Dodgers’ historically great season keeps getting better with 3-1 defeat of Brewers

The “Wild Horse” and the “Logie Bear” went deep, “YRG Jr.” knocked in “Redturn2” with a clutch two-out single, “MaeKen” threw another gem and “Kenleyfornia” notched his 35th save.

The names on the jerseys were changed Friday night for the opening of Players Weekend, in which major leaguers are wearing multicolored uniforms with nicknames on their backs.

The result in Chavez Ravine was more of the same. The Dodgers stifled the Milwaukee Brewers, allowing one hit in a 3-1 victory that improved them to 91-36 — a whopping 55 games over .500 — and kept them 21 games ahead of Arizona in the National League West.

The Dodgers are 56-11 since June 7, the best 67-game stretch since the 1912 New York Giants went 56-11 from April 17-July 10. They are 52-14 at home. They won the NL West with 91 victories last season. They have reached that total this season, with September still a week away.

At this rate, the Dodgers could clinch the division in the first or second week of September, which is great for lining up your postseason rotation but not so great for maintaining a sense of urgency over the final month.

Manager Dave Roberts’ biggest challenges over the next five weeks will be to balance regular playing time and rest for his position players and relievers so they are sharp and fresh for the playoffs, and to maintain the kind of competitive edge that has made the team so dominant through the season’s first five months.

“I have no concern,” Roberts said, when asked if he was worried players might become complacent. “These guys are trying to win every single game, and there’s a certain way we play every single day. I don’t see that changing, regardless of the standings.”

There was no slippage Friday night. Kenta Maeda, a.k.a. “MaeKen,” set the tone, allowing one run and one hit, striking out seven and walking two in six innings to improve to 12-5 with a 3.76 ERA this season.

His only mistake was a grooved 1-and-2 fastball that Domingo Santana hit for a home run and a 1-0 lead in the second.

Maeda appears to have no chance of making a playoff rotation that will include Clayton Kershaw, Yu Darvish, Rich Hill and Alex Wood when all are physically sound, but he’s pitched like a front-of-the-rotation starter since June 27, going 7-2 with a 2.78 ERA, striking out 56 and walking 11 in 10 starts.

“I just think it’s attacking the strike zone,” Roberts said. “There are times he starts to be a little too fine, but when he’s on the attack, he’s special. His stuff and command is so good that when he trusts that and goes after guys, he can get big league hitters out consistently.”

Maeda got help from Yasiel (Wild Horse) Puig, who made a running, lunging catch of Eric Thames’ drive to the warning track in right-center to end the third.

Josh Ravin struck out the side in the eighth, and Kenley (Kenleyfornia) Jansen threw a scoreless ninth with help from left fielder Enrique Hernandez, who made a nice, over-the-shoulder running catch of Neil Walker’s drive for the second out of the inning.

Logan (Logie Bear) Forsythe evened the score at 1-1 in the fourth when he lined a first-pitch fastball from Chase Anderson over the wall in left-center for his fourth homer of the year.

Justin (Redturn2) Turner walked with two outs in the fifth and stole second. Yasmani (YRG Jr.) Grandal fought off an 0-2 curve — the same pitch he struck out on in the third — and grounded an RBI single to center for a 2-1 Dodgers lead.

Puig blasted his 23rd homer to center for a 3-1 lead in the sixth. He is batting .259 with an .823 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, 84 strikeouts and 55 walks this season. This time last year, the mercurial right fielder had fallen so out of favor that he was demoted to triple-A Oklahoma City.

“He’s been great all year,” Turner said of Puig. “I think the biggest difference between Yasiel this year and years past is he would have success in the past and think he had it figured out. And I think he could just show up. This year, that’s not the case.

“He’s having success and wants more success. He and Turner [Ward, hitting coach] put in the work every single day. I’m definitely proud of Yasiel, not only for what he’s doing on the field but the stuff he’s doing behind the scenes. He’s showing a lot of maturity.”

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com

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