The scene was familiar as the Dodgers poured out of their dugout Thursday night to celebrate a National League West title, a title they captured with a 7-2 loss to the San Diego Padres at Dodger Stadium.

However, this achievement – ​​the franchise’s 22nd division championship and 11th in the past dozen years – felt a little different.

Even though it happened on the same night, one of their star players was injured.

After trailing 2-0 entering the seventh inning, the Dodgers came alive with a familiarly explosive offensive outburst. Will Smith tied the game, leaping over a down-the-middle fastball from Padres starter Joe Musgrove for a two-run homer to center. Shohei Ohtani put the Dodgers ahead, sneaking a go-ahead RBI single through the right side of the infield. Mookie Betts added an exclamation point, hitting a two-run single the other way en route to the Dodgers’ 41st comeback win of the season.

However, a moment later came a moment of concern.

While trying to avoid a tag at first base, veteran slugger Freddie Freeman rolled his right ankle two steps past the bag. The eight-time All-Star and former MVP immediately fell to the ground in what appeared to be severe pain. He walked off the field under his own power, but walked gingerly back to the clubhouse as a hush fell over a sold-out crowd.

Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ director of baseball, said X-rays on Freeman’s ankle were negative and the team wasn’t overly concerned, but added that Freeman will not play against Colorado this weekend. Freeman was on crutches and wore a walking boot during the Dodgers’ postgame celebration.

“Man, I’m telling you, I couldn’t be prouder of these guys,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said during an on-field postgame interview with Spectrum SportsNet. “They fought and fought, overcoming adversity. And we checked box #1. Still a long way to go, but we’re going to celebrate tonight.’

Shohei Ohtani, right, hugs teammate Walker Buehler after the Dodgers defeated the Padres to capture the NL West division title on Thursday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

But now attention will turn to October, where the Dodgers have also secured themselves a first-round bye but now need to address another concern on their already injury-plagued roster.

Thursday’s game reflected the ups and downs the Dodgers (95-64) have gone through all season.

After all, this division title wasn’t like most in the club’s decade-long regular-season dominance, where they often locked up the division well before the finish, usually with a double-digit lead.

It wasn’t like 2018 either, when the Dodgers dug themselves out of an early-season hole and secured the title in Game 163; the last time they had reached the division at Chavez Ravine.

Claiming this year’s crown followed a different kind of script: one that was shrouded in unprecedented expectations after their multibillion-dollar offseason, repeatedly derailed by injuries to their patchwork starting rotation, and ultimately earned with a string of season-defining moments that littered the entire run.

A month ago there was the Dodgers’ victory in Arizona, when they suffered an injury to Clayton Kershaw (whose postseason status is still in question) after just one inning, but still managed to beat the Diamondbacks, who were then on were in second place, to overpower them and win three. of four games.

There was the recent trip to Atlanta and Miami, where the Dodgers twice dropped series openers before managing to rally for a four-game split with the Braves (highlighted by a comeback victory clinched by a ninth inning of seven runs on September 1, 2012). 15) and a loss to the Marlins in a rubber match (in which Shohei Ohtani reached the 50-50 threshold in historic fashion).

Last Sunday saw the walk-off against the last-place Colorado Rockies, as Ohtani and Betts created the kind of late-game magic the team will likely need to tap into next month.

And then it all culminated Thursday night against the Padres, when the Dodgers salvaged a three-game series that started with a game-losing triple-play Tuesday.

It wasn’t the regular season the Dodgers had in mind when they replenished their roster with superstar talent during their winter spending spree.

Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy, right, celebrates with catcher Will Smith after Smith hit a two-run home run in the seventh inning on Thursday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

It also fell short of a 100-win total, with the Dodgers already confident of falling below that mark for the first time in six years (not counting the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign).

But it did require a level of character and resilience that has eluded the club over the past two seasons. For the first time since their failed pursuit of the San Francisco Giants in 2021, the team has played meaningful game after meaningful game in the latter part of this season’s march.

And more often than not, they found a way to get a win and keep themselves positioned for the easiest route through the playoffs.

“Just fighting to the end, I think, makes our ball club better; raising the level of play and focus,” said Roberts, who has eight division titles at the helm, prior to Thursday’s first pitch. “So yeah, I think this is a different year, but it’s still always fun to be at the top and have people chasing you.”

Where they go from here is still very much in question.

The pitching staff remains a serious problem. Jack Flaherty ended his regular season with two disappointing starts and Yoshinobu Yamamoto has yet to pitch past the fourth inning since coming off the injured list and has been battling an illness lately ahead of his scheduled regular-season finale Saturday in Colorado.

The lineup has its own question marks – which were only amplified on Thursday by Freeman’s injury, the severity of which was not immediately clear.

And to make a deep postseason run, many things will likely have to go right: Ohtani maintains his torrid pace late in the season; the bullpen makes up for an expected lack of production from the starting rotation; the kind of hitting the Dodgers have struggled with in recent postseasons; and certainly no further injuries with a short pitching staff.

But the Dodgers have at least set themselves up for a favorable path, avoiding a best-of-three wild-card round that would have put further pressure on their pitching.

They are NL West champions again; an honor that has never felt so satisfying.