So many of us always knew it was only a matter of time. While the Dodgers have been away from the No. 1 spot in the Power Rankings for weeks at a time this season, it was always inevitable that they’d return. In any gambling column or video spot where the subject was brought up, every single time all season I said that the most likely outcome in the regular season is the Dodgers finishing with the best record in baseball.
There were plenty of speed bumps between that hot start and right now, but the Dodgers are back at the top. There’s reason to believe they’ll be there for a while and it’s entirely possible that they stay here in the top spot for the rest of the season (though I’d wager that we’ll have cause to move them down at least one week).
It was Friday, June 13, when the Giants beat the Dodgers in Dodger Stadium and moved into a first-place tie in the NL West. The Dodgers weren’t supposed to be in a fight at the top of the division, not 2 ½ months into the season and certainly not after starting 8-0.
With Sunday’s win, the Dodgers have now gone 12-3 since that loss. They have the best record in baseball — tied with the team they are dethroning at No. 1 — at 53-32. That’s a 101-win pace. They won 98 last season before taking the World Series.
This has come despite Mookie Betts not hitting like we’re accustomed to seeing along with a few other offensive blips (such as Teoscar Hernández’s OPS being 64 points lower than last year).
The rotation, though, is where the Dodgers have been ravaged by issues. Only Yoshinobu Yamamoto (16 starts) and Dustin May (15) are close to a full-season workload. Tyler Glasnow has only made five starts. Blake Snell’s only made two. Roki Sasaki might be done after eight underwhelming starts. Tony Gonsolin is back on the injured list after seven starts. Clayton Kershaw has made eight starts but has only gone more than five innings twice now. We could keep going, but everyone gets the point.
Moving forward, things are going to start opening up to the point that the Dodgers will have a ton of rotation depth once again.
Yamamoto and May remain in the rotation. Kershaw has a 1.57 ERA in 23 innings in his last four starts. Emmet Sheehan returned from Tommy John for a start and looked great before being demoted to Triple-A, but he’ll be back soon. Snell threw a bullpen session Saturday. Glasnow has already made two rehab starts and worked up to 66 pitches. Shohei Ohtani has worked up to two innings and 27 pitches in his major-league rehab from his surgery (the Dodgers are slow-playing his return to a full starter workload at the big-league level rather than send him on a minor-league assignment and lose him from the lineup).
I just named seven starting pitchers. Justin Wrobleski threw well in six innings Sunday after an opener. Ben Casparius has been great in a swing role and has shown the ability to get length with his outings when needed. That’s nine before we get to Gonsolin or Landon Knack or Bobby Miller or even consider if Sasaki comes back late in the season.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers have some electric arms at the back of the bullpen — and the bullpen as a whole naturally improves when the rotation gets healthy — along with an offense headed up by Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Betts, Hernández, Will Smith and a capable group of lower-order hitters like Andy Pages and Tommy Edman.
So, yeah, the Dodgers are back at the top. They might make themselves comfortable, too.
Biggest Movers
|
Rk |
Teams |
Chg |
Rcrd |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
|
I mentioned him once in the intro, but Andy Pages’ breakout season is getting totally overshadowed. It’s one of the things the Dodgers have excelled at for years: getting cheap production in addition to their monster contracts. | 1 | 53-32 |
2 |
|
Despite a bit of a rocky June, at least by the high standard this Tigers team has established, they remain on pace to hit the 100-win mark for the first time since 1984. In fact, in 124 previous seasons, the Tigers have only won 100 games five times (1984, 1968, 1961, 1934 and 1915). | 1 | 53-32 |
3 |
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The Astros just went 5-1 in a week against the Phillies and Cubs with mostly ridiculous pitching. They’ll get reinforcements in the second half in the rotation, too. | 3 | 50-34 |
4 |
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The Phillies have lost five of eight games and that stretch included four games with either zero or one run scored. Of course, they still increased their lead over the Mets. | 1 | 49-35 |
5 |
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Fun oddity for the week: Nico Hoerner had zero home runs through last Monday (74 games played). He then homered Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. How about that? | 1 | 49-35 |
6 |
|
Before Sunday, Aaron Judge was 9 for his last 51 (.176) with two home runs and 21 strikeouts. He homered twice on Sunday. You always wonder when stuff like this happens if it’s the start of one of those ridiculously torrid stretches from Judge. The Yankees could use it right about now with the Rays and Jays right behind them and a four-game series in Toronto coming up. | 1 | 48-35 |
7 |
|
The Rays have won seven of their last nine games on the road and they’ll hope to keep playing well (though it should be noted, they lost two of three in Baltimore to close this weekend), but the road games are coming. After three home games against the fellow vagabond A’s, the Rays play a stretch through Aug. 17 where 29 of 38 games come on the road. | 3 | 47-37 |
8 |
|
I can see how Brewers fans might be annoyed to go 4-2 in a week against the Pirates and Rockies at home instead of 6-0 (and 6-0 would’ve meant a tie for first in the NL Central right now), but the name of the game is just winning series. Stay the course. The Brewers have the look of a playoff team. | — | 47-37 |
9 |
|
The Mets were just outscored 30-4 in a three-game series by the PIRATES. They’ve now lost 13 of 16 and their only series wins this month have come against the Rockies and Nationals. Uh oh. | 2 | 48-37 |
10 |
|
The Cardinals have quite an interesting offense, in that they have only one major base-stealing threat, don’t have anyone on pace to hit 25 homers and sit tied for sixth in the majors in runs scored. Call them the station-to-station throwback team. | 4 | 47-38 |
11 |
|
The Jays have a real opportunity here before the All-Star break. They get the Yankees head-to-head at home for four games and then it’s: vs. Angels (3), at White Sox (3) and at A’s (3). | 1 | 45-38 |
12 |
|
The Reds might well be picking up some steam after all. Last week I noted how they’ve hovered around .500 all year, but they’re now 14-7 in their last 21 games and only 2 ½ games out of the last NL wild-card spot. | 4 | 44-40 |
13 |
|
Closer Robert Suarez has now allowed at least one run in four of his last seven outings and he’s taken three losses in there. | 2 | 45-38 |
14 |
|
Julio Rodriguez went 7 for 15 in the weekend series against the Rangers and is now hitting .307 in his last 32 games. | 1 | 43-40 |
15 |
|
If you think the Mets had a rough week … OK, that’s probably a dumb phrase because the Mets did have a rough week. But the GIants’ might’ve been worse. They were swept at home by the Marlins and then lost two of three to the White Sox. Yuck. | 6 | 45-39 |
16 |
|
Sunday was Jack Leiter’s 20th career start. He looked great and struck out a career-high seven. Perhaps things start to click in the second half. | 4 | 41-43 |
17 |
|
Every time the D-backs get hot, they give it all right back. The latest was winning five of six, only to turn around and lose four straight… to the White Sox and Marlins. | — | 41-42 |
18 |
|
How are the Angels sitting right there on the cusp of a wild-card spot? For one thing, they’ve gotten it done in close games. They are 16-8 in one-run games and 6-1 in extra innings. I’ll now let the “unsustainable!” police yell into the void. | 5 | 41-42 |
19 |
|
They’ve now lost seven of eight. | 6 | 41-44 |
20 |
|
The Guardians are now 9-16 this month with a -29 run differential. | 2 | 40-42 |
21 |
|
I don’t blame anyone for still believing in the Braves and I can’t fully count them out, but let’s keep in mind right now that they are only a half-game up on the Marlins. | — | 38-45 |
22 |
|
Byron Buxton is a home run and five stolen bases away from his first career 20-20 season. His career 162-game averages are 29 home runs and 21 steals. | 2 | 40-44 |
23 |
|
Just six out of the third wild-card spot! You never know. | 1 | 36-47 |
24 |
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Only 11 teams this season have had a winning streak of at least seven games. The Marlins are currently at seven. It is the longest active winning streak. | 1 | 37-45 |
25 |
|
The Royals have only hit 15 home runs in Kauffman Stadium. Every other team has at least 26 home runs in home games (the Dodgers lead with 79 and nine teams have at least 50). | 6 | 39-45 |
26 |
|
Give the Pirates credit for causing the Mets to hold a “players only” meeting and then bludgeoning them even harder the following day. This is still a bad team, but they have their moments. | — | 35-50 |
27 |
|
How often do you see a closer stay in a game for three innings these days? Almost never, right? Kyle Finnegan did it on Sunday and got the win. It was the longest outing of his MLB career. | 1 | 35-49 |
28 |
|
Luis Severino said that pitching in Sacramento is like playing spring training and I’m torn between agreeing with him and trashing A’s ownership again or pointing out that Severino sucks everywhere right now. I’ll just leave it here. | 1 | 34-52 |
29 |
|
The White Sox gambling total (aka “over/under”) heading into the year was 53.5. I took the over. They are on pace right now to win … 54 games. I’m gonna have to sweat, aren’t I? | — | 28-56 |
30 |
|
The Rockies’ win on Sunday was their 10th in June. They only won nine games in March, April and May combined. Repeat after me: Baby steps are still steps. | — | 19-65 |
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