The Los Angeles Dodgers went into the 2025 season with lofty expectations and projected to run away with the best record in baseball.
Doing so was going to guarantee them with the No. 1 seed in the National League playoff bracket and first-round bye. But the year has been a struggle for the Dodgers collectively, and they face an uphill battle to avoid starting their postseason run in the Wild Card Series.
Heading into a pivotal matchup with the Philadelphia Phillies, Freddie Freeman acknowledged the Dodgers still have a goal of earning a spot in the NL Division Series, per Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
“We want the bye, obviously. And obviously, we’ve played ourselves into this position,” Freeman said of the prize that comes with the second seed. “We’ve got two weeks left, got a big series against them. So hopefully we can continue to keep playing the baseball we’ve been playing and hopefully win the series and keep it going.”
Although it remains mathematically possible for the Dodgers to finish with the best record in the NL, they aren’t likely to catch the Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers enter play Monday a comfortable 6.5 games ahead of the Dodgers.
A more likely scenario — but still far from a guarantee — is the Dodgers catching the Phillies for the No. 2 seed in the NL. They begin a series at Dodger Stadium with the Phillies 4.5 games ahead.
Philadelphia took two of three when they hosted L.A. at Citizens Bank Park from April 4-6. The Phillies’ first win in that matchup snapped the Dodgers’ undefeated start to the season at 8-0.
If the Dodgers have any hope of passing the Phillies in the NL standings, they likely will need to sweep their three-game series this week. That also would give them a series win, which could become a factor if a tiebreaker is needed to determine the No. 2 seed.
Dodgers’ postseason history in Wild Card
The Dodgers last were in a Wild Card scenario in 2021, when they hosted the St. Louis Cardinals in a single-elimination game.
Prior to that, the Dodgers played a Wild Card Series in 2020 as MLB switched to an expanded postseason format with all teams that reached October baseball beginning with a best-of-three matchup because of the COVID season.
Those are the only two Wild Card appearances in Dodgers franchise history.
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