Hopefully soon. Unlike last year, the Dodgers are yet to catch fire and take off running with their division. The only thing that has been consistent in the National League this season is the lack of teams being able to hold first place in their respective divisions.
The Dodgers and Diamondbacks are in this constant back and forth for the past week or so and neither team shows any signs of dominating the other in the standings. When the Dodgers gain a game on the Diamondbacks, they lose and the Diamondbacks win, giving the Diamondbacks a share of first place. Now take that exact situation and flip the roles and the Dodgers now share first place. It’s repetitive but what can ya do?
It’s not just the National League West that is having this problem either. The National League East is going through the same problem. The surprisingly good Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves are viciously clawing at each other in the standings with the slumping Washington Nationals lurking in the distance.
Out of all three divisions in the National League, the National League Central has the largest margin of separation in the standings…and that separation is at 2 games…yeah, 2 games. The Cubs are in first place in the division with the Brewers riding close behind. However, this is the same ol’ story as the rest of the National League.
As of right now, the standings in the National League are:
National League West: Wins/Losses
- Dodgers: 64/52
- DBacks: 64/52
- Rockies: 60/55
- Giants: 57/59
- Padres: 46/71
National League Central:
- Cubs: 66/48
- Brewers: 66/52
- Cardinals: 60/55
- Pirates: 60/56
- Reds: 50/65
National League East:
- Phillies: 64/50
- Braves: 62/50
- Nationals: 59/56
- Mets: 47/65
- Marlins: 47/69
With a little under two months left until the playoffs start, it is beginning to look like the division race will come down to the wire. That is unless the Dodgers win the next ten games in a row and the DBacks lose the next ten games, but based on recent trends, that won’t happen. Anyways, what are the Dodgers up to?
Last weekend the Dodgers got absolutely man handled by the Houston Astros. Although the Dodgers did manage to win the final game of the series, the first two games were sad. Justin Verlander bullied the Dodgers last Friday night when he struck out FOURTEEN batters on the night and helped the Astros win, 1-0. Saturday night quickly got out of hand after Kenta Maeda left the game. While the Dodgers were down 5-0 after Maeda left the game, the Dodgers bullpen came in and completely blew it up. Houston’s offense carried them to a 14-0 blowout that showed who the better team was. Fortunately, Walker Buehler was able to quiet the Astros down on Sunday and pick up the 3-2 win.
After finishing the series with Houston, the Dodgers traveled up to Oakland to face the red hot Athletics. Oakland struggled to get any runs off of the former Athletic, Rich Hill. Hill had a shutout going until the sixth inning when Khris Davis launched his 32nd Home Run of the year. Luckily, Matt Kemp added an insurance run in the seventh inning with a single to score Joc Pederson. Dodgers won the first game 4-2.
Following the 4-2 victory on Tuesday night, Clayton Kershaw was set to face the former Tiger and Astro, Mike Fiers. Kershaw wasn’t his usual self Wednesday night and shockingly struck out only one batter. On the other hand, Mike Fiers brought it to the Dodgers and struck out eight batters. Up until the fifth inning, Fiers had a No Hitter going but was ended when Yasmani Grandal hit his 20th Home Run of the season. Los Angeles split the series with Oakland and traveled to Colorado to face the Rockies for four games.
In the first game of the series, the Dodgers dominated and hit five Home Runs. Two were tie breaking Home Run’s and one was a game tying Home Run. In addition to that, Manny Machado collected his 1000th Career Hit! After playing seven seasons, Machado has hit this impressive milestone in his career. It’s hard to think that Machado won’t join the 3000 Hit Club. Maybe he does that as a Dodger…..? We will see!
Joc Pederson, Max Muncy, Cody Bellinger, Chris Taylor and Brian Dozier all joined in on the Home Run party last night. Although, none are as important as Cody Bellinger’s game tying 2-Run Home Run in the Top of the 8th inning. This wouldn’t be so significant if I didn’t tell you what happened prior to the eighth inning.
After removing Ross Stripling from the game in the seventh inning, with a two run lead, Dave Roberts called upon the always reliable Pedro Baez. Yeah, he’s back and he’s ready to blow games out of the water. Nolan Arenado scored on a passed ball to cut the lead to just one run. Then, Chris Ianetta, that guy that always does well against the Dodgers, crushed a 3-Run Home Run to take a 5-3 lead and immediately turn the game into madness. Fast forward to the Top of the 8th inning and Cody Bellinger hits that 2-Run Home Run to tie the game. All is well in the Dodgers clubhouse as they would win the game, 8-5.
Unfortunately, all is not well in the Dodgers clubhouse. It was announced this week that Corey Seager would be undergoing arthroscopic hip surgery and wouldn’t be able to resume baseball activities until January. While every Dodger fan instantly started to panic, the surgery would not be a set back to Seager’s already recovering elbow. Then, during the game last night, Kenley Jansen started experiencing an irregular heartbeat, something he has dealt with before when traveling to Colorado. Jansen flew back to Los Angeles and will spend the rest of the series undergoing tests on his heart. Let’s hope this is a minor setback for Kenley Jansen.
The Dodgers continue the series with the Colorado Rockies tonight with Kenta Maeda scheduled to start the game. For those of you that are lucky enough to watch Dodger games on TV, get a pizza and enjoy the Boys in Blue. For the rest of us, we’ll watch highlights on the Dodgers Instagram.
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