Dodgers flirt with all-time great numbers
Over the course of 111 games, this has undeniably become the year of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Cody Bellinger’s rookie season continues to turn heads. Chris Taylor has seemingly come out of nowhere. And even with ace Clayton Kershaw on the disabled list, the Dodgers can’t stop producing dominant pitching performances — or stop winning.
With a series of acquisitions before the trade deadline, the club is better positioned to bring a World Series championship to the city of Los Angeles than any of the teams that failed before them since the Dodgers last won it all in 1988.
At this point, however, even a ring wouldn’t do the Dodgers’ dominance justice.
All they do is win
Each victory only seems to invite more historical implications.
At 79-32, the Dodgers are 47 games over .500 for the first time since 1962, and their .712 winning percentage is still the best in franchise history, The next highest mark came in 1953, when the Brooklyn Dodgers finished with a .682 winning percentage.
Los Angeles reached 75 wins faster than any other team in franchise history and is on pace to finish with 115 victories. If the Dodgers live up to that projection, they would finish with the third-most single-season wins in the history of the majors — trailing just the Seattle Mariners and Chicago Cubs, who won 116 games in 2001 and 1906, respectively.
And with their 7-4 victory against the New York Mets on Saturday night, the Dodgers became the third team in the modern era to win 43 games in a 50-game stretch — etching their names alongside the 1906 Cubs and the 1912 New York Giants.
Power ball
The Dodgers’ sweep of the Mets exemplified their unprecedented power surge.
With 10 homers in New York, the Dodgers set a record for home runs in a three-game series at Citi Field.
Entering Sunday night’s series finale, the Dodgers had hit 96 homers over the course of 50 games — the second most by a National League team through a 50game stretch.
The Dodgers have four players with a slugging percentage better than .500: Chris Taylor, Cody Bellinger, Corey Seager and Justin Turner. The franchise record for the same category came in 1953, when Brooklyn trotted out a batting order featuring Roy Campanella, Carl Furillo, Gil Hodges, Jackie Robinson and Duke Snider.
Bellinger’s brilliance
The Dodgers first baseman continues to play his way into the conversation for the best rookie performances in the history of the majors.
Bellinger needed just 87 games to hit 30 home runs, becoming the third-fastest player to reach the milestone. Mark McGwire accomplished the same feat in 84 games, while Rudy York did so in 79 contests. Now with 32 home runs, Bellinger has the the fifth-most homers in franchise history through 111 team games and is sixth among all-time NL rookies.
Bellinger’s homers continue to come in crucial moments. Sixteen have come in the seventh inning or later, tying Frank Robinson’s modern-era rookie record.
And with Bellinger projected to mash 47 homers by the end of the season, he could find himself second behind McGwire for the most among rookies.
Yu, too
Yu Darvish’s trade to Los Angeles grabbed all the headlines on deadline day, and in his first start with the new club, he lived up to the hype. The righthanded pitcher shut out the Mets through seven innings, recording 10 strikeouts while walking one batter.
UP NEXT: LOS ANGELES DODGERS Dodgers update: The Dodgers are currently
in one of the best winning stretches in baseball history. Their 43-7 record since June 9 is the best 50-game run in MLB since 1912. To put that into perspective, entering play Monday the Dodgers (79-32) were just one win off the 162-game pace set by the 2001 Seattle Mariners, who set a single-season record with 116 wins. The Dodgers have won 12 of their last 13 contests, and are 46 games above .500 for the first time since the Sandy Koufax-led contingent that won the National League pennant in 1962. The team made a splash at the trade deadline to acquire right-hander Yu Darvish from the Rangers, as well as relievers Tony Watson and Tony Cingrani from the Pirates and Reds, respectively, to add to an MLB-best 3.07 team ERA. Arizona native Cody Bellinger leads the Dodgers with 32 home runs in his rookie season; third baseman Justin Turner leads the team in hitting with a .349 average and shortstop Corey Seager is hitting at .308 clip with 48 extra-base hits.