Dodgers magic number to clinch the National League West

With a week and a half left in the regular season, the Dodgers are closing in on potentially a fourth consecutive National League West crown and 12th in the last 13 seasons.

The Dodgers on Thursday night beat the Giants at Dodger Stadium. Earlier in the day the Padres lost their series finale to the Mets at Citi Field in New York. Los Angeles is up two and a half games on San Diego.

Dodgers 86-67 (.562) - - -
Padres 83-70 (.542) 3 GB

By virtue of beating the Padres nine times in 13 games to secure the season series, the Dodgers hold the tiebreaker over San Diego. So they only need to tie the Padres to clinch the division.

The Dodgers magic number to clinch the National League West is now 6.

Put another way, the Dodgers and Padres each have nine games left, and they don’t play one another. The Dodgers need six of those 18 outcomes to go their way to win the division, while the Padres need 13 of 18 outcomes to fall their way to prevail in the division.

The Dodgers host the Giants for four games this weekend. The Padres play the 96-loss White Sox this weekend in Chicago.

Next week the Dodgers are on the road to play the Diamondbacks and American League West-leading Mariners, while the Padres will be at home to face the best-record-in-baseball Brewers before finishing up against the D-backs.

If everything goes perfectly for the Dodgers, the earliest possible day they could clinch the division is Sunday, September 21.

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