Dodgers send perfect message to D-Backs that 2023 NLDS blowup won't happen again

The Dodgers' series in Arizona this weekend was a doozy. After taking a series from the Orioles in what very well could've been a World Series preview, LA rolled into Chase Field needing to make a statement. They'd already seen the Diamondbacks three times this season and had lost two of those series, and Arizona seemed much too close to the Dodgers for comfort in the standings through July. Even if the Dodgers win the division and earn a bye, LA/Arizona is a very possible NLDS matchup, and we all know how that went last year.

To be fair, the Diamondbacks did give the Dodgers a run for their money. In Game 1, Clayton Kershaw's bad luck against Arizona continued when he gave up three runs in the first inning and was pulled in the second after giving up a homer to Corbin Carroll. He went onto the IL with a bone spur in his toe the next day.

Will Smith seemingly cracked the game open with a three-run homer in the seventh to put LA up 9-5, which Shohei Ohtani then piled onto with a solo homer, but the Diamondbacks attempted to mount an admirable comeback in the bottom of the ninth, scoring four runs before Anthony Banda was finally able to close out then game 10-9.

All told, the Dodgers took three out of four in Arizona, extending their division lead to five games over the now second-place Padres while also grabbing a motivational win during what could end up being their hardest-fought series of the year.

Dodgers beat Diamondbacks in a key division series as Shohei Ohtani makes history, lineup mashes

The Dodgers lineup was at the height of its powers in Arizona. Freddie Freeman hit four home runs (two in Game 4), Tommy Edman got his most consequential hit as a Dodger yet with a two-run single in the top of the ninth in Game 2 to break a 6-6 tie, Teoscar Hernández went 5-for-5 at the plate in Game 4 and ended up just a homer shy of the cycle, Mookie Betts drove in five runs throughout the series, and Will Smith drove in five, ending what was an abysmal August at the plate for him.

Shohei Ohtani did casual Shohei Ohtani things, becoming the inaugural member of the 43-43 Club in Game 1. Of course, he didn't stop there, tacking on an extra homer in Game 2 and three more stolen bases in Game 4 to get himself that much closer to a 50-50 season.

There were other caveats to the Dodgers' success, though. The bats went almost dormant in Game 3, and Justin Wrobleski got himself a swift demotion when he pitched 5 1/3 innings and gave up 10 runs, eight of them in the bottom of the second. The only LA runs that scored were on two RBI groundouts from Tommy Edman and Kevin Kiermaier, followed by an RBI single for Austin Barnes.

Still, this is the Dodgers team we've been waiting to see all year. The lineup is producing all the way down, Ohtani's making history, and Hernández is all but solidifying a multi-year deal for himself in the offseason (hopefully with the Dodgers). The pitching still isn't where it should be, but if this is the team we get to see in the postseason, we have every reason to be hopeful about the Dodgers' World Series chances.