The San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks did the Dodgers no favors the past two Octobers, kicking them out of the postseason unceremoniously. But those same two teams might be doing the Dodgers a favor now, pushing them in the National League West like they have rarely been pushed while winning 10 of the past 11 division titles. “This is my second year here, and last year we kind of ran away with the division,” veteran infielder Miguel Rojas said.
“It was really easy, and I know these guys are used to that. They win over 100 games every single year. Having someone chasing you is always a good motivation to continue to hold the lead.
Teams that want to go to the World Series, they need to play good at the end of the year. I’m not saying that we haven’t played good at the end of the year, but we haven’t played with this pressure lately. “I can talk about last year.
I mean, September felt like you didn’t have anything to play for. This year, we’ve got a different motivation – to hold the lead and win the division.” A year ago, the Dodgers won the division by 16 games, holding a double-digit lead from mid-August on.
After 128 games in 2022 (the same point in the season the Dodgers reached Tuesday), they led the division by 191⁄2. At the same point in 2019 and 2017, the lead was 20 games. This year, the lead is four games (31⁄2 if the Padres win Thursday night).
“I don’t think it’s a bad thing,” Dodgers second baseman Gavin Lux said. “It fo.