Dodgers are back in the postseason, for the 10th straight year

That the Dodgers, owners of the best record in baseball, have qualified for the postseason, is not at all surprising. But in doing so Sunday, with a win over the Padres, the Dodgers became just the third MLB team to reach the playoffs ten years in a row.

Before Sunday’s game, manager Dave Roberts said of making the playoffs, “It’s going to be an acknowledgement, it’s not going to be a celebration,” per SportsNet LA.

With a magic number of only four to clinch the National League West, the Dodgers will earn their ninth division title in this 10-year run, only interrupted by a 106-win second-place season in 2021. The 10 straight playoff berths trail only the Braves, who won division titles in 14 straight completed seasons from 1991-2005, interrupted only by the 1994 strike; and by the Yankees, who made the postseason 13 straight years from 1995-2007.

Over this 10-year run of success, the Dodgers are 916-580 (.612), with 72 (NYY) more victories than the next-best MLB team during that time.

The Dodgers’ 96 postseason games played over the last nine seasons are far and away the most in MLB. The only team with more than half the Dodgers’ total is the Astros, with 79 playoff games since 2013.

That .612 winning percentage is the second-best ten-year stretch in Dodgers franchise history. Brooklyn from 1946-55 won 61.4 percent of its games, a run that included a championship and six pennants in a time before divisional play. The current Dodgers stretch includes three pennants and a World Series win through the first nine years. This season will be the fourth time the Dodgers have the best record in the NL in the last six years.

The Dodgers’ best 10-year stretch that included multiple championships was 1957-66, with a .560 win percentage and three World Series wins.

With a little more than four weeks remaining in the regular season, these Dodgers still have time to capture the best 10-year winning percentage in franchise history. But it would require an 18-5 finish to this season, vaulting them to a .615 mark.

The postseason starts on Friday, October 7 with the wild card series. Should the Dodgers retain their position among the top two records in the National League, they would earn a bye into the NL Division Series, which starts on Tuesday, October 11.