Dodgers need to finally stay hot this time

The Los Angeles Dodgers have managed to get themselves to a three-game winning streak. Can they make it four?

Not that any other time wasn’t, but now it is really time to stay hot. After this last game at home against the Colorado Rockies, the Dodgers travel to San Francisco Giants, then back home to take on the Philadelphia Phillies, and the Giants again.

All of those games will have playoff implications. The Giants are fighting their way back into the Wild Card conversation. At the moment, they are only

two games back of the New York Mets for the third Wild Card Spot. The Giants are playing some good baseball, and are hungry to prove that they belong in the playoffs. That Giants series won’t be as easy as it might’ve seemed six weeks ago.

The Phillies one has more direct implications for the Dodgers. L.A. currently sits four games behind Philadelphia for the second-best record in the National League. The Milwaukee Brewers are in first, eight games ahead, and there’s no reason to believe the Dodgers would have a legitimate shot at that.

The reason to catch the Phillies, of course, is to get that bye in the first round of the playoffs. The time off is a thing the Dodgers have failed to handle well in the past but finally got over that hump last season on their way to winning the World Series.

As the standings currently sit, the Dodgers would have to play the New York Mets in the Wild Card round. The good news is they would be home for that series. Should the unspeakable happen and the Dodgers lose the division, they would most likely have to play that Wild Card Series in Wrigley Field against the Chicago Cubs.

The Dodgers seem like they are finally rounding into shape fully. The starting pitching has been phenomenal as of late. In the last five games, the starters have a combined 1.41 ERA, allowed only 12 hits, and have gotten 43 strikeouts.

The offense maybe has gotten rolling. Mookie Betts is Mookie Betts again. Max Muncy is back, and Tommy Edman is slated to be reinstated from the injured list Wednesday. And don’t look now, but Teoscar Hernandez also looks like, maybe, perhaps, finally, he has gotten things going at the plate. Small sample size of course, but those two homers in Tuesday night’s game have to have Teo feeling good.

The bullpen…well, that is the final frontier, so to say. They only have 17 more games in which the big boys can use to lock it in for the playoffs. Maybe someone needs to remind them of what they did last season and challange them to better it.

It’s only two more days before Freddie Freeman’s birthday, the day in which he says he finally starts scoreboard watching. For the rest of us it’s been quite the ride already.

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