I don’t know why, but the great season of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who aren’t exactly playing in a small market, is going down the drain.
In fact, I think I know why we don’t worry about them… and it has nothing to do with the club playing in the western United States.
It is because they are alone in the world.
Last year, when they finished with 106 wins, we followed that religiously. Every day, we followed the rankings… because the Giants were in the picture.
Seeing a race of this magnitude caught the eye. Both powers seemed to be winning every day in September because no one wanted to finish second.
Eventually, the San Francisco Giants’ 107 wins forced the Los Angeles Dodgers and their 106 wins into a suicide game. It was unheard of for such a strong team.
But there, even if the Dodgers (110-48) have a better record and even if there are four games left to play, we know that the club will have home field advantage in each of its series.
Why? Because only one other formation, at the time of this writing, has over 100 wins. We’re talking about the Astros (103-55) in the American.
110 wins, if you put that in perspective, it’s really strong.
The club joined the 1909 Pirates and the 1927 Yankees among the best regular season teams in history. They are therefore (tied) in fifth place in history.
The club will play its next four games at home against the Rockies and its first playoff game is on October 11. We could therefore see the big players of the club continue to play.
It will therefore be impossible to go for 116 victories like the Mariners of 2001 or the Cubs of 1906, but the Cleveland club of 1954 (111 victories) could very well be exceeded.
And the 1998 Yankees (114 wins) might have some company.
The Dodgers are a club that crushes the competition. On 94 occasions this season, the Dodgers have won by at least two points.
There are at least six clubs that will make the playoffs with less than 94 wins overall…that says a lot about the Dodgers in 2022, doesn’t it?
The challenge for the Dodgers will be dealing with a mortgaged rotation (Tony Gonsolin, Walker Buehler and Dustin May are currently on the injured list), but otherwise Dave Roberts has a well-oiled ball machine on hand.
I can’t wait to see the manager in the playoffs. He’s not always the guy who makes the best decisions in October, Roberts.
Watch out for the teams that will have to play at Chavez Ravine this fall. It will not be easy for the opponents, both in terms of the atmosphere and on the field.
