The Dodgers are MLB’s New Team of Destiny

As the Dodgers head into the final series of July and get ready for a weekend series against the rival San Francisco Giants, it’s been more of the same for the Dodgers this month.

Another series, another series sweep for the Dodgers against the visiting Minnesota Twins after last night’s come from behind walk off win by Justin Turner. The walk off win was the Major League-best eighth walk-off win of the year and 29th comeback win of the season.

The series sweep marks the 13th time this season the Dodgers have swept their opponent and is their fifth consecutive win. The Dodgers are 16-2 in their last 18 games dating back to the week before the All-Star break.

That’s 18 game stretch correlates to a 17-3 (.850) record for the month of July and also extends their 47-6 record since May 27th. That’s absurd.

The win last night also gave the Dodgers their major league leading 71st win of the season, putting them 40 games above .500. The Dodgers now are more games over .500 (40) than games lost this season (31).

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To say this team is putting together a magical season is an understatement. Perhaps it’s time to stop referring to this season as “magical” and start referring to it as destiny. The club is in a class of their own sitting 11 wins above the Washington Nationals for the best record in the National League and 12 1/2 games atop the Diamondbacks in the NL West.

The recent injury to Clayton Kershaw won’t deter the team from capturing their fifth consecutive NL West title. Even if the Dodgers were to lose every game in which Kershaw was supposed to start, the team has enough of a lead to withstand the blow.

When you combine that with the fact that the Dodgers have the easiest schedule for the remainder of the season, the Dodgers are a virtual lock to make the postseason and win the division.

The club’s win projection is up to around 107 wins on the season according to FanGraphs. That total is up from PECOTA’s 98 wins prediction at the start of the season. That would be the most wins in Dodger history and would surpass when the Dodgers had 105 wins back when they were in Brooklyn in 1953. The last time the Los Angles has had over 100 wins in a season was in 1974 when they won 102 wins but lost in the World Series to the Oakland A’s.

The boys in blue can’t do any wrong this season, and the MLB is finding out the hard way. It’s been an entertaining season up until this point, and I fully expect this trend to continue for the Dodgers.

Next: Ranking the Top 5 Trade Candidates

The one thing I continuingly ask myself is – Does this regular season even matter if the Dodgers don’t make it to the World Series? That’s a tough question because we’re without a doubt witnessing Dodger history in the making. But will this season be all for nothing if the team doesn’t reach the World Series come October? It’s a fair question, and a question I think most Dodger fans should start asking themselves.