• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Dodgers fall to Padres after clinching West

Sep 26, 2008 - 5:56 AM By John Reger PA SportsTIcker Contributing Writer

LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- The Los Angeles Dodgers won even though they lost on Thursday.

With many of their starters resting or playing limited innings because they clinched the National League West Division crown hours earlier when the Arizona Diamondbacks were defeated by the St. Louis Cardinals, the Dodgers lost their final home game of the regular season, 7-5, to the San Diego Padres.

It is the team's first title since 2004 and the third time in five years it has reached the playoffs.

"It's good, but it's just the first step," Los Angeles left fielder Manny Ramirez said. "We're happy, but we're not going to go crazy about it. The goal is to go to the big dance, the World Series. This is not a championship yet."

Nomar Garciaparra, Russell Martin, and Angel Berroa all got the night off, and Ramirez, Casey Blake, Jeff Kent and Rafael Furcal didn't play past the fifth inning.

"It feels outstanding," Blake said. "You get brought over to do a job. It looked pretty bleak there for a while. We turned it around. However, it happened, we'll take it."

It is expected that manager Joe Torre will rest many of his starters for the team's final three games at San Francisco in anticipation of the playoffs, which begin Wednesday.

One player that will see action against the Giants will be Greg Maddux. The righthander was scheduled to pitch Thursday but was scratched. He will start on Saturday against the Giants. Derek Lowe, who is expected to start the first playoff game for the Dodgers, will pitch on Friday. Hiroki Kuroda will pitch on Sunday.

"This is satisfying after all the hard work," Lowe said. "This is a great feeling. It means a lot."

Eric Stults (2-3) took Maddux's place and struggled through 4 2/3 innings, allowing three runs and four hits, including home runs by Brian Giles and Adrian Gonzalez.

The Padres' Jake Peavy, who originally was scheduled to start Tuesday but had his start pushed after the birth of his son, won his 10th game of the season. The righthander ran his career record against the Dodgers to 13-1 and is 4-0 against them this season.

Trevor Hoffman earned his 29th save of the season by retiring the side in the ninth.

The Dodgers were already looking ahead.

"The sky's the limit," Ramirez said. "You never know. We're a pretty good team. Anything can happen."