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Your Morning Sedative
2004-09-16 09:54
If the Dodgers trailed in their division and their final 15 games were against teams with a combined .551 winning percentage, wouldn't you feel pretty poorly about their chances? That's the dilemma - that's right, the dilemma - facing the San Francisco Giants beginning Friday: Even after you add in their one remaining game with Milwaukee today, even after you acknowledge that they are playing well, the Giants (81-65, .555) remain unlikely to do much better than 9-7 (.563) to close out the season. If the Giants go 9-7, the Dodgers can clinch the division by going 7-10 (.412). And the Dodgers have seven games alone remaining with Colorado (63-82, .434), including four in Los Angeles. Brad Penny is looking better. Edwin Jackson is looking better. Get Adrian Beltre back in the lineup, and you have a Dodger team that has won six of its last 10 and is getting healthier. I'm not big on calling out double-digit magic numbers, but the Dodgers can knock out the 14 they need to clinch the National League West this simply: going 4-3 against Colorado, 3-3 against San Francisco and 2-2 against San Diego, even if the Giants lose as few as two games out of nine to Houston and the Padres. Put another way: And of course, many other combinations work just as well - many more combinations than the Giants have. Nobody's work in this division is done. The Dodgers can't feel secure. They still have Mt. Whitney to climb to get to the top. But the Giants have Kilimanjaro.
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