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When the regular season ends, there can only be one division winner. The second-place runner up—whether that’s the Dodgers or the Giants—could finish with the most wins of any non-division winner in history.
Only 10 teams who ended in second have won 100 games or more, and only two have won at least 104. With the way today’s Giants and Dodgers have been playing, it’s not impossible to think that either one could break the record with 105 wins, becoming the first team to do so.
That runner up will also win a spot in the one-game Wild Card playoff, a system that many fans have grumbled about a a collision between the Dodgers and a sub-100 win team becomes more and more of a possibility. But Jeff Eisenberg at Yahoo! Sports sees more potential for excitement in that one-game format than most, pointing to some classic Wild Card games and the potential for more teams to reach the playoffs than before as his proof.
Dodgers Links
Blake Treinen’s new and improved slider is making all the difference in his pitching this year. Jorge Castillo at the L.A. Times breaks it down.
Cody Bellinger, future Yankee? Adam Weinrib at Yankees Go Yard has some thoughts.
If you’ve ever looked at a Dodgers photo and thought, “Wow, that’s a work of art,” then you’ll enjoy this profile of team photographer Jon SooHoo from Justice delos Santos at MLB.com.