Walker Buehler pitched seven shutout innings and the Los Angeles Dodgers continued their strong play down the stretch with a 2-1 victory Tuesday over the visiting San Diego Padres.

Trea Turner and AJ Pollock drove in runs as the Dodgers (101-56) won for the 13th time in their past 16 games. Turner had three hits.

Los Angeles remained two games behind the National League West-leading San Francisco Giants with five games to play in the Dodgers' quest for a ninth consecutive division title. The Giants defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-4 on Tuesday.

Jake Cronenworth hit a home run for the Padres (78-79), and Yu Darvish (8-11) gave up two runs on five hits over four innings in what was expected to be his final start of the season. Eric Hosmer had two hits for San Diego, which was eliminated from playoff contention Saturday and dropped to 6-17 in September.

Buehler (15-4) gave up three hits and two walks while striking out five. He was much improved after going 1-2 with a 7.32 ERA over his first four September starts. He failed to go four innings in two of those four outings.

The Dodgers took a 1-0 lead three batters into the bottom of the first. Mookie Betts led off with a double and Turner brought him home with a one-out double.

The Dodgers made it 2-0 in the third inning when Turner led off with a single and scored on a two-out single from Pollock. It was the fourth RBI in four starts for Pollock since he returned from the injured list last week after recovering from a hamstring issue.

Buehler did not give up a hit through the first four innings before allowing single hits in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings. He recorded his 200th strikeout of the season in the fourth inning when he fanned Fernando Tatis Jr.

Joe Kelly pitched a scoreless eighth inning with two strikeouts for the Dodgers. Blake Treinen gave up Cronenworth's home run in the ninth before finishing off his seventh save, but not before the Padres got the tying run to second base.

--Field Level Media