The Los Angeles Dodgers have been in a tight battle to win the National League West all season long, and that remains the case with three games to play.
The Dodgers looked to be taking control of the division after recently sweeping the Colorado Rockies, but the Rockies have since gotten hot and the Dodgers gave those games back by losing two out of three to the Arizona Diamondbacks to fall back into second place.
Now, the Dodgers face the San Francisco Giants for the last series of the regular season. It’s one in which they can ill-afford to put up any more lackluster performances.
Despite falling out of first place in the NL West, the Dodgers still hold a one-game lead over the St. Louis Cardinals for the second Wild Card spot. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts remains confident in his team and their ability to return to the postseason, via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
“As far as getting to the postseason, we control our own fate. We’ve got to win baseball games,” said manager Dave Roberts. “Those guys [Giants] are going to bring their best stuff against us. There’s a little bit of our backs are to the wall. I know we’re going to come out and play on Friday. We’ll be ready to go. We’re a dangerous team. We believe in ourselves. Not how we scripted it, but now our focus has to turn to the Giants.”
While Roberts recently said that he understands all the different tiebreaker scenarios that could come into play with the NL being as tight as it is, his sole focus remains on taking things one game at a time.
The Giants have been eliminated from postseason contention for a while now, but they would love nothing more than to spoil the Dodgers’ season. So Los Angeles can’t expect them to just roll over and hand them wins this weekend.
One thing that the Dodgers can take solace in is that if they end up tied with the Rockies for the division lead at the end of the season, the tie-breaking game would take place at Dodger Stadium, not Coors Field.
