Remember when Arizona Diamondback fans were celebrating having won the 2018 National League West Division … in April?

Well they aren’t celebrating any more.

On Thursday night, Dbacks perennial All-Star first baseman Paul Goldschmidt struck out for the third time on the night for the final out of the game, as the perennial last place San Diego Padres beat the Diamondbacks by a score of 6-3 to knock them out of first place and move the idle Dodgers into sole possession of the top spot in the division – albeit by mere .002 percentage points. But hey, first place is first place, right?

It’s not often that Dbacks slugger Paul Goldschmidt goes 0-for-5 with three strikeouts, but when he did on Thursday night, it moved the Dodgers into first place in the NL West for the first time this season.
(Video capture courtesy of FOXAZ)

What’s more, while the Padres were beating their (and the Dodgers) division rivals, the struggling St. Louis Cardinals were putting a whipping on the Hated Ones at AT&T Park in San Francisco, with a final score of 11-2. In doing so, the National League West became the tightest race in all of baseball, with all but the Padres being within 3.5 games of the now first place Dodgers.

From a technical standpoint, the Dodgers and Dbacks are tied for first place. But by virtue of having played two more games and having lost one more than the Dodgers, Arizona is, as noted, .002 behind the five-time consecutive NL West champions.

But while Dodger fans around the world woke up to the news that their beloved team was in first place in their division, the cold hard truth is that when the Dodgers take the field at Angel Stadium on Friday evening to open a weekend interleague series with the Halos, the Diamondbacks and the Giants will be entering game-2 of their four-game weekend series against the Padres and Cardinals respectively. And as we all know, the Friars are dead last in the NL West and the Cards in third place in the NL East. In other words, the teams that the Dbacks and Giants are playing are not among the best.

The good news (unless you’re an Angels fan) is that the Halos are also struggling right now, having lost seven of their last 10 games. But the bottom line is that when the Dodgers take the field this weekend in Anaheim – followed by a three game series against those same Padres in San Diego, and then three more against the Angels at Dodger Stadium – they cannot concern themselves with what the Dbacks, Giants, Rockies or Padres are doing [except for when they are playing them, of course] and must take care of their own matters, as they have zero control whatsoever on what the other teams are doing.

It took until 11 days before the All-Star break, but the Dodgers are finally in first place in the NL West.
(Photo credit – Juan Ocampo)

That being said, and as every Dodger fan knows, the Dodgers enter Friday night’s interleague game against the AL West fourth place Angels riding a four-game winning streak, and you’ve got to feel good about that.

Now … if they can only figure out a way to get Mike Trout and Albert Pujols out like the Padres did Goldie.

Play Ball!