Dodgers fans: This is no time to panic
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What a weekend it won’t be.
The Dodgers finish the regular season with three games against the Colorado Rockies, in a series that could decide the National League West championship. That could be dramatic -- except for the strong probability that both teams are headed to the playoffs anyway.
And that, Dodgers fans, is why this morning’s standings should not incite panic in the streets.
Granted, there is nothing pretty in watching the Rockies whittle the Dodgers’ lead in the National League West from 15 1/2 games to 2 1/2 games. But teams get no style points for how they get into the playoffs. Just get in, and then just win.
The Dodgers are just about in. If the Rockies were to pass them, the Dodgers would have to hold off the San Francisco Giants for the wild card. The Dodgers lead San Francisco by 6 1/2 games. Bottom line: The Dodgers are 6 1/2 games up on a playoff spot, with 21 to play.
The last time the team with the best record in the NL qualified for the World Series? That would be 2004. The NL has sent two wild-card teams to the World Series in the four years since then.
In 2006, the Detroit Tigers led the American League Central by 10 games on Aug. 7. They blew the lead, all of it, salvaging the wild card despite losing the last five games of the regular season and 31 of their last 50. They got to the World Series anyway, against the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cards led the NL Central by seven games on Sept. 20, then lost nine of their final 12 games and all but one-half game of their lead.
It’s not how you get into the playoffs. It’s what you do when you get there.
Joe Torre might remind his players of this. Torre is not shy about sharing stories of his time with the New York Yankees, so here’s one: In 1996, his Yankees led the American League East by 12 games on July 29. They played under .500 the rest of the way, watched the lead shrink to 2 1/2 games and won the division by four.
They won the World Series.
The Dodgers have very real concerns, most notably injuries to Clayton Kershaw and Randy Wolf at a time the team finally had appeared to get its starting rotation in order. No need to get worked up over the statistical improbability of an October without the Dodgers.
A sudden-death weekend showdown with the Rockies? It would be fun, some other year.
-- Bill Shaikin