It’s probably safe to put the T-shirts in production.
Because barring an epic September collapse, the Dodgers now seem to be on a glide path to another National League West title.
In one game that effectively counted for three in the standings, the Dodgers defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks 11-6 at Chase Field on Monday afternoon — a victory that not only moved the team six games clear of Arizona in the NL West race, but also clinched their season series (and potential end-of-season tiebreaker) against the club.
No one was rolling out champagne bottles yet.
With four weeks to go, much can still go awry for a Dodgers team that remains short-handed on the mound.
But with only 24 games left in their schedule — and relatively easy ones at that, with series against the Angels, Miami Marlins and Colorado Rockies (twice) still remaining — the Dodgers (83-55) have put all the pressure on the Diamondbacks (77-61) and the San Diego Padres, who were 5½ games back in the standings ahead of their series opener against the Detroit Tigers on Monday night.
Even if the Dodgers go just .500 the rest of the way, the Diamondbacks and Padres (who come to L.A. for three games the last week of September) would have to win roughly 75% of their remaining games, if not more, to catch them.
By taking three of four games at Chase Field this week, the Dodgers basically put one hand on what would be their 11th division crown in the last 12 years.
“It’s big,” manager Dave Roberts said of building a six-game division lead over Arizona (one that is essentially 6½ with the tiebreaker). “To be able to extend it to six games, that’s the goal.”
After back-and-forth shootout wins for the Dodgers on Friday and Saturday, then a season-worst blowout loss on Sunday, the club got a more straightforward victory Monday.
Top trade deadline acquisition Jack Flaherty delivered a solid 5⅔-inning, one-run start.
Early offense was provided in the third inning on a Mookie Betts RBI single and Freddie Freeman two-run homer.
Then, the Dodgers added insurance in a three-run seventh inning and five-run eighth.
In the seventh, Shohei Ohtani scored on a sacrifice fly after stealing second and third base on back-to-back pitches (he had three steals, raising his season total to 46), while Will Smith smacked a two-out, two-run single the other way (he had five hits and five RBIs in what was been a bounce-back series).
In the eighth, Betts and Freeman combined again. Betts had a two-run, two-out double. In the next at-bat, Freeman clobbered another two-run homer, finishing the series with four long balls after missing the club’s previous three games with a right middle finger fracture.
Teoscar Hernández also had five hits, finishing just a long ball short of the cycle. Chris Taylor went two for four at the bottom of the lineup.
A loss on Monday would have put the Dodgers in very different position for the stretch run of the season.
With the tiebreaker, Arizona effectively would have been 3½ games back in the standings. And even with a relatively easy schedule on the horizon, the Dodgers would have been facing pressure with an uncertain starting rotation.
Of the team’s three big-name pitchers on the injured list — Yoshinobu Yamamoto (shoulder), Tyler Glasnow (elbow) and Clayton Kershaw (toe) — Yamamoto is closest to returning, scheduled to make another three-inning rehab start with triple-A Oklahoma City this week.
The rookie Japanese right-hander might be ready to return to the Dodgers’ rotation after that, though Roberts said it will depend on whether his pitch count is built up enough to not put the bullpen back in a difficult position once he is activated.
Glasnow and Kershaw remain bigger question marks.
Glasnow stretched his catch play out to 120 feet on Sunday, moving him closer to throwing off a mound again. For now, however, Roberts has been careful not to put a definitive timeline on his return.
“Once he gets off a mound,” Roberts said, “it’ll be a little more tangible.”
Kershaw is in a similar boat, needing the swelling caused by a bone spur on his left big toe to dissipate before the Dodgers will have a better sense of his status.
“Inflammation still is there,” Roberts said. “I think he’s supposed to be in a walking boot sometime soon.”
Asked if the state of this year’s rotation is better than the short-handed unit the Dodgers carried into last October, when they were swept by the Diamondbacks in three games, Roberts cast some doubt.
“Honestly, the current state of our roster? Probably not,” he said. “We’re making it work though. I don’t know how it’s going to look once we get to October, but we
still have a lot of baseball to get there.”
