It’s something that is bantered about every baseball season, especially at this point of every baseball season: “This is the most important game [or series or homestand or road trip] of the year.” But the simple truth is that every game [or series or homestand or road trip] is important.

Yes, circumstances leading up to a specific game (etc.) tend to make subsequent games even more critical, but the bottom line is that a win or loss in April and May is just as important as a win or loss in August and September; they are just scrutinized more as the season progresses.

This line of thinking is also responsible for the age-old baseball cliché “We control our own destiny” which, when you think about it, is also a bit of a misnomer; and there is no greater example of this than the 2016 Dodgers.

Since the All-Star break the Dodgers are 14-12 (.538) and the NL West-leading Giants 9-19 (.321). It is for this reason and this reason alone that the Dodgers turned a pre-All-Star-break 6.5 Games Back deficit into a half-game deficit heading into play tonight – the Dodgers against the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park and the Giants against the Pirates at AT&T Park. That’s a 6.0 GB swing in exactly one month to the day, during which time the Dodgers have played the Giants zero times. In other words, it was Dodgers wins while the Giants lost that have the Boys in Blue on the cusp of snatching sole possession of first place away from the Hated Ones – and it could happen as early as tonight.

It is impossible to argue that Ross Stripling’s 7.1 no-hit innings against the Giants in his major league debut on April 8 wasn’t the most exciting Dodgers-Giants game this season … so far, that is.
(Photo credit – Jose Sanchez)

It had nothing to do with controlling one’s own destiny. Instead, it had everything to do with the Dodgers “Taking Care of Business” (their own) and “With a Little Help from My Friends” from the Padres, Red Sox, Yankees, Reds, Nationals, Phillies, Orioles and (hopefully) the Pirates – all of whom won their respective series against the Giants since the break. In fact, the only Giants series win since the break was when they took two of three from the Marlins earlier this month. (Note: The Nationals had two series against the Giants after the break, tying them 2-2 in the first and taking two of three in the second).

Obviously, none of this would have happened had the Dodgers not won the 14 post-All-Star break games that they did, so in that regard, yes, they did have control over their own destiny. But it was “The things they can’t control” (yet another old baseball cliché) – i.e., other teams beating the Giants – that have the Dodgers in a pretty good position with only 45 games remaining. That being said and not being one to mess around with “destiny,” nine of those 45 remaining games are against the Giants. As such, then and only then will the Dodgers truly have control of their own destiny … and if that doesn’t excite you, you might want to check your pulse.

Play Ball!