The Los Angeles Dodgers overcame a sluggish start to the 2018 season and have spent the past several weeks jockeying with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies for first place in the National League West.
While they’ve spent much of the year looking up at either the Diamondbacks or Rockies in the standings, it’s certainly benefitted the Dodgers to face their division rivals with some frequency of late.
Monday saw them face the Rockies a fourth time in the past 10 days. Los Angeles won two of three games at Coors Field, and opened a series at Dodger Stadium with an emphatic victory to reclaim first place in the NL West.
Still in the thick of a division race as the conclusion of the regular season approaches, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts believes his club has further honed in on the task at hand, via SportsNet LA:
“I think all of our guys are really starting to narrow their focus that much more. They understand what’s at stake. How every at-bat, every pitch, every play, is important. Joc, defensively. Manny, that play in the first inning, was a big play off the bat of Blackmon. We’re doing a lot of good things.”
The Dodgers are 11-6, and have won five of the last six, since beginning a three-game winning streak against the Diamondbacks on Aug. 31. In addition to the Diamondbacks and Rockies, they’ve earned victories over the NL Wild Card hopeful St. Louis Cardinals.
Although that’s been instrumental to the Dodgers remaining in the picture for a sixth consecutive NL West title or spot in the Wild Card Game, they still have two games remaining with the Rockies and a three-game series at Chase Field on the schedule.
If the season has been any indication, the NL West likely won’t be decided until the final few days.
