For the first time since 2012, the Los Angeles Dodgers do not own the National League West as their run of eight consecutive division titles was snapped by the San Francisco Giants.
The Giants, who won a franchise-record 107 games, bested the Dodgers for the division by just one game as they clinched on the season’s final day with a win over the San Diego Padres. They of course entered the season expecting to be where the Giants finished.
Now the Giants await the winner of the St. Louis Cardinals and Dodgers in the NL Wild Card Game.
While winning the division certainly a notable achievement for San Francisco, who were projected to finish at third or lower in the division, Logan Webb, Buster Posey and others explained clinching the NL West brought a sense of relief because of how well the Dodgers played, via Bill Shaikin of the L.A. Times:
“It’s been pretty stressful, honestly,” San Francisco pitcher Logan Webb said. “I feel like I’ve lost a couple of years off my life.”
“We needed every one of them, right?” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said.
“You think about winning 107 games,” Giants catcher Buster Posey said, “and you’d think that we’re going to get to relax a little bit the last 10 days or so. … We felt like we had to win every game for the last month. We were pretty close to doing that. It was a grind.”
Said Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford: “That’s what it’s like to be in the division with the Dodgers. They’re obviously a great team. To be able to hold them off for most of the second half was pretty great.”
While the end result isn’t exactly where they wanted to be, the Dodgers have a lot to be proud of but now need to focus on beating the Cardinals in the one-game playoff.
With their 106 wins, L.A. broke the MLB record for most without finishing atop a division, passing the 1909 Cubs and 1942 Brooklyn Dodgers, who each finished in second with 104 wins; however divisions were not established until 1969.
L.A. also posted the most wins of any defending World Series champion in MLB history and tied the 2019 Dodgers for the all-time franchise record.
Roberts credits Giants
The Dodgers had a historic season in their own right and there shouldn’t be any shame in finishing just behind another team who had a remarkable campaign.
“You have to give credit to the Giants,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “They had an even better regular season. As perennial, annual National League West champions as we are, they took it from us.
“I don’t think we just gave it away. Our guys didn’t waver all year. It’s not the path we planned out, but now our focus turns to Wednesday and winning a ballgame.”
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