Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES — At about 10:10 pm Wednesday night, the Dodgers climbed into a flat-footed tie for first place. A few minutes later, after Josh Hader put the finishing touches on the Brewers’ 5-2 victory over the Giants, the Dodgers inched ahead of their in-state rivals by a half a game. That half game was eliminated on Thursday afternoon as San Francisco was able to salvage the final game of its series with Milwaukee. Which means, we’ll be heading into Labor Day weekend with the best two teams in baseball tied for first place in the NL West with identical 85-49 records. So how did we get here?
It’s been quite a month since these teams last played at the end of July. Over the course of ten days, the Dodgers played sloppy baseball in their seven games with the Giants, losing three out of four in LA (courtesy of some Kenley meltdowns) and two out of three up in San Francisco. Things seemed to get even more dire during the early part of August when, despite playing well, the Dodgers fell a full five games behind the Giants in the standings. Every time the Dodgers would win, it seemed like the Giants did, too. And every time the Dodgers had a chance to gain a game on the Giants, they seemed to play flat and squander the opportunity.
Bold moves yield results
Still both teams were playing well. And with the infusion of Trea Turner and Max Scherzer at the trade deadline, the Dodgers went from having their worst month of the season (14-12 in July) to their best (21-6 in August). Plus, with more and more Dodger players getting healthy, Dave Roberts had the luxury of filling out fewer and fewer WTF lineup cards. Gone were the days when the outfield was made up of Luke Raley, Chris Taylor, and Yoshi Tsutsugo. No more Sheldon Neuse playing second base. The Dodgers’ Death Star was becoming fully operational.
Pitching the key
In addition, the pitching has been great, almost stunningly so. Over the last thirty days, the Dodgers’ team ERA has been a jaw-dropping 2.33, the best in MLB by a long shot. Walker Buehler continues to make his case for the Cy Young, Julio Urias has been solid, and Max Scherzer is working on what could be the best season of his career (which is saying something). The only question marks have been the four and five starters, especially in the prolonged absence of Clayton Kershaw (come back soon, Clayton!). Still, Dave Roberts has managed to cobble it together with bullpen games and decent, if not particularly brilliant starts from David Price.
The bullpen these last thirty days has been on fire. Kenley Jansen seems to have righted the ship and is pitching well as the closer. Blake Treinen has been filthy good, giving up runs in only one of his last 29 appearances, and even that was a wall-scraping homer that didn’t affect the outcome of the game. And what about Alex Vesia? And Phil Bickford? These are some no-name guys that have come up with quality innings in tight games. Which probably explains why after starting the season with such a pitiful record in one-run games, the Dodgers have now won their last eight straight in that category.
Giants starting to show chinks in the armor
What about San Francisco? Well, they have pretty much been matching the Dodgers blow for blow in the last month. It wasn’t until the last week that the Dodgers had been able to make any headway in the standings. Since the All-Star break, they are 27-17, just slightly off their torrid first half pace. And even though the Giants’ lineup sometimes looks a lot like an episode of the old show thirtysomething (Google it, young people), they continue to get production from all of their veteran players. Brandon Crawford is leading the way with perhaps the best season of his career. They’re getting some pop out of Brandon Belt, as well, and Buster Posey at catcher is playing at his MVP level again. We’ll see how much these veterans have left in the tank for the stretch run but Farhan Zaidi and Gabe Kapler have to be thrilled with where this franchise is sitting right now.
The pitching is where the Giants have the most question marks going into the weekend. Johnny Cueto was just sent to the IL. Alex Wood is out with Covid. Kevin Gausman‘s been getting knocked around a bit in the second half of the season. And Anthony DeSclafani has been worse, posting a 6.04 ERA in his last seven starts. The only pitcher who has been great for the Giants lately is Logan Webb, and he pitched on Thursday in the final game of the Brewers series, so he won’t be available this weekend at all. Right now, the Giants starters for the weekend are TBA, TBA, and TBA.
It all comes down to these three games
The teams couldn’t be closer through the first 16 games of the season series. They are deadlocked at 8-8, and each team has scored exactly the same number of runs: 68 apiece. So, whoever wins this series will win the season series. That means the winner would host any possible Game 163 if the Dodgers and Giants finish the scheduled tied in the standings. So, needless to say, it’s a big deal. Though anything can happen, I’d certainly rather be the Dodgers right now.
