Dodgers reach 50 road wins for the third time in franchise history

By beating San Francisco on Friday night at Oracle Park, the Dodgers won their 50th road game of the season, just the third time in team history they’ve won that many games away from home.

The Dodgers are 50-26 on the road this season, matching the 1974 team (50-31) for the most road wins since moving to Los Angeles. The only team in franchise history with more road wins was Brooklyn in 1952, at 51-24. This year’s team has five away games remaining in the schedule.

Brooklyn in 1952 had a .680 road winning percentage, the best away mark over a full season in team history. The full-season caveat is necessary because the 2020 Dodgers, over the pandemic-truncated 60-game season was 22-8 (.733) on the road.

That Brooklyn team in 1952 played only 75 games on the road because of bad September weather. A doubleheader set for Philadelphia on September 1 was rained out, and by the time the two teams made up the games, three weeks later, they played both games at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn instead. The starting pitcher for one of those makeup games, which clinched the pennant, is the subject of a Dodgers rewind coming next week.

To put this year’s Dodgers in perspective, their 50-26 (.658) road record is better than 25 MLB teams’ home records this season.

With those five road games still left on the schedule — two left in San Francisco, and three in San Diego from September 27-29 — the Dodgers have a chance to join a select group. Since the advent of the 162-game schedule in 1961 (in the American League; the National League moved to 162 games one year later), only 12 teams have won at least 53 road games in a season. Only four have won 54 or more road games.