The Dodgers enter Tuesday with an eight-game lead over the San Diego Padres and nine-game lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League West. At the moment, the Padres are in third wild card position, one game up on Arizona and one game behind the Philadelphia Phillies for the second wild card spot.
Two NL West teams have made the postseason every year dating back to 2020. The last time the division had three teams in the playoffs was 2017, when the D-backs beat the Colorado Rockies in the NL wild card game.
This year, the Dodgers (24-17), Padres (22-17), and Diamondbacks (26-16) all have solid divisional records, propped up in part by feasting on the Rockies and San Francisco Giants, the soft underbelly of the division who are a combined 47 games under .500. The Dodgers are 11-7 against those two teams, while the Padres and Diamondbacks are each 14-5 against the Giants and Rockies.
Shohei Ohtani, who homered twice on Monday at Coors Field, is hitting .312/.409/.582 with nine home runs and nine doubles, 31 runs scored, and 21 RBI in 35 games against NL West teams this season.
Freddie Freeman doubled twice on Monday, his first extra-base hits since July 26, snapping a string of 21 consecutive singles. Freeman, whose 576 career doubles are two behind Wade Boggs for 24th place in MLB history, is hitting .313/.373/.500 with 11 doubles and five home runs in 39 games against the NL West.
Eric Lauer, who starts on Tuesday night for the Dodgers, has faced a divisional foe in three of his 11 games since joining Los Angeles, with a 3.24 ERA ERA in 16 2/3 innings in three Dodgers wins. This is Lauer’s third start this season against the Rockies, with the first two coming at Dodger Stadium.
Lauer has a 1-6 record in eight career starts with a whopping 10.43 ERA at Coors Field. His lone win came last year while with the Toronto Blue Jays, allowing one run in six innings in Denver last August 4.
Tuesday game info
- Teams: Dodgers at Rockies
- Ballpark: Coors Field, Denver
- Start time: 5:40 p.m.
- TV: SportsNet LA
- Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)