For the 13th time in 14 seasons, the Los Angeles Dodgers are champions of the National League West. And while this particular journey has been filled with unforeseen bumps, the two-time defending World Series champions just might be rounding into form at the right time.
Kyle Tucker, their $60 million-a-year-man who was rarely heard from the first five months of the season, homered for the fourth time in his past eight games and drove in three runs as the Dodgers thumped the Cincinnati Reds 8-2 Thursday, Sept. 17 at Great American Ballpark to clinch the division title with nine games remaining.
The Dodgers (93-60) hold a four-game lead over the Atlanta Braves in the race for the No. 2 seed in the NL and a first-round bye. Atlanta holds the head-to-head
tiebreaker so Los Angeles must finish a game clear of the Braves to avoid playing in the wild-card series.
The likeliest scenario is the Dodgers playing host to the winner of an Atlanta-San Diego best-of-three in the NL Division Series. They most certainly won't have Shohei Ohtani, the pitcher, in this postseason and they may not have Ohtani the hitter near the height of his powers, or even at all.
Yet they will carry the deadliest 1-2 pitching combo - 2025 World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto and two-time Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal - into the postseason tournament.
And they'll also have, it seems, a sentient Tucker.
The 29-year-old right fielder who signed a four-year, $240 million deal was batting just .221 with a .671 OPS on Sept. 8. Thursday, he went 4-for-5 with three extra-base hits, capping an eight-game stretch in which he went 12-for-29 (.414) with four homers and a 1.566 OPS.
The @Dodgers are NL West champions for a 5th straight season!
— MLB (@MLB) September 17, 2026
(MLB x @BudweiserUSA) pic.twitter.com/miQByaxInE
His outfield mate, Teoscar Hernández, has been similarly potent, boosting his season OPS by 68 points thanks to a .385/.492/.712 line over his previous 15 games. They need the lineup length right now with Ohtani resting due to right biceps and left knee injuries.
Should the four-time MVP return, and lefty starter Blake Snell's groin scare is truly just that, the Dodgers should be well-stocked for October.
For now, their preliminary accomplishments are well in hand. This is the Dodgers' fifth consecutive division title and the lone runner-up finish in this 14-year run came in 2021, when their 106 victories were one fewer than the San Francisco Giants' 107. They probably won't get to 100 wins this year. But they certainly were good enough - and hope that holds true in October, too.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dodgers clinch 13th NL West title in 14 years as $60 million slugger finally turns up
