The scene was familiar as the Dodgers poured out of their dugout Thursday night to celebrate a National League West title, a title they captured with a 7-2 loss to the San Diego Padres at Dodger Stadium.
However, this achievement – the franchise’s 22nd division championship and 11th in the past dozen years – felt a little different.
And compared to the past few years, the money was earned much more.
After all, this season wasn’t like most in the club’s decade-long regular-season dominance, where they often locked the division well before the finish line and went down the stretch with double-digit game leads.
It wasn’t like 2018 either, when the Dodgers dug themselves out of an early-season hole and shot to the title in Game 163; the last time they had captured the division at Chavez Ravine.
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Claiming this year’s crown followed a different kind of script: one shrouded in unprecedented expectations after their multibillion-dollar offseason, repeatedly derailed by injuries to their patchwork starting rotation, and ultimately secured with a string of season-defining moments that littered the long run.
“Like I said,” said veteran shortstop Miguel Rojas, “this is going to prepare us for what’s coming.”
Their series win over the Padres this week epitomized it all.
After losing Tuesday’s opener on a stunning, game-ending triple play that cut the lead over second-place San Diego to just two games with five to go, the Dodgers responded with two come-from behind’ wins, following Wednesday’s fourth game. -3 nail-biter with a flurry of late scoring Thursday.
Trailing 2-0 entering the seventh inning, the Dodgers came alive for their NL-leading 41st comeback of the season, scoring five times in the seventh and twice again in the eighth.
Will Smith started the rally and immediately hit a two-run homer to center, which he celebrated with a two-handed bat flip.
Shohei Ohtani put the Dodgers ahead three batters later, sneaking a go-ahead RBI single through the right side of the infield to continue his torrid late-season pace.
Mookie Betts added an exclamation point by hitting a two-run single the other way to open a three-run lead that widened in the eighth after a two-run homer by rookie Andy Pages.
“Today was kind of the epitome of our season,” said manager Dave Roberts, who has helmed the Dodgers’ last eight NL West championships. “Just kind of fighting from behind, fighting, scratching, clawing and pushing ourselves to victory.”
Appropriately, there also came a moment of setback, as Freddie Freeman left the match with what initially appeared to be a worrying right ankle injury.
After Betts made it 5-2 in the seventh, Freeman seriously rolled his ankle while trying to avoid a tag on a play at first base. He left the field under his own power, but walked gingerly to the clubhouse as a hush fell over a sold-out crowd. During the Dodgers’ clubhouse celebration, he wore a walking boot and leaned on crutches.
Luckily for the Dodgers, Freeman told reporters it was just a sprained (and significantly swollen) ankle, leaving him optimistic he’ll be ready for the National League Division Series opener on Oct. 5.
“It hurt for a while [but] I’m doing well now,” Freeman said with a relieved smile on the field afterwards. “We have already done many treatments on it. I’m trying to get the swelling down. I’m not going to travel this weekend [to the team’s series in Colorado]. I’m going to stay here and deal with this thing and hopefully I’ll be ready to go on Saturday.”
It wasn’t the first obstacle the Dodgers have faced lately, not after losing every member of their Opening Day starting rotation to injuries (only Yoshinobu Yamamoto has returned in time to pitch in the postseason ‘) and having seen a nine-game lead in the division. disappearing to the red-hot Padres.
“It would have been easy for us to make excuses,” Roberts said. “You lose three, four, five, six, seven starters – write off the season. But no one in this clubhouse has done that.”
Instead, the Dodgers showed a level of character and resilience that has eluded them the past two postseasons.
For the first time since their failed pursuit of the San Francisco Giants in 2021, the team has played meaningful game after meaningful game in the latter part of this season’s march.
And time and time again, they managed to get results by finding just the right combination of a star-studded offense, reliable relief pitching and patchwork rotation production to anchor themselves atop the standings.
“They all feel sweet, but I’ll tell you, man, with what we’ve been through this year, this feels a lot sweeter,” Roberts said. “I’m just so proud of these guys, the way we fought the adversity, stuck together and found a way to win this division again.”
“It was hard fought,” Roberts added. “We earned it.”
There was the series win in Arizona a month ago, when the Dodgers suffered an injury to Clayton Kershaw (whose postseason status is still in doubt) after just one inning, but still managed to overpower the then second-place Diamondbacks and to win three. four games.
There was the recent trip to Atlanta and Miami, where the Dodgers twice dropped series openers before managing to rally for a four-game split with the Braves (highlighted by a comeback victory powered by a ninth inning of seven runs on September 1). 15) and a loss to the Marlins in a rubber match (in which Shohei Ohtani reached the 50-50 threshold in historic fashion).
Last Sunday saw the walk-off against the last-place Colorado Rockies, as Ohtani and Betts created the kind of late-game magic the team will likely need to tap into next month.
And then it all culminated Thursday night against the Padres, in a win that came courtesy of a five-inning, one-run start from Walker Buehler that kept the lineup within striking distance.
“I think this is a good example that this team is ready,” said Rojas, who missed the game with an adductor injury but helped lead the champagne party in the clubhouse. “With the pieces we have acquired, the organization has put us in the best position to actually be successful in October. All I have to say is that we are ready to approach this postseason a little better than we have before.”
Plenty of questions will follow the Dodgers into October – where they are assured of a first-round bye (and have the inside track to earn home field advantage in the playoffs), but little else.
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The starting rotation remains a serious problem. Jack Flaherty ended his regular season with two disappointing starts. Yamamoto has yet to pitch past the fourth inning since coming off the injured list earlier this month. Buehler finished his year with a 5.38 ERA, despite the improvements he showed Thursday night. Landon Knack, the other likely member of an October rotation, is a rookie with just fourteen big league appearances.
The lineup has its own question marks, from the recent injuries to Freeman and Rojas, to late-season skirmishes of Betts and Smith, to a cast of bottom half hitters who have been routinely hit or miss from night to night.
To make a deep postseason run, many things will likely have to go right: Ohtani maintains his torrid pace late in the season; the bullpen makes up for an expected lack of production from the starting rotation; high-leverage clutch that the Dodgers have struggled to produce in recent postseasons; and certainly no further injuries with a short pitching staff.
But the Dodgers have at least set themselves up for a favorable path, avoiding a best-of-three wild-card round that would have put further pressure on their pitching.
They are NL West champions again; an honor that seemed to have a little more meaning this season.
“A lot of people don’t show a lot of emotions, and I know people think we’re not fighters,” Rojas said during a relatively mild clubhouse celebration that belied the difficulty of the journey they took to get there.
“But that’s not how it is,” Rojas stated. “Everyone in this clubhouse knows that the heart is there for the team. I think we have a lot of things to prove this year. And we’re going into the postseason thinking about it that way.”
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
