It was nearly one month ago that the Los Angeles Dodgers were swept at Dodger Stadium by the St. Louis Cardinals, which dropped them 4.5 games back of the Arizona Diamondbacks for first place in the National League West.
At that time the Dodgers were largely spinning their wheels and the thought of winning a sixth consecutive NL West title began to fade. However, a sweep of the San Diego Padres led to a five-game winning streak and victories in eight of nine games.
Included in that stretch was taking three of four from the Diamondbacks in a series that concluded with the Dodgers a half-game up on the Colorado Rockies for first place in the division.
Now, coming off a sweep of the Rockies, the Dodgers again sit in first place in the NL West and 2.5 games up on them. It’s their largest lead of the season.
Yasiel Puig’s pinch-hit home run in the seventh inning was the difference on Wednesday night, and following the exhilarating win, predicted the Dodgers would win the NL West, via Michael Duarte of NBC L.A.:
“We’re winning the last couple of days because everybody is enjoying the moment, everybody is together, everybody is like a family. We needed to do that from the beginning. We were a family from the beginning but things weren’t going well. Colorado and Arizona were winning more games than us. Now it’s September, and we’re up, we’re going to win the West again and go to the playoffs.”
Beginning with the aforementioned four-game set against the Diamondbacks, the Dodgers have won a combined eight of 10 meetings with Arizona and Colorado. Los Angeles also took three of four from the Cardinals at Busch Stadium.
Since Aug. 22 — the date the Cardinals completed their sweep of the Dodgers — the NL West leaders have gone a league-best 17-7. Boiled down even further, the Dodgers are 10-6 during the month of September, while the Rockies have gone 9-7 and the Diamondbacks and abysmal 4-12.
Puig’s confidence is certainly nothing new. After hitting a walk-off double last August, he predicted the Dodgers would reach the World Series.
