Are the Dodgers not meant to win the NL West this year?

It’s about to be September. The San Francisco Giants aren’t going away. In fact, they continue to exceed everyone’s expectations. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Dodgers, trail them as the second-best team in baseball.

It’s a wild turn of events that these teams reside in the same division. It’s even more bewildering that the Dodgers, time and time again, cannot take advantage when given the chance.

This weekend, Los Angeles hosted the road-inept Colorado Rockies while the Giants were in Atlanta to face the NL East-leading Braves. The result? The Dodgers AND Giants lost two of three.

San Fran still leads the NL West by 2.5 games, which has seemingly been the case for … weeks now? Are the Dodgers just not meant to win the division in 2021?

Will the Dodgers catch the Giants in the NL West?

There’s not much statistical evidence to back why the Dodgers won’t win the division. This is purely based on sense and perception. The Giants haven’t relinquished their lead in over three months now. They either just keep winning or the Dodgers don’t win when they have a favorable opportunity to do so. Look no further than this weekend, which occurred in the midst of a 19-4 run for LA!

Now, the Dodgers have a three-game home set against the Braves before heading to San Francisco for their final three matchups of the year vs the Giants. That could very well determine pole positioning for the remainder of September, with the Dodgers needing the Padres to play spoiler against San Fran (the two play 10 times in the final three weeks of the year).

But the Giants will also face the Rockies (six times), Braves (three times), Cubs (three times) and Diamondbacks (three times) before the season ends. These opponents in totality have a combined record of 300-354.

If the Dodgers can’t find consistency on offense, it really won’t be easy for them to vanquish this 2.5-game deficit, even though it sounds easy in theory. LA’s opponents after the series against the Giants are a combined 389-396. They’ll have to face three playoff-hopeful teams in the Cardinals, Reds and Brewers.

What makes matters worse? LA didn’t line up their best starters to face the Giants this week. They pushed back Urias to start against the Braves on Monday night, which means Max Scherzer won’t face the Giants. It’ll be Urias, Walker Buehler and David Price (or a bullpen game?) battling San Fran as the team keeps the longevity of Urias and Buehler at the forefront.

It just continually feels like it’s not meant to be. And we could see the streak of LA’s eight straight division titles come to an end. They had their chances for the first five months of the season. They left it up to the final month … and mostly fate.

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