With their 10-1 blowout win over the NL West last-place Colorado Rockies on Friday night at Dodger Stadium, the NL West first-place Los Angeles Dodgers improved their record to an MLB best 109-48. In doing so, they are now tied for seventh on MLB’s all-time most wins in a season list with the 1969 Baltimore Orioles and 1961 New York Yankees. This from Sarah Langs on Twitter:

With five games remaining in the 2022 regular season, all against the Rockies and all at Dodger Stadium, the 2022 NL West Division Champion Dodgers are in a great position to catch the 1998 Yankees for third on this list at 114 wins.

Can it happen?

Absolutely.

Will it happen?

To be brutally honest, it won’t be easy, but you’ve got to like their chances.

On the season and including Friday night’s game, the Dodgers have won nine of their 14 games against the Rockies thus far this season. Of those nine wins, four were at Dodger Stadium.

On the other side of that coin, all five of Colorado’s win over the Dodgers this season were at Coors Field.

In other words, Bud Black‘s Rockies are 0-4 at Dodger Stadium thus far this season.

As for Friday night’s blowout win, eight of the Dodgers 10 runs came in the bottom of the fourth inning, when they sent 12 batters to the plate. Capping off the inning was a three-run home run by suddenly-red-hot Dodgers centerfielder Cody Bellinger, his 18th of the season.

“It definitely felt good. In that situation, I’m just trying to keep the ball rolling,” Bellinger said postgame of that remarkable inning. “(Gavin) Lux put together a good at-bat, CT (Chris Taylor) put together a good at-bat and I just wanted to get the job done right there for the team.”

“I just know the character of these guys,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after his team’s shellacking of the Rockies. “There’s no scoreboard watching. There’s no care about standings. It’s going out there to win a ballgame each night and you saw that tonight. And so regardless of opponent, there’s a certain intent that we have, and that’s something that I’m counting on.

“The process is one thing but guys still want to get hits, and as we close off the regular season, they want to feel good about themselves and have that confidence going into the postseason. Tonight was a good thing, so the expectations continue to build on that,” Roberts added.

And then there’s that Clayton Kershaw fellow, who pitched six shutout innings in which he allowed no runs and five hits, while walking two and striking out four to improve his injury-shortened season record to 11-3 and lowering his ERA to a Kershaw-like 2.30.

“For me, I just have to remember to try to compete,” Kershaw said of his 21st start of the season and with the division already clenched. “I think you can get in your head a little bit about making pitches a certain way or however you want to look, but at the end of the day, you just got to get the hitter out, regardless of the situation. So I try to remember that as best as you can. But yeah, when you’re not playing for much, it definitely is more of a challenge than not.”

With their win on Friday, the Dodgers secured home-field advantage throughout the postseason, including the World Series … if (when) they get there.

Play Ball!

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