CINCINNATI -- The Dodgers came to Great American Ball Park in control of their own postseason destiny. Win, and they were in. 

There was no real question about whether the back-to-back champion Dodgers would return to the postseason, but they officially punched their ticket after homers from Kyle Tucker and Teoscar Hernández backed seven spotless innings from Tarik Skubal in a 4-1 victory over the Reds on Monday night. 

L.A. has made the postseason in 14 straight seasons, tying Atlanta's all-time record set from 1991-2005.

Now that they've secured their spot in the field, the Dodgers will go for their 13th NL West title in the past 14 seasons. They can win the division as soon as Tuesday with another win in Cincinnati, as well as back-to-back losses by the red-hot Padres, who entered Monday on a seven-game winning streak.

With the Dodgers bidding for the Majors' first three-peat since the Yankees won three straight World Series from 1998-2000, they swung big in both the offseason and the regular season with an eye on increasing their championship odds. Their biggest addition in free agency, Tucker, and their most notable in-season reinforcement, Skubal, keyed their postseason clincher.

Tucker opened the scoring with a solo home run off Reds left-hander Nick Lodolo in the second inning. While Tucker has struggled offensively and is out of time to fully turn his season around, he may be starting to get hot at the right time, having slugged three homers in his past five games. He also drew a two-out walk in the fourth ahead of Hernández, who took Lodolo deep to pad the Dodgers' lead.

The way Skubal was throwing the ball, no lead felt unsafe. The southpaw authored one of his finest starts since being dealt to L.A. ahead of the Trade Deadline, striking out nine and scattering three hits and a walk across seven scoreless innings.

Both Tucker and Skubal were brought to L.A. in the interest of winning another championship. Clinching a postseason berth was the Dodgers' first meaningful step toward defending their title once again.