LOS ANGELES — Yoshinobu Yamamoto outdueled Yu Darvish in a historic playoff matchup of Japanese-born starters, and the Los Angeles Dodgers got home runs from Kiké Hernández and Teoscar Hernández to beat the San Diego Padres, 2-0, on Friday and advance to the National League Championship Series.

Yamamoto allowed two hits over five innings for the Dodgers before being pulled after 63 pitches in a decisive Game 5 between heated NL West rivals who were meeting in a Division Series for the third time in five years.

Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers will play the wild-card New York Mets in the best-of-seven NLCS starting Sunday night in Los Angeles.

“We’re ready for the next level, and, obviously, the Mets are playing great baseball,” Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts said.

The Dodgers won a decisive Game 5 at home for the first time since taking a 1981 NL Division Series against Houston after a season split into halves following a players’ strike.

Boasting the majors’ best regular-season record of 98-64, they successfully avoided a third straight NLDS elimination.

“We went through a lot of injuries, a lot of ups and a lot of downs. We fight, we fight and keep going,” Dodgers star Mookie Betts said. “All season everybody says the Dodgers are winning the World Series, the Dodgers are winning the World Series. And we get to this series, and all of a sudden we’re the underdog.”

The Padres’ big hitters went bust with their season on the line. Three-time batting champion Luis Arraez, Fernando Tatis Jr., Jurickson Profar and Manny Machado were 1 for 14 in Game 5 as Los Angeles pitchers retired their last 19 batters.

San Diego’s powerful lineup went scoreless for the final 24 innings of the series, dropping the last two games after taking a 2-1 lead back home.

“I think stunning is appropriate,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said.

Yamamoto and Darvish were the first Japanese-born starting pitchers to square off in major league playoff history.

Yamamoto handed the ball to a stellar bullpen that carried the Dodgers during the regular season when their starters were hit hard by injuries. Evan Phillips got five outs, fanning Profar and Machado in the seventh before Alex Vesia whiffed rookie standout Jackson Merrill to end the inning.

Vesia was warming up for the eighth when he exited with an injury. Michael Kopech came on and worked a perfect inning before Blake Treinen got three quick outs for his third career postseason save and second of the series.

With that, the NL West champs spilled out of the dugout for hugs and then headed back into their clubhose for another celebration.

“Anytime you’re smelling like champagne, it means you’re doing something good,” Betts said.

Darvish, the 38-year-old childhood idol of Ohtani, gave up an early home run to Kiké Hernández, then set down 14 in a row. Teoscar Hernández’s homer chased Darvish in the seventh and made it 2-0.

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