"I’d be lying if I said that no one’s watching the scoreboard" - Dave Roberts discusses competition within NL West to claim home advantage
The Los Angeles Dodgers have been dominating the NL West for the majority of the last 10 years. However, their dominance could be in jeopardy given how close the scoreboard looks as the season enters the second last week of August.
Even manager Dave Roberts knows that the club needs to be on their toes and every win from hereon counts big. In the last two years, the club won the division by a margin of 16 and 22 games in the previous two seasons. However, currently, the top three teams in the division are placed within four games of each other:
“I’d be lying if I said that no one’s watching the scoreboard and appreciating how good the rest of the teams in our division are playing,” Roberts told reporters, per USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. “So that just puts the onus on us to play good baseball.”
The Dodgers lead the standings with a 73-52 record, followed closely by the San Diego Padres (3.0 games behind) and last year's NL pennant winner, the Arizona Diamondbacks (3.5). The fourth-placed San Francisco Giants (10.5) are lurking near the .500 mark.
All three teams are in line to make the postseason, with the Padres and D-backs having their claims on the Wild Card spots. However, they'll be striving to get home advantage for the postseason, which one gets upon clinching the division.
Padres manager eyes division win, aims to topple Dodgers with All-Star bat coming back to lineup
The Padres have been on a tear this month, winning 12 out of 15 games as of Monday. They are also expecting the return of their leadoff hitter Fernando Tatis Jr. which should help them catch up with the Dodgers (via ClutchPoints.com):
“Our goals haven’t changed at any point during the season,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “It’s been to win the division. We know it’s a tall order and a competitive division. We’re just going about playing and taking care of our business.”
Interestingly, it'd be the first time the NL West will see a finish with the top three teams closing the regular season with seven games of each other since 2009.
And it's not only the Dodgers that have seen a resurgent in their division in the last few years. No team in the MLB is currently on pace to claim 100 victories this season, marking the first time since 2014.