Ohtani snapped his hitless weekend with a 409-foot blast, shredding a weekend-long Padres heckling and signaling the Derby of Dodgers-Padres drama isn’t easing up. Dalton Rushing followed with a clutch three-run shot, Freeman added back-to-back homers, and Los Angeles leveled the NL West title race at 74-57 with 31 games left. The scene, loud and fiery, underlined a rivalry that has become baseball’s most charged in-season show.

Padres arms—Darvish, Cortes and Pivetta—matched the Dodgers for 18 innings, but Ohtani’s late swing flipped the script in an 8-2 win that kept L.A. fans grinning and San Diego brimming with optimism about bullpen depth. The season series now sits 9-4 in favor of the Dodgers, securing the tiebreaker if it comes to it, as both teams eye a deep October run.