The Dodgers Can’t Make The Giants Series Matter
Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Nope no can do, the magic number is at 7 and has been there since the weekend. This is a good problem to have, but nevertheless, a problem. The Dodgers are in danger of going into a series at AT&T park with the division still not clinched and that has sparked the hottest takes possible:
Yikes.
This is what the Dodgers have going for them: they have a 6 game division lead with 12 to go. It appears insurmountable, it feels impossible, and mathematically, it almost is!
Yet those takes up there, those blog posts, they were written. It’s natural to feel unsafe with the division lead considering the numerous collapses some teams have suffered recently, the Chicken and Beer Red Sox, the LOLMets a few years ago. It’s unnerving to see the team struggle this badly, Mike Petriello pointed out that the offense has basically shut it down for the past month. This might be because of interruptions in rhythmic approach, or overwork because of injuries, or the actual injuries themselves, but the offense has not been anywhere near acceptable recently.
So uneasiness is certainly a valid emotion to feel at this point.
But basically this is the situation the Dodgers find themselves: 2 more home games against the surprisingly okay Diamondbacks, 3 games away at Coors, and then a 4 game potential death series against San Francisco.
So despite the struggles of the team, recently, the Dodgers have to figure out a way to make the series at the phone booth matter as little as possible.
Remember when Hanley Ramirez blew out his hamstring rounding 3rd that one year? Remember when the team was shut out over the course of an entire series in San Fran? These were terrible, awful experiences, that mostly happened early in the season. However the team is looking… not adequate at this point, and the Giants still have “life” in the division, perhaps this is all written because of a terrible paranoia spawned by 3 Giants championships in a 5 year span, but for heavens sake, the Dodgers need to bring that magic number down significantly before Monday. If you want to throw a number at it, winning 3 out of their next 5 games is a good start, anything less just will not cut it (barring a Giants shutdown).
The point is that this lead doesn’t feel comforting, is it mathematically safe? Definitely, but the team’s play going into and coming out of the weekend will do a lot to gauge the overall stress of the fanbase, and that’s not exactly ideal.