PHOENIX — It’s much too early to call it 2021 yet.
But, just like the last time the Dodgers tried to defend a World Series title, the National League West isn’t presenting the easiest of paths.
Entering Thursday night, the division was home to the best team in baseball, the 25-win Dodgers. But, based on overall league records, it also included the clubs ranked third (San Diego at 23-13), fifth (San Francisco at 24-14) and 13th (Arizona at 19-18) in the majors, too.
“I think we’re the best division in baseball,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I don’t think anyone is gonna run away with it.”
In 2021, of course, the Dodgers faced a similar test in the NL West. That year, the division wasn’t as deep, the bottom three teams all finishing below .500. But at the top, the Dodgers and Giants duked it out to the end. The Dodgers finished with 106 wins. The Giants topped them with 107. It forced the Dodgers to settle for a wild-card berth in the playoffs, and down an elongated October path that saw them run out of steam in the NL Championship Series.
While this season isn’t even at its quarter-point yet, a similar threat is starting to brew.
In a 5-3 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday night, the Dodgers got their first taste of the challenge that might lie ahead. Over the next several weeks, plenty more intradivision tests loom.
After playing just one division foe over the first six weeks of the season — a three-game sweep of the utterly helpless Colorado Rockies last month — the Dodgers are finally getting into the meat of their division schedule. Starting with this weekend’s four-game set at Chase Field, five of their next 12 series will be against the Diamondbacks, Padres and Giants.
The Diamondbacks were supposed to be the weakest link of that group, starting the season slowly amid a couple of key injuries and repeated late-game collapses from their bullpen.
But on Thursday, they thrilled a lively crowd of 40,319, besting the Dodgers in every phase for a thorough series-opening victory.
While Arizona starter Brandon Pfaadt cruised through 6 ⅓ scoreless innings, Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto was knocked around for five runs in five innings; the first four scoring on Gabriel Moreno’s grand slam in the fourth.
Struggling with his command all night, Yamamoto’s fourth-inning jam was largely of his own creation. He walked leadoff batter Pavin Smith. He hit Eugenio Suárez with a 0-and-2 slider to load the bases following an infield single. Then, after falling behind Moreno in a 2-and-0 count, he threw an elevated cutter that the Arizona catcher smashed to right field.
The following inning, Ketel Marte hit a solo home run to an almost identical spot.
The five runs were tied for the most Yamamoto has allowed in an MLB game, and it doubled his ERA from an MLB-best 0.90 to 1.80 — on a night he was pitching on five days’ rest (as opposed to six) for the first time this season.
While Shohei Ohtani hit a solo home run with two outs in the ninth, the Dodgers’ best chance to come back was in the eighth.
Max Muncy smoked a ground-rule double for their first run. Andy Pages hit an RBI single that brought the tying run to the plate. But, with one out, Michael Conforto hit a rocket ground ball for an inning-ending double play, finishing his night 0 for three despite hitting the ball hard all three times. Over his last 12 games, he is one for 40.
There’s a long way to go, of course, before any real 2021 deja vu begins setting in.
Ahead of this week’s series, Roberts downplayed concerns that the division race could exhaust his team like it did four years ago, when the Dodgers and Giants went down to the last day.
“You don’t win the World Series, or the division, in May,” Roberts said. “I think it’s still just kind of making sure we stay the course and protect guys and play good baseball. So that’s what is more front of mind for me.”
Still, the longer the Dodgers’ division rivals hang around, the more pressure it will put on their regular-season performance. The last thing they want, in a year they’ve already dealt with an early wave of pitching injuries, is to be grinding through a division race during the stretch run of the season, or be in any danger of falling to a wild-card place. The way the division has played to this point, however, keeps those outcomes as real possibilities.
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