Manny Machado

SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Padres are headed back to the playoffs for the fourth time in six seasons.

The Padres clinched a playoff berth with a 5-4, 11-inning win against the three-time NL-Central champion Milwaukee Brewers on Monday night.

Freddy Fermin, acquired from Kansas City at the trade deadline on July 31, singled in automatic runner Bryce Johnson with one out in the 11th to set off a wild celebration in front of a sellout crowd of 42,371 at Petco Park.

The Padres pulled within 2½ games of the idle Dodgers in the NL West race and 2½ games behind the idle Chicago Cubs in the race for the National League’s first of three wild-card spots.

Manny Machado, shirtless, wearing sunglasses and drenched with beer and Champagne, says he feels good about the team’s chances in the playoffs.

“Everything is different. But we’ve got heart,” Machado said. “Everybody wants it. It’s always a challenge. Baseball’s a challenge. It’s hard.”

Fermin was being interviewed when Machado stopped by and poured a shot of tequila into his mouth.

“I believe with this staff we have, we are going to the World Series,” said Fermin, the catcher. “It is very special, this moment. I don’t have words for this moment. Very special. First step, we’ve got to keep rolling this.”

The Padres’ road appears to be tougher than last year, when they swept the Atlanta Braves in a home wild-card series to earn a shot at the rival Dodgers. San Diego led 2-1 before their bats went so cold that they didn’t score in the last 24 innings as they lost the series in five games. The Dodgers went on to win the World Series.

“What this group has done this year, and even last year, to put this into place, and for us to go to the postseason two years in a row for the first time since 2005-06, is truly special,” second baseman Jake Cronenworth said.

If the current standings hold, the Padres would visit the Cubs for a best-of-three wild-card series. The winner would move into the division series against the Brewers, who clinched their third straight division title on Sunday and are in the postseason for the seventh time in eight seasons.

It’s been an interesting season for the Padres, who led the division for much of April before slipping back as they played .500 ball in May and sub-.500 ball in June. The Dodgers never could open a big lead, but the Padres never could regain the lead, except for brief stretches in August.

General manager A.J. Preller pulled off a major overhaul at the trade deadline, acquiring reliever Mason Miller from the Athletics, Fermin from the Royals and outfielders Ryan O’Hearn and Ramon Laureano from the Orioles.

The Padres became the first big league team to send three relievers to the All-Star Game when Jason Adam, closer Robert Suarez and left-hander Adrián Morejón were selected for the Midsummer Classic. Adam went down with a season-ending quadriceps injury on Sept. 1.

The Padres were prone to offensive slumps, particularly on the road.

But there were some defensive highlights, including several home run robberies by right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr.

Tatis missed the clincher with an undisclosed illness, but Machado included his teammate in the postgame celebration via FaceTime on his phone.

Wilson writes for the Associated Press.

With his arm forming a 90-degree angle at his elbow, Shohei Ohtani clenched his right hand like an umpire signaling an out.

The actual home-plate umpire, Tripp Gibson, didn’t make the same gesture.

Fernando Tatis Jr. was ruled safe at home. Three batters into his first game pitching for the Dodgers, Ohtani was charged with a run.

Ohtani pointed his glove at Gibson. He screamed. He turned his head in the direction of the Dodgers dugout, waving his glove as if to urge the bench to challenge the call.

The Dodgers saw another side of Ohtani on Monday in their 6-3 victory over the San Diego Padres, but that entailed more than him taking the mound and throwing a couple of 100-mph fastballs.

Ohtani the pitcher, they learned, isn’t as playful as Ohtani the hitter. He snarls. He barks. He’s emotional, even downright combative at times.

This temperament could explain why Ohtani pitched the way he did in his first game in two seasons — why he threw as hard as he did, why he couldn’t control his fastball, why his sweeper lacked its usual movement.

Hitting is what Ohtani does for fun. Pitching is what he treats as work, and Ohtani was amped up to return to the mound.

“I was more nervous than when I’m just a hitter,” Ohtani said in Japanese.

His performance reflected that. In the one inning he pitched as an opener, he was charged with a run and two hits. He threw 28 pitches, of which only 16 were strikes.

Shohei Ohtani takes the mound for the Dodgers for the first time since signing with the team.

“My arm was moving a little too fast, so pitches were going more to the glove side than I anticipated,” Ohtani said.

His first pitch was a 97.6-mph fastball that was fouled off by Tatis. He averaged 99.1 mph with his four-seam fastball and 97.4 mph with his sinker, throwing 13 pitches at 98 mph or faster. He was clocked at 100.2 mph against Luis Arraez and 99.9 against Manny Machado.

That was considerably faster than Ohtani threw in live batting practice and considerably faster than the Dodgers were expecting him to throw in this game.

“I wanted to be around 95-96 as much as possible,” Ohtani said.

Ohtani gave up a single to Tatis on a 99.1-mph fastball that was left over the heart of the plate. Tatis advanced to second base on a 98.3-mph wild pitch and third on a single that Arraiz hit off a 98-mph sinker.

With runners on the corners, Ohtani thought he struck out Machado on a sweeper, but he was ruled to have checked his swing. Ohtani pointed at Gibson and appealed for a strike but to no avail. Ohtani unironically made a Joe Kelly pouty face.

Two pitches later, Machado scored Tatis with a sacrifice fly to center field.

“A little more animated than he usually is,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Ohtani.

Roberts already knew Ohtani would be like this, as he’d spoken to people familiar with Ohtani, including former Angels manager Phil Nevin.

“I guess as a pitcher, he shows a lot more emotion and gets frustrated when things don’t go well or he doesn’t do what he’s supposed to do on the mound,” Roberts said with a chuckle.

Ohtani was more in control when he retired Xander Bogaerts for the final out of the inning, and he pointed to the at-bat as a highlight.

“I was able to relax and pitch,” he said.

Ohtani started by attacking him with a sweeper that was called for a strike. He followed that up with a 95.6-mph sinker that missed low, but forced Bogaerts to ground out for the third out on another sinker, this one on the inside half of the plate. That pitch was 95.4 mph.

After that, Ohtani strapped on protective gear and slipped on batting gloves while standing on the railing in front of the Dodgers’ bench. As a hitter, he finished the game two for four with a walk, two runs scored and two runs batted in.

In the batter’s box and on the basepaths, his demeanor softened. By the time he reached third base in the Dodgers’ five-run fourth inning, he was sharing laughs with Machado.