Two roads lie beyond the Dodgers’ short road to the postseason
by Megan Garcia
There’s a postseason tightrope the Dodgers are walking in their last handful of games. Monday’s 6–5 extra-innings loss to the Phillies made it even thinner.
The Dodgers now trail the Phillies by 5 1/2 games in the chase for the №2 seed in the National League. Los Angeles’ lead in the West also dwindled to two games over the Padres.
Now with 12 games left in the regular season, the Dodgers have a difficult road ahead to earn a bye for the Wild Card round.
This was the third loss to the Phillies this season. The Dodgers dropped two games at Citizens Bank Park in early April.
“We fought good. Unfortunately, we didn’t come out on top,” Max Muncy said. “We didn’t give up. I feel like that was a big thing for us. We got out to a lead, they fought back and we were able to keep going back into it.”
Monday was a back-and-forth battle of leads. Despite home runs from Mookie Betts and Andy Pages to put them back in the game, the Phillies came out on top with a sacrifice fly in the 10th.
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It was the third game that had been decided by one run between the teams, each with the Dodgers being on the losing end.
“Both offenses fought all night,” Dave Roberts said. It was the Dodgers’ 16th loss this season when recording more hits than their opponents.
If the postseason began today, the Dodgers would host the Wild Card Series beginning Sept. 30 against the New York Mets.
The Mets hold the final Wild Card spot by 1 1/2 games over the Diamondbacks.
The last time the Dodgers entered the postseason as a Wild Card team was in 2021 against the Cardinals. They advanced through the NL Championship Series that year, after they beat the Giants in the divisional round.
Four years later, the Dodgers are determined to defend their 2024 World Series title. But first, they need to clinch a playoff berth — and to get there, they’ll need to maintain their distance from the Padres in the division.
“Right now, you’re just trying to win a game,” Muncy said. “You’re not really worried about what’s ahead. You’re trying to win the game (that night).
Notes from last night:
The Dodgers hit three home runs in the game — Muncy in the fifth, Mookie Betts in the seventh (tying the score 4–4 at the time) and Andy Pages in the ninth (tying the score at 5–5).
Betts provided most of the Dodgers’ offense in the series opener. His two sacrifice flies gave him nine for the season — tying a career high (2019).
Betts is batting .382/.410/.764/1.173 in August with five home runs and 19 RBI.
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Emmet Sheehan didn’t allow a hit among the first 19 batters he faced, while striking out seven.
Sheehan has allowed only two earned runs and four hits and recorded 16 strikeouts in his last 12 2/3 innings pitched.
Dodgers’ postseason reality is starting to settle in was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.