Dodgers & the race to 90 wins

The Dodgers are one win away from a fifth consecutive season of 90 or more wins. Today’s date is Aug. 23.

The club record for consecutive 90-win seasons is six, set by the Boys of Summer teams in Brooklyn from 1951-56. Brooklyn also won 97 games in 1949 and 89 games in 1950, with a 154-game schedule in those years. By the modern, 162-game standard, that was basically an eight-year run of 90+ wins, and 10 out of 11 years dating back to 1946.

It was a good run. But for a single year, the 2017 Dodgers are lapping their franchise records.

These Dodgers still have eight games remaining in August — two more against the Pirates in Pittsburgh, three at home against the Brewers, then three games against the division-rival Diamondbacks in Phoenix — and enter Wednesday night at 89-35.

Only once in franchise history did the Dodgers win 90 games before September. That was in 1953, when Brooklyn was 90-40 after play on Aug. 31 en route to a franchise-record 105 wins.

This Dodgers team needs to finish 17-21 to win 106 games, or 22-16 to win 111 and beat that 1953 winning percentage (.682). The Dodgers’ current winning percentage is .718, on pace for 116 wins, which would tie the MLB record.

In August, the Dodgers are 15-4, after 21 wins in June and 20 wins in July. They have never won 20 games in three months in the same season before. The Dodgers also won 19 games in May, and have also never won 19 games in four different months in the same year.

If the Dodgers should win on Wednesday, they would join a select group of just four other teams in the last 98 years to win 90 games in their first 125 decisions.

Here is when the Dodgers won their 90th game in each of the last four, division-winning seasons:

• 2013: Sept. 22, Game No. 156
• 2014: Sept. 23, Game No. 158
• 2015: Oct. 2, Game No. 160
• 2016: Sept. 25, Game No. 156

Again, Wednesday night is Game No. 125 of the 2017 season. What a ridiculous season.