Dodgers Clinch 13th NL West Title in 14 Years With 8-2 Win Over Reds

Since clinching their 14th consecutive playoff berth Monday night, the Dodgers wrapped up the bigger prize Thursday: the National League West division title, their 13th in the last 14 years, after an 8-2 win over the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park.

The outcome was barely in doubt. According to the LA Times, the Dodgers had already stretched their division lead to 9 1/2 games over the San Diego Padres before that game had even finished Thursday. Sports Illustrated notes the only year in this 14-season stretch the Dodgers didn't win the NL West outright was 2021, when they won 106 games but finished one behind the 107-win San Francisco Giants, then beat that same Giants team in the NLDS.

How it happened

Kyle Tucker set the tone early, hitting a two-run homer in the first inning and adding an RBI double in the second, according to thesportingtribune. Freddie Freeman drove in a run with a sacrifice fly, and Max Muncy added a two-RBI double in the fourth inning as the Dodgers built a 7-1 lead, per Heavy.com's rundown of the scoring.

Rookie Josue De Paula, who thesportingtribune reports is the first player in the Andrew Friedman front-office era to be called straight up from Double-A, added an RBI single in the fourth for his third career hit. Justin Wrobleski, working in a starter role after the Dodgers moved him to the bullpen earlier this month to manage his innings load, threw three perfect innings on just 32 pitches before Landon Knack finished with four scoreless frames, per the LA Times.

Where the season stands

At 93-60, the Dodgers now hold a four-game lead over the Atlanta Braves for the NL's No. 2 seed, according to Sports Illustrated, with a magic number of six to lock that spot up. The No. 2 seed comes with a first-round bye straight into the NLDS, set to begin Oct. 3, rather than a wild-card round.

The Dodgers have been without Shohei Ohtani as a pitcher for a stretch of the season, and both Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow missed months earlier in the year with injuries, per the LA Times. The team's trade-deadline addition of two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal has helped offset that, and closer Edwin Díaz is scheduled to be activated off the injured list Friday after dealing with neck inflammation, the LA Times reports.

Tucker, one of the Dodgers' two headline offseason additions along with Díaz, has had an uneven year by his own standards. The LA Times notes he's on pace for the worst full season of his career, even as Thursday's four-hit, four-RBI performance offered a reminder of what he's capable of.

The celebration

Unlike Monday's more subdued playoff-clinch gathering, Thursday's division title brought out the champagne. Dodgers Nation reported that plastic tarps were already hung in the visiting clubhouse before the game, and manager Dave Roberts addressed the team before the spraying started, telling players: "This organization has a chance to do something really special," while asking them to "eliminate distractions and focus on baseball" over the final nine regular-season games.

Reliever Alex Vesia put it bluntly to Dodgers Nation: "We're just getting started." Kiké Hernandez, for his part, went for comic relief, according to the New York Post, catching pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto off guard by shoving a champagne bottle down his shorts mid-celebration.

Roberts, speaking to Yahoo Sports before Thursday's win, framed the whole season as building toward something bigger than a division crown: "We're not even close to playing the baseball that we're gonna play. And to be where we're at right now, that says a lot about us. The best has to be yet to come."

What's next

The Dodgers have nine regular-season games left to either overtake the Milwaukee Brewers for the NL's top overall seed or simply hold their four-game cushion over Atlanta for the No. 2 spot and its accompanying bye. Whichever seed they land, Dodgers Nation reports the current alignment would have Los Angeles opening the NLDS against the winner of a wild-card series between the Padres and the Braves, a matchup that won't be settled until the regular season closes out.