Los Angeles Dodgers: Dissecting the path to 117 wins

The Los Angeles Dodgers are in the midst of a very special year. Not only is 2017 the greatest season in Dodgers history, it could be the best in MLB history.

With a 6-1 win over the Chicago White Sox, the Los Angeles Dodgers moved to a whopping 50 games over .500 with an 84-34 record. Los Angeles is the first team in 13 years to have a record this far above .500 (2004 Cardinals). Not just that, they are just the second team this century to be 50 games over this early on.

The other? The 2001 Seattle Mariners. Seattle was 87-34 at this point of the season, finishing with an all-time best 116 wins. That is the number the Dodgers are chasing, 116, looking to become the first team ever to surpass that number and win 117 games.

Nobody could have guessed that the 2017 Dodgers would be threatening to set the record for wins after April. Los Angeles sat 14-12 after the month of April. While this certainly is not bad and would have put them on pace to win around 90 games, it certainly was not the start to a record-setting year. Or so we thought.

After the month of April, the Dodgers have put together an incredible 70-22 record, good enough for a .761 win percentage. This run can be directly attributed to the depth this team has to offer. The superstars have performed, there have been surprising breakouts and solid role players have done their job. This team never dies, it never quits and they always win.

In fact, always winning is not even a hyperbole anymore. The Los Angeles Dodgers have not lost a series of baseball since their early June set against the Nationals, good enough for twenty in a row. Their record since then? A whopping 48-9.

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So, what exactly would it take for the Dodgers to make it to win 117? Los Angeles has 44 games remaining, needing 33 wins to set the record. Los Angeles needs to finish the year with an exact .750 win percentage, which realistically, shouldn’t be all that hard.

I mean, the team has put together a .842 win percentage since that series loss to the Nationals. Even broader, the team’s .762 win percentage since the end of April is enough to get the job done. Los Angeles needs to win three out of every four, when put in that terms, this seems more than easy.

The Dodgers have 25 games against teams below .500 to close out the year. Against those teams, the White Sox, Tigers, Pirates, Padres, Giants and Phillies, the team is 25-9. They are yet to play the Tigers but are 13-3 in interleague. The team that gave them the most trouble is the Giants (7-6), however, Los Angeles did manage to sweep their rivals last month.

Of those 25, Los Angeles needs to win 19. However, the team can easily pull off 20 wins. The White Sox, Tigers and Phillies shouldn’t get a single win against the Dodgers – there’s eight. Then, if we give the Pirates, Padres and Giants one win against the Dodger each the team would be 22-3, two games of wiggle room.

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If they win 22, the team must go 11-8 against teams over .500, which is more than doable. The Brewers are above .500, but just barely, and have been playing very poor this half. Two wins there should be a near guarantee.

Then there is a three-game set against the Diamondbacks at home followed by a four game set against the Rockies, at home. Los Angeles should easily win five of those seven, with a chance to win all seven.

Then there are two series away from home against the Rockies and Diamondbacks.

Let’s say the Dodgers split those 3-3, this gives them 10 wins with one crucial series in mind. That series? A series in Washington against the team that last gave them a series loss.

Granted, this series is in the middle of September and will not be the closing chapter of a record-setting season, but it very well could be the deciding point. However, if our guesses are right, Los Angeles needs to win just one against the Nats. With how hot these Los Angeles Dodgers are, and taking the Nats injuries into consideration, this is possible.

33-11, that is what the Los Angeles Dodgers must accomplish. While for any other team in the MLB, a .750 win percentage may be daunting. However, this is the 2017 Los Angeles Dodgers we are speaking of, so anything is possible.

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