USA TODAY International Edition
CHASING HISTORY 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.
As they continue to flirt with all- time greatness, here’s a look at how unprecedented their season has been.
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 be- came 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.
If all that weren’t remarkable enough, the only team to beat the Dodgers since July 4 is the Atlanta Braves. The last team to lose to only one team over the course of a month was the 1912 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 50- game 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 fifthmost 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 right- handed pitcher shut out the Mets through seven innings, recording 10 strikeouts while walking one batter.
With the performance, Darvish became the first Dodgers pitcher to finish his debut with 10- plus strikeouts and one or fewer walks since 1900.
OPERATION SHUTDOWN
The Dodgers pitching staff boasts 9.49 strikeouts per nine innings. Granted, strikeout totals continue to rise with each season. But if that mark holds, it would be the highest in the history of the majors.
The affinity for the strikeout has clearly contributed to the Dodgers’ 3.07 team ERA — the lowest in the majors.
That, combined with the offensive production, has led Los Angeles to a league- high + 204 run differential.