LOS ANGELES -- Dating back to 2013, only one team has managed to best the Dodgers in the NL West. It was the '21 Giants, who beat out a 106-win Dodgers club by one game in the standings.
The Giants haven't been back to the postseason since that year, while the Dodgers are the defending champions. But the division at large is looking more competitive than it has in years past.
With the Dodgers' 6-2 loss to the Giants on Friday night at Dodger Stadium, they relinquished a share of the lead in the NL West to their longtime rivals. It marked the first time since May 10 that Los Angeles was not alone in first place in the division.
"They’ve found ways to win baseball games. They’re playing good baseball," manager Dave Roberts said of the Giants before the opener. "So it’ll be a good series."
In a matchup of dueling aces, the Dodgers' Yoshinobu Yamamoto was bested by the Giants' Logan Webb. Yamamoto surrendered a first-inning solo homer to Willy Adames, and as the evening went on, it was clear that he was not working with his best command.
That was most evident in the third, when Yamamoto walked the bases loaded before giving up a grand slam to Casey Schmitt. Yamamoto's night ended after he walked Schmitt in the fifth for his MLB career-high fifth free pass of the game. It marked only the second time this season -- but also the second time in his past three starts -- that Yamamoto did not complete five innings.
Webb held the Dodgers' lineup to just a pair of hits and three walks, allowing a pair of runs on Andy Pages' sacrifice fly in the second and Teoscar Hernández's solo shot in the seventh.
One down, 12 to go against the Giants this season.
Here are a few takeaways from the state of the division and some key factors at play for the Dodgers:
Crowded at the top
With the exception of the Rockies, it's hard to count any team out in the division. The D-backs are the furthest behind at 5 1/2 games out of first place, but the Padres trail the Dodgers and Giants by two games.
There is some precedent for leading the pack in June: Since 1996, 60% of eventual division winners held at least a share of first place entering play on June 1. Last year, five of the six division leaders entering June -- including the Dodgers -- went on to win their division.
Divisions are not won in June, but this stretch for the Dodgers -- two more games against the Giants, followed by four against the Padres -- gives them an opportunity to separate themselves.
Reasons for urgency
The Dodgers have admitted to feeling some pressure from within the division.
It was part of the rationale for the surprising moves the team made in May: parting ways with veterans Austin Barnes and Chris Taylor to essentially clear room for rookies Dalton Rushing and Hyeseong Kim on the active roster.
Had the NL West not looked so competitive then, the Dodgers might have waited to make those moves. Instead, they took action.
"We saw it in 2021, winning 106 games and not winning the division," president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said last month. "Our primary goal during the regular season is to win the division. That is what we feel like puts us in the best position to accomplish our ultimate goal."
Playing the long game
After coming into this season with sky-high expectations, the Dodgers haven't been an unstoppable force. Part of the reason why is they've been hit hard by injuries to their pitchers once again.
L.A. is down three members of its Opening Day rotation -- Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki -- although the team got Clayton Kershaw back in May. The bullpen lost Evan Phillips for the season, and two other leverage arms -- Blake Treinen and Brusdar Graterol -- are on the 60-day IL.
“I don’t think we get too far ahead of when Tyler [Glasnow’s] coming back, when Blake [Snell’s] coming back, knowing they are going to come back," Roberts said recently. "But I think that we just do a really good job of focusing on what we have at our disposal at that moment in time and trying to make the best of it.”
Other teams have been able to keep pace with the Dodgers not at full strength. But they believe they'll be in a position to dominate once they get some reinforcements.