A well-known phrase within the baseball world today could be uttered once more: The Los Angeles Dodgers are the Nationwide League West champions.
With their 7-2 win over the Padres Thursday night time in Dodger Stadium, the ballclub clinched the division title for the eleventh time within the final 12 seasons, in addition to a bye previous the Wild Card Collection because of a greater file than the Milwaukee Brewers. The one time in that span the Dodgers did not win the West, they gained 106 video games and went to the NLCS. It is a outstanding run of constant regular-season excellence.
This time round, issues obtained a bit worrisome a couple of instances down the stretch. Regardless of constructing a nine-game lead in late June and nonetheless holding one as excessive as 7 1/2 video games in late July, the Dodgers handled surges from each the Diamondbacks and Padres, seeing the lead shrink to 3 video games in late August earlier than pushing it again as much as six video games heading into September. The Padres saved coming, although, and after Monday night time’s win in Dodger Stadium had the Dodgers’ lead down to 2 video games. The Dodgers responded with back-to-back wins to shut down the division, although.
The 2024 season is the primary full season since 2018 that the Dodgers will not get to 100 wins. That is a superb illustration of how a lot adversity the group confronted, comparatively talking. Particularly, their rotation has been ravaged with accidents: solely two pitchers made greater than 20 begins and none made greater than 25.
They’ve maintained their profitable methods behind organizational depth and a high-powered offense headed up by three MVPs. Shohei Ohtani may be very doubtless profitable the NL MVP this season after the first 50-50 yr in MLB historical past. Fellow offseason acquisition Teoscar Hernández has had an ideal offensive season. Mookie Betts (when wholesome) and Freddie Freeman have additionally been stellar.
In fact, a part of the Dodgers franchise setting such a excessive bar within the common season means the laborious half comes subsequent. Making the playoffs is not ok anymore. They gained the NL pennant in 2017 and 2018 and the World Collection in 2020, however have gone 1-6 in playoff video games within the final two seasons. The season will probably be thought-about a failure if the Dodgers do not make a deep playoff run and which means no less than the NLCS and possibly even attending to the World Collection. There are even some who would name the season a failure in the event that they lose within the World Collection. That simply comes with the territory in a corporation that has finished a lot profitable.
For now, although, the Dodgers have finished their jobs within the common season. They’re as soon as once more one of the best within the West.
