.
Despite the result, the Dodgers have still won four of their last five and are in a good spot heading into their final two series of the season.
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Sunday's series finale against the Giants was an extremely close contest heading into the late innings, as the first run of the game crossed in the bottom of the seventh through a Michael Conforto single.
Conforto has had a solid month of September, and was batting .310 this month heading into Sunday's game.
Emmet Sheehan threw a gem, lasting seven innings and only allowing one hit while striking out 10 batters.
The 10 strikeouts ties a single-game career high for Sheehan, who has reached double digit Ks twice before. He most recently accomplished this against the Cincinnati Reds on Aug. 25.
The game got away from the Dodgers in the eighth inning, after reliever Blake Treinen entered the game for Sheehan. Treinen's struggles continued Sunday, as he allowed three runs to cross through two thirds on an inning. The reliever now has five losses in September to go with an 11.57 ERA on the month.
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Treinen's season ERA sat as low as 2.84 in September, but has ballooned to 5.55 since Sept. 6.
After the Dodgers' loss, the Padres are now three games behind the Dodgers, however they have a huge test coming in their next series, which is against the Milwaukee Brewers.
The Dodgers have six games left before the end of the season, and will face the Arizona Diamondbacks on the road in a three-game series beginning Monday. Shohei Ohtani will start for LA in the opening game, and will look to get them off to a good start against a team he has historically performed well against.
The first game of the series comes Monday at 6:40 p.m. PT.
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Aaron Coloma is a contributing writer for On SI based in Los Angeles. A 2024 graduate of Cal Poly Pomona, he previously covered collegiate and high school sports for The Poly Post and Valley Sports Telegram, respectively.
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