NL West Watch: SF Giants maintain slim lead over Dodgers as Padres keep falling

With 12 games left in the season, the Giants and Dodgers are locked in a tight battle for the NL West crown.

It’s looking more likely by the day that one of MLB’s two best regular-season teams will end up in a wild-card game that could send them home before the divisional round of the playoffs. The Dodgers are four games clear of Tampa Bay for the second-best record in baseball, but they’re still a game back in their more primary race for the National League West.

Whoever finishes atop the division will have the prize of a few days off and home-field advantage in the NL divisional series.

Giants (97-53): Won two of three at home vs. Braves.

San Francisco had an opportunity to enter the week with a two-game lead over the Dodgers, but Atlanta’s Max Fried shut them down in the series finale Sunday. Still, there was plenty of magic for the Giants over the weekend, none greater than Kevin Gausman’s pinch-hit walk-off Friday night in extra innings.

Saturday’s game featured a strong — if short — return to the rotation for Alex Wood, who hadn’t started a game since Aug. 26 after going on the COVID-19 injured list. The Giants’ relievers — surely glad to have a bit of relief themselves after the bullpen filled Wood’s rotation spot — carried the last six innings in a 2-0 win.

Next up: Three-game series in San Diego.

Dodgers (96-54): Took two of three in Cincinnati.

The Dodgers’ star-studded rotation is finally five deep, and it’s pretty terrifying for opponents. Cy Young candidate Walker Buehler took Los Angeles’ only loss of the series, when he gave up three earned runs late in a six-inning outing, beaten by Reds ace Luis Castillo’s 10-strikeout performance.

Los Angeles’ other Cy Young frontrunner is Max Scherzer, who is now 7-0 since joining the Dodgers. He threw seven shutout innings in Saturday’s 5-1 win, lowering his ERA with the Dodgers to 0.78. And to finish off the series, LA turned to its other three-time Cy Young winner and eight-time All-Star, Clayton Kershaw. The Dodgers gave him a 5-0 lead on home runs from Will Smith, Gavin Lux and Corey Seager, and Kershaw went five shutout innings in an 8-5 win to keep pace with the Giants.

Next up: Three games at Colorado.

Padres (76-73): Swept by Cardinals in St. Louis.

San Diego was the only team of this trio to lose its series, and it did so in spectacular fashion.

The Padres’ tailspin continued and tensions boiled over between two of their stars Saturday night, when Manny Machado screamed at Fernando Tatis Jr. in the dugout following a Tatis strikeout. They had a two-run lead at the time and blew that in the eighth inning, wasting seven shutout innings from Yu Darvish. San Diego then lost the following day to finish the sweep.

The sweep was doubly harmful because it came at the hands of the new leaders for the second NL wild card spot, the Cardinals.

Next up: Hosting Giants for three games.