In his first two seasons as manager, Dave Roberts led the Los Angeles Dodgers to two National League West titles and appearances in the NL Championship Series and World Series.
The organization hasn’t won a World Series since 1988, and Roberts and his staff came into Year 3 with aspirations — if not expectations — to end that drought.
Things didn’t get off to the best start as the Dodgers dealt with a multitude of injuries that contributed to subpar stretches of play throughout the first half.
Through all the struggles though, Roberts’ confidence in his club never wavered, and that is now being rewarded as the Dodgers have been one of the best teams in baseball over the last month, taking over control of the NL West.
A recent series sweep over the Colorado Rockies put them back in first place in the division. Roberts recently discussed the turnaround, voicing how proud he is of his team for getting through the struggles, via Mike Lupica of MLB.com:
“What I’ve seen,” Roberts said, “is a group of men, on a team I never stopped believing in, now justifying that belief. All along, I kept making a bet that in the end, this would all play itself out in a positive way. And just where we are right now is so gratifying because we went through all the injuries we did, because we did go four or five months not playing our best. But no one in here made excuses. Our players continued to be proactive, to just see the game in front of them, and play that game, and continue to buy in, and continue to pull for each other. And it’s been such a galvanizing thing to be a part of.”
After a win over the San Diego Padres on Saturday night, the Dodgers’ magic number to clinch the NL West dropped to seven. Considering how the season has unfolded thus far, it remains likely the the division might not be settled until the final days of the year.
Should the Dodgers win the NL West, they likely are looking at a matchup with the Atlanta Braves in the NL Division Series.
