It happens every season right about now – you start hearing “It’s still early.”

But the ironic part about “It’s still early” is that you rarely hear it from or about teams that are playing well to start the new season but often hear it from or about teams that are not – say, like the 2025 Dodgers, who have made some world-class blunders through their first 25 games this season.

The bigger rub, at least for those who cringe every time time they hear “It’s still early,” is when it comes from within the organization … say, like, from Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, although he skillfully re-worded it into: “…I do think it’s too early to panic.”

Here’s how the National League West stands following play on Thursday, a scheduled off day for the Dodgers, about which Roberts had earlier said (in his best “It’s still early” voice): “I think this off day comes at a good time for us:”

As noted above, the Dodgers have completed only 25 of their scheduled 162 regular-season games, which indeed is still early in the 2025 campaign. But when the final week of the regular season rolls around and the Magic Number comes into play, those still early games will have become too late games.

Play Ball!

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