With a week and a half left in the regular season, the Dodgers are closing in on potentially a fourth consecutive National League West crown and 12th in the last 13 seasons.
The Dodgers on Wednesday are playing the Phillies at Dodger Stadium. On the other side of the country the Padres beat the Mets at Citi Field in New York. Los Angeles is up a game and a half on San Diego with the Dodgers’ game against the Phillies pending.
NL West standings
Dodgers 84-67 (.556) – – –
Padres 83-69 (.546) 1 1/2 GB
By virtue of beating
the Padres nine times in 13 games to secure the season series, the Dodgers hold the tiebreaker over San Diego. So they only need to tie the Padres to clinch the division.
The Dodgers magic number to clinch the National League West is now 9.
Put another way, the Dodgers have 11 games remaining, the Padres have 10, and they don’t play one another. The Dodgers need nine of those 21 outcomes to go their way to win the division, while the Padres need 13 of 21 outcomes to fall their way to prevail in the division.
Remaining schedules
The Dodgers have one more game against the Phillies on Wednesday at home before hosting the Giants for four games this weekend. The Padres have one more road games against the wild-card-vying Mets before playing the White Sox this weekend in Chicago.
Next week the Dodgers are on the road to play the Diamondbacks and American League West-leading Mariners, while the Padres will be at home to face the best-record-in-baseball Brewers before finishing up against the D-backs.
If everything goes perfectly for the Dodgers, the earliest possible day the could clinch the division is Sunday, September 22.
