The season that really matters for Dodgers now officially beckons

There being no outfield pool to play in, I have to admit to some disappointment that the Dodgers didn’t head to left field to enjoy that Coca-Cola slide thingy after their division clincher Tuesday in San Francisco.

Maybe celebrating these division titles is getting routine, though that did not appear to be the case for those listening to the celebration on the radio. Must have been good TV, but that would require that the majority of Los Angeles had the opportunity to watch this Clayton Kershaw-Madison Bumgarner showdown to really know.

“These titles need to be celebrated,” A.J. Ellis said to 570-AM’s David Vassegh.

“You never know when it’s the last one,” Kershaw said.

Ah, yes, so true. Only there’s little danger of being spoiled by all this success because the last two division titles did not lead to the baseball promised land. They came up short.

This team was built to win 11 more games. It will ultimately be judged not by capturing a third consecutive division title, but what it does once it begins the postseason.

That starts with the Mets, and there is still some work to be done there too. The Dodgers have five regular-season games remaining and they are not without importance.

The Mets lost Tuesday, so the Dodgers now trail them for home-field advantage one game, though in truth it’s two because if they finish with the same record the tiebreaker goes to the Mets for having won the regular-season series.

So there’s reason to keep playing hard and trying to win. Not that it will be the main focus. Manager Don Mattingly will try to measure how much time he plays his veterans, his wounded, his youngsters.

A postseason now officially calls, and how these Dodgers will be judged.