The Los Angeles Dodgers are wrapping up their regular season with a hefty 97 wins, but let’s be real, how they got there tells a story that’s gonna make you do a double-take. This squad piled up those wins primarily by absolutely hammering the lower-tier teams in both the NL and AL, a total switch-up from last season’s vibe.
The “Easy Wins” Advantage That Defined This Season
Think about it: just a season ago, these guys were boasting baseball’s best records against *winning* teams. This year? They’ve completely flipped the script, extracting way more overall victories out of simply handling the inferior clubs. With zero games left on the schedule against teams with a record over .500, we can confirm the Dodgers are going to finish with an even .500 record against winning teams, pulling in 36 wins across 72 games. Meanwhile, they’re sitting pretty with MLB’s best record versus losing teams, already racking up 61 wins against them. That’s a huge contrast, right? It makes you wonder how battle-tested they really are when it counts.
Skubal’s Wild Ride and the Rivalry Stakes
Even with all those wins, their 6-4 record against their biggest rivals, the Giants, just doesn’t pop off the page like you’d expect. Honestly, that’s not the kind of dominance you want against the team you love to hate. They actually need a full-on sweep in this final series against San Francisco just to match the success they had in the previous two campaigns. Remember 2021? That was the year they last dropped a season series to the Giants, and that absolutely unbelievable San Francisco record cut right through the Dodgers’ streak of NL West titles. Talk about a sting! Tarik Skubal is set to start this series opener, capping off a seriously weird stretch where he’s faced the same two teams in four appearances, going back-to-back against the Giants after two straight versus the Reds. His last outing against the Giants was rough, giving up four runs in five innings, but even that dud couldn’t stop the team’s six-win streak whenever their prized lefty takes the bump.
So, here we are, Friday night, Oracle Park, 7:15 p.m. The Dodgers are in San Francisco, squaring off against the Giants on SportsNet LA. This isn’t just another game, it’s a chance to rewrite that rivalry narrative, to show if they can step up when the stakes are high, even if they built their record on a different kind of grind. This final series is gonna tell us a lot about what kind of team they truly are.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by True Blue LA.
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