What To Make Of The Blue Streak?

The Dodgers beat the Nationals at home tonight 10-3. It was a great win that saw all sorts of good things come from the Dodgers. The lead-off batter for L.A. reached base in 6 of the 8 innings that the Dodgers batted in. Additionally, the Dodgers had 8 batters step up with the bases loaded (and no one hit a grandslam!).

But the headline from tonight was not the 10-3 win over Washington, instead it was the fact that the Dodgers captured their 13th straight home victory to start the season moving past the 1911 Detroit Tigers for the best home start ever. The Dodgers currently hold the best record in baseball at 21-8 and already have a 6.5 game advantage in the NL West and are 1.5 games better than every other team in MLB. But I don't know if its fair to start crowning Los Angeles the best team in baseball.

As we see right now, with Manny and the boys driving in runs and the starting pitching going at least 6 innings, the Dodgers appear to be one of the favorites out of the NL to reach the World Series. But the knock on them and their 21-8 record and their 13-0 home start is this: the six teams the Dodgers have faced SF, San Diego, Colorado, Arizona, Houston, and Washington have a combined record of 66-94 and none of the 6 teams are over .500. So the Dodgers clearly haven't faced the toughest teams in baseball, however, they have dominated their division and as weak as the NL West may be, this isn't college football and so strength of schedule doesn't matter...what matters is winning games. If you want proof of this, just talk to the 2008 Cubs who were considered the best team from the NL last year yet were swept by the Dodgers in the playoffs.

Sure the teams that the Dodgers have beat up on don't have the flashiest resume, but what we can't overlook is that the Dodgers are doing exactly what they should be doing...beating up the teams. So many other ball clubs drop games here and there to teams they should dominate, but the Dodgers simply haven't done that. They have been in almost every game they have played (4 losses have been by 1 run and their worst was a 10-4 loss to the Rockies) and they have held down the fort at Chavez Ravine. Sure this 13 game home winning streak and 21-8 record doesn't mean the Dodgers will finish 122-40 (81-0 at home), that is obviously illogical.

But there is one stat that sums up why the Dodgers are where they are. Don't forget that the Dodgers have scored in the first inning of 14 out of their 21 wins which is unbelievable and means most of the time you instantly put an opponent on their heels and make them play catch up. That is an extremely valuable thing to have going for you and if they keep doing it, who knows how many wins the Blue Crew could reach.