If all goes well this weekend, the Dodgers could begin Monday’s four-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies at Dodger Stadium with a 25-27 record – a mere two games under .500.

If all goes well.

Anything less that a three-game weekend series sweep of the NL West last place Padres, against whom the Dodgers are already 4-2 on the season (including a combined no-hitter against them in Monterrey, Mexico on May 4), would mean that the Dodgers would welcome the blazing hot Phillies and their (as of today) 28-19 (.596) record into town being more than two games under .500.

Not exactly an ideal situation.

Why is this a big deal, you ask? It’s a big deal because a four-game sweep of the current NL East second place (by a minuscule 0.5 GB as of this moment) Phillies is probably not going to happen. In fact, with as well as Gabe Kapler’s Phillies are playing right now (including winning six of their last 10 games), even a series split with them sounds enticing.

The thing to keep in mind is that, just like last year, the Dodgers will face the Phillies only seven times during the regular season, with the first four being played at Dodger Stadium beginning on Monday.

The final three games will be played at notoriously-hostile Citizens Bank Park in ‘The City of Brotherly Love’ on July 23, 24 and 25. And while the game of baseball is played between the lines and not in the stands, a raucous Phillies crowd – and it will be raucous – can make for a very long and unpleasant three games for the Dodgers.

As such, the four games at Dodger Stadium will be a lot more pleasant for Dave Roberts’ team than the three in Philadelphia – of this you can be sure.

It was against the Phillies at Dodger Stadium on April 29, 2017 that eventual 2017 NL Rookie of the Year Cody Bellinger hit his first – and second – major league home runs. The Dodgers ended up taking four of seven from the Phillies last season. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

But if the game of baseball has taught us anything, it has taught us that on any given day, any team can beat any other team, regardless of who it is and where they are in the standings. And given the fact that the Dodgers have narrowed their once 8.0-games-back deficit to its current 3.5 GB in less than a week, when the the sun comes up on Friday morning, June 1, the Dodgers might … might even find themselves in first place in the National League West.

If all goes well.

Play Ball!