Photo by Chris Mezzavilla/KNBR
You’ve seen the Sports Illustrated cover.
And at the time it was published, who could blame the hard-working folks in the magazine industry with a reputation for perpetuating a curse.
The Dodgers certainly looked like “The Best Team Ever.”
Clayton Kershaw was the greatest pitcher in the world. Justin Turner was tearing the cover off the ball. Power-hitter Cody Bellinger had already etched his name onto the National League Rookie of the Year trophy.
After finishing the month of July with 20 wins and three losses, it appeared nothing short of the apocalypse would keep the Dodgers from running away with the National League West.
On August 25, the Dodgers won their 91st game, and remained in line to match or better the Major League record for wins in a season, set by the 2001 Seattle Mariners club that captured an unfathomable 116 victories. The Dodgers were that good.
Yet as they arrive in San Francisco for a three-game set beginning Monday evening, the Dodgers are on the verge of the most epic collapse in Major League Baseball history.
The National League West Division lead –a healthy 9.0 games– is still safe for now. But a 100-win season, the mark of a dominant team, is now in serious jeopardy.
With 19 games remaining in the regular season, Los Angeles must finish 8-11 to reach the century mark. And I know what you’re thinking. A club with a .643 winning percentage resting a comfortable 39 games above .500 should have no problem hitting the 100-win plateau.
But if you’ve watched the Dodgers in the last two weeks, you’ve witnessed a dramatic decline that was more improbable than their jaw-dropping hot streak.
Enter the San Francisco Giants.
On August 25, the day the Dodgers won their 91st game, San Francisco lost a 4-3 battle against the Arizona Diamondbacks. That defeat began a 4-11 stretch that steered the Giants back toward their current pace, which calls for the team to finish 63-99. For a team with a .386 winning percentage coming off back-to-back blowout defeats against the American League-worst Chicago White Sox, 100 losses is entirely possible.
Over the final three weeks of the season, how the Giants and Dodgers fare against one another will ultimately determine whether or not both teams make history. Los Angeles hasn’t won 100 games since 1974, and the Giants haven’t hit the century mark in the loss column since 1985. Now, the Dodgers are scratching and clawing to claim their place in the record books, while the Giants are fighting just to avoid theirs.
Monday’s matchup at AT&T Park is the first of six games the teams will play in the season’s final month. The Giants will start rookie Chris Stratton, while the Dodgers counter with Kenta Maeda. The real intrigue comes on Tuesday, when Kershaw battles Giants right-hander Johnny Cueto, in a matchup of pitchers hoping to put their best foot forward, but for entirely different reasons. On Wednesday, Matt Moore will take the mound for the Giants, while the Dodgers are starting the famed “To be announced.”
Riveting theater, of course.
For San Francisco, 7-10 is the goal. For Los Angeles, it’s 8-11. Either way, both teams have been dreadful to watch.
In the last month, the Giants finished off their season series loss against lowly Philadelphia, and were blown out twice by rebuilding Chicago. Somewhere in there, they also lost their fifth straight set against the Padres. As for the Dodgers, a club that’s now lost 15 of its last 16, the baseball has been even worse.
Now, a matchup of squads suffering through late-season futility has raised the stakes. The Giants and Dodgers are each playing for something. But lately, that hasn’t meant much.