The San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks did the Dodgers no favors the past two Octobers, kicking them out of the postseason unceremoniously.
But those same two teams might be doing the Dodgers a favor now, pushing them in the National League West like they have rarely been pushed while winning 10 of the past 11 division titles.
“This is my second year here, and last year we kind of ran away with the division,” veteran infielder Miguel Rojas said. “It was really easy, and I know these guys are used to that. They win over 100 games every single year. Having someone chasing you is always a good motivation to continue to hold the lead. Teams that want to go to the World Series, they need to play good at the end of the year. I’m not saying that we haven’t played good at the end of the year, but we haven’t played with this pressure lately.
“I can talk about last year. I mean, September felt like you didn’t have anything to play for. This year, we’ve got a different motivation – to hold the lead and win the division.”
A year ago, the Dodgers won the division by 16 games, holding a double-digit lead from mid-August on. After 128 games in 2022 (the same point in the season the Dodgers reached Tuesday), they led the division by 19½. At the same point in 2019 and 2017, the lead was 20 games.
This year, the lead is four games (3½ if the Padres win Thursday night).
“I don’t think it’s a bad thing,” Dodgers second baseman Gavin Lux said. “It forces a sense of urgency with everyone. Every game you play is meaningful. I think in years past where we’ve kind of cruised the last six weeks of the season, now you feel you kind of like you have to win every game. I don’t think it’s a bad thing at all. I think it creates a sense of urgency which probably helps in the long run, especially in October.”
By this time most seasons, the Dodgers could have nothing on their minds but October. They talked up the virtues of clinching early those years – resting players, letting injured players heal and setting up the pitching staff for the postseason.
“You know, I think you can look at it both ways,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Being in a real pennant race I think certainly brings out the best in individuals, teams, I think. The other side of the coin is, you just don’t have the luxury of resting guys or not kind of red-lining certain guys because every game is even more magnified. That’s not necessarily a good thing.
“I look at it as it’s a good thing for us and as we deal with Freddie (Freeman and his injured finger) and other guys coming back. Some other guys … because of necessity, they have really stepped up for us. They’ll be able to get back to their individual role which will be better for them. But overall, I mean, you play this game for competition and we’re in a competition for the next month.”
That creates a sense of urgency. In past years while running away with the division, the Dodgers had to manufacture their own sense of urgency.
“It’s not the same. It’s not the same,” Roberts admitted. “But I just don’t know if there’s a right or wrong. It’s just kind of how it plays out and if you win a World Series or not. What’s the right way to get there?”
It hasn’t been the right way in recent years. The Dodgers ran away with the division in 2019, 2022 and 2023 then lost in the first round of the playoffs each year.
But veteran reliever Daniel Hudson isn’t ready to draw conclusions.
“It’s fricking baseball,” Hudson said. “You can look at it from multiple angles and think one way is better than the other. But at the end of the day, our game is so fricking flukey sometimes that you just have a rough stretch where things don’t go your way and all of a sudden you’re out in three games in the division series. And then people are, ‘Oh, if they were playing meaningful games on Sept. 30 then maybe this wouldn’t have happened.’ But it can still happen that way too. You can run into a hot pitching staff, a hot lineup and (stuff) happens. It’s unlike any other sport. There’s just so much stuff that can happen that you can’t really predict.
“I don’t know, man. I think you can look at it from a couple angles and think one is better than the other. But then you can talk to somebody else who gives you a different perspective on it and you’re ‘Okay, that makes sense too.’ That’s just how our game is, you know.”
Hudson has a World Series ring from his part on a team that did it a different way. The 2019 Washington Nationals had a sub-.500 record in late June, had to get hot to claim a wild-card spot and stayed hot to win the World Series (beating the Dodgers in an NLDS along the way).
They aren’t alone. Momentum seemed to be a big part of the Diamondbacks’ run to the World Series last year or the Phillies’ October run in 2022.
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“You can maybe point your finger at that,” Hudson said. “But maybe you just run into a hot pitching staff. If you take 2019 when I was with the Nationals, we had four really good starters and a few guys at the back end of the bullpen. You run into those guys when they’re on a good run, we can take anybody down. It doesn’t matter what your offense looks like. That’s just the way baseball is.”
And this is just the way it is for the Dodgers this season. Despite their injuries, the Dodgers (76-52) have the best record in baseball – but only the third-best record since the All-Star break behind the Padres (22-7) and Diamondbacks (23-8).
“I don’t think we have a choice of playing in the world of ‘It’s not.’ It’s the way things have played out,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said when asked if it was a good thing to be pushed this year. “Obviously having a bigger lead would be nice. How it plays out going into the end of the season and the playoffs – TBD. We’re playing good baseball which is important. We’ll see what it looks like. If it’s a tight race down the stretch which we expect it to be, hopefully that’s a good thing and we’ll keep that momentum going into the postseason.”
