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The best baseball team might not finish with the best baseball record. That’s because the San Francisco Giants haven’t just become the biggest surprise of the season, they’ve become the biggest surprise since the Mariners scored 116 wins exactly 20 years ago.
The Giants won 103 games in 1993, when there were still only four divisions in baseball and no Wild Cards, eventually finishing second behind the Braves in the NL West and not even qualifying for the playoffs. playoffs. The 2001 A’s won 102 games… and finished 14 games behind Lou Piniella’s Mariners in the American Western League. So these things have happened before with 100-game winning teams – but not to a team with more wins than the Dodgers already have.
The Dodgers, who still look like the best and most complete team in the sport, may have to play the NL Wild Card Game on Wednesday night against a Cardinals team that have just won 17 straight games. Might have to face Adam Wainwright and the Cards even if they arrive the last weekend of the regular season 14 games better than the Cardinals in the standings.
But for now, Dave Roberts’ Dodgers are officially still the champions, at 103-56, still looking to become the first team since the 1999-2000 Yankees to win two World Series in a row. They are looking to play their fourth World Series in five years, even though they haven’t won eight titles in the NL West along the way. Still in pursuit of the Giants in Games 160, 161, 162.
I asked Roberts on Wednesday about the character of his team in a race like the one the Dodgers have with the Giants, which has become something big and awe-inspiring about the rivalry between the two teams, since the days when the Dodgers were at Ebbets Field and the New York Giants were at Polo Grounds.
Roberts: “The character of this team has been tested throughout the year. On and off the field. They always stay focused and hungry. There is nothing we cannot accomplish if we continue to play baseball as a team.
It was the morning after the Dodgers, late in a game against the Padres they knew just couldn’t afford to lose, lost a big lead, fell behind, 9-5, a night Max Scherzer lit up, then proceeded to come in from behind and pass the Padres for good by hitting four homers in the bottom of the eighth – three solo shots, then a two-run homer from Corey Seager. You see them winning one like this and you know they are up for whatever they come across in the first week of October.
No one is crying for what the Dodgers have been through this season just because they are the Dodgers, whose organization is the gold standard of the game right now. They chose Scherzer, who could win another Cy Young Award, at the trade deadline. They picked up Trea Turner at the same time. Even without adding another Turner to go with Justin, the Dodgers won the trade deadline just because of Scherzer, who many still believe could have changed everything for the Padres if he had ended up in San Diego in the location of Dodger Stadium.
Clayton Kershaw, their ace for so long before Walker Buehler arrived – and before Scherzer came to town – missed two months with an injury. Cody Bellinger had been limited to just 92 games due to various injuries, the most recent of which was the broken left rib that put him on the injured list for the third time this season.
Bellinger was the National League MVP two years ago. But for now, it’s hit 0.162, a number that makes you want to have your eyes checked. He has just 10 home runs (including one of four in the eighth inning Wednesday night) and 36 RBIs, has a base percentage of 0.238, a hitting percentage of 0.301, an OPS of 0.539. It all really started with the shoulder he injured after an over-enthusiastic forearm bump with former teammate Kiké Hernandez after a huge home run against the Braves in last October’s NL Championship Series. . Bellinger hasn’t been the same player since.
Mookie Betts? He’s another former Dodgers MVP. He’s missed 40 games so far this season, mostly with hip issues, and is hitting .268.
But the Dodgers are still over 100 wins. They took first place from the Giants on September 1 and then got passed again. Now they are where they are, with three games to go. They’ve won 15 of their last 18 games and won one game against the Giants. They won 19 games in September. The Giants have won 21.
The Dodgers are therefore always in pursuit of the best record, convinced that they are still the best team. Still convinced that they can make history by becoming the first Dodgers team to win two World Series in a row. They just didn’t think they would have the chance to make that kind of story by finishing second in the West NL.
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