Dodgers have best record in majors and why that will matter in October

MINNEAPOLIS – They’re missing their All-Star closer.And two All-Star starting pitchers.And their All-Star catcher.And one of their All-Star outfielders.And the Dodgers have the best record in baseball.Mookie Betts has just started hitting, Kyle Tucker is still waiting to do so, and the Dodgers are 51-29 after their 12-3 destruction of the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night at Target Field.“We got really good players,” Freddie Freeman said.“Guys who care.“Doesn’t matter what’s happening.”Their offense has been up and down, but their record is evidence the team isn’t nearly as inconsistent as it has felt.“The constant,” manager Dave Roberts said, “has been the pitching and the defense.”Outside of their 9-2 start and a two-week stretch in the second half of May in which they went 12-2, the Dodgers haven’t resembled the 120-win juggernaut they were expected to be, but they remain the class of the major leagues.In Los Angeles, baseball season doesn’t really start until October, but that’s more a feeling than reality. Because in truth, the games the Dodgers win now will better position them to win games in the postseason.They’re on their way to claiming home-field advantage.“Home-field advantage is one of the things we want to have,” veteran infielder Miguel Rojas said.

“We all know that traveling, especially across the country, it can make it really hard on you.”If the Dodgers finish the regular season with the best record in baseball, home-field advantage will be theirs throughout the playoffs.“I think for the regular season, that’s our goal: to win the division, have the best record in the National League and go from there,” Roberts said.In recent years, the Dodgers have shown they won’t chase that at any cost. They have prioritized health over a higher seed, and their approach has been vindicated by the results.In 2024, the Dodgers had home-field advantage for the entire postseason.

Last year, as the NL’s No.3 t...