Skubal Leads Dodgers to Playoff Clinch

Tarik Skubal threw seven shutout innings Monday night, and the Los Angeles Dodgers clinched their 14th consecutive playoff berth with a 4-1 win over the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park. That ties the Atlanta Braves' MLB record from 1991 through 2005. The two-time defending World Series champions are officially October-bound again.

Skubal allowed three hits, struck out nine, and walked one in picking up his 10th win (10-7). It was his second victory against Cincinnati in seven days after he threw 7 1/3 innings in a 3-2 win on Sep 8. Since the Dodgers acquired him from Detroit on Aug 2, he is 3-2 with a 2.52 ERA across eight starts. That is exactly why Los Angeles paid the price at the deadline. A lefty who can blank a lineup for seven is the October arm every contender wants when the bracket tightens.

The bats that finished the clinch

Kyle Tucker led off the second with a home run, his third in five games. Tucker walked with two outs in the fourth, and Teoscar Hernández followed with a shot to right-center. Kiké Hernández added an RBI single in the seventh. All three Dodgers hits produced runs. Nick Lodolo took the loss after allowing four runs on three hits in seven innings.

Elly De La Cruz answered with a 457-foot homer off Evan Phillips in the ninth, the longest Reds homer of the season and the longest blast at Great American this year. It was noise, not a comeback. Los Angeles closed the night at 91-59 and became the third team assured of a playoff spot after Milwaukee and Tampa Bay.

What is still on the board

The magic number for a fifth straight NL West title (and a 13th in 14 seasons) is down to three. Yoshinobu Yamamoto (13-8, 2.62 ERA) was lined up for Tuesday. Shohei Ohtani remains on the injured list with right biceps and left knee issues and did not factor into Monday's clincher, so leave the two-way comeback talk for the next medical update.

"We achieved one of the goals for this year," Hernández said on SportsNet LA. "We are going to keep working really hard and get ready for the playoffs." Dodgers fans chasing a third straight World Series title just got the first checkbox stamped. Skubal looks like October rotation certainty. Now the division race and the bracket seeding do the rest.