After a 7-3 road trip, their most successful of the entire season, the Dodgers return home to Dodger Stadium tonight to begin a 10-game homestand – during which they can conceivably clinch their third consecutive NL West title, albeit with the help of the Reds, Dbacks, Padres and A’s, all of whom will face the Giants over the next two weeks. The Dodgers magic number to win the West sits at 13 with 20 games remaining heading into tonight’s action.

As most fans know, the Dodgers have played exceptionally well at home this season. In fact, they enter tonight’s game against the Colorado Rockies with a 47-21 home record – third best in the National League behind only the St. Louis Cardinals (50-24) and the Pittsburgh Pirates (49-22), the latter of whom they will face during this, their second-to-last homestand of the season.

Dodgers rookie phenom Corey Seager will be making his first appearance before the home crowd at Dodger Stadium tonight. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

The good news is that Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke will both see two starts during this homestand. The better news is that both will face the red hot Pirates – who have also won seven of their last 10 games – during the three-games series against them at Dodger Stadium this weekend.

The bad news is that the Giants will face the Padres and Dbacks over the next two weeks, albeit on the road. The Hated Ones just completed a three-game sweep of the Padres at AT&T Park, with the Padres having lost eight of their last 10 – while the Dodgers just took two of three from the Dbacks at Chase Field. In other words, both the Padres and Dbacks are not playing their best baseball right now thereby giving the Giants a slight edge in ease of schedule. However, the Dodgers begin their 10-game homestand with three against the last place Rockies and end it with four against the second-to-last-place Dbacks. It’s the three in the middle against the Pirates that could give the Dodgers a run for their money.

Five-time All-Star and former NL MVP Andrew McCutchen is hitting .314 with seven home runs against the Dodgers over his seven-year MLB career. (Photo credit – traveljapanblog.com

With the way that the Dodgers pitching rotation projects out right now and if the Dodgers use the next two Thursday off days to give all of their starters and extra day’s rest (which they most likely will), Kershaw will not face the Dbacks during this homestand but Greinke will. On the other hand, if this is indeed how Dodgers manager Don Mattingly plays it, Greinke and Kershaw will both face the Pirates this week and both will face the Giants in San Francisco during their (hopefully insignificant) final four-game series against them from September 28 through October 1. Keep in mind, however, that the Dodgers have not won even one game against the Giants at AT&T Park this season – thus magnifying the need for the Dodgers to have the NL West title wrapped up before they set foot in AT&T Park.

Play Ball!