43-7. Amazing run. From June 7th to August 5th, 2017, the Dodgers were nearly unbeatable. They lost two games in a row once. Not even the 2022 team that won 111 games went on a run like that. No Dodger team ever has. By August 5th, they had a 14.5-game lead in the NL West. It would go up to 15.5 when they beat the Mets 8-0 behind Ryu the next day. They would eventually win the division by 11 games; at one point, on August 22nd, their lead reached 21 games. A 4, then an 11-game losing streak in September, and a 5-game streak of losses in August prevented them from being more than a 104-win team.
That Dodger team was powered by the ROY season being put up by Cody Bellinger. But there was power all up and down the lineup. Eight players would finish the season in double figures in homers: Bellinger, Turner, Grandal, Hernandez, Seager, Taylor, Pederson, and Puig. Six of them hit over 20.
The pitching staff was led by Kershaw’s 18 wins, with Wood, Hill, and Maeda winning in double figures with Kersh. Wood had maybe his best season at 16-3 with a 2.72 ERA. McCarthy and Ryu also contributed a few wins to the total. Darvish went 4-3 after the trade from Texas. Jansen and Morrow were the two stoppers in the pen. Morrow had a 6-0 record with two saves, and he did not give up a homer in the entire year. Jansen recorded 41 saves and had a sparkling 1.32 ERA.
But the streak was a big story. It started on June 7th at Dodger Stadium in the last game of a three-game series with the Nationals. Kershaw bested Strasburg, 2-1. The Dodgers had lost the first two. The Reds came into L.A. for three next. They won game one, 7-2, got a walk-off win in game two, 5-4, and outslugged the Reds, 9-7 in game three. Then they went on the road, starting with three in Cleveland against the then-Indians.
They took two out of three, losing the last game 12-5. Their record after that game was 41-26. They swept three from the Reds in Cincinnati and headed home for a 9-game homestand against the Mets, Rockies, and Angels. They swept the Mets in a four-game series by scores of 10-6, 12-0, 8-2, and 6-3. When they won game 3, they moved into first place by half a game. The Rockies came in, and they swept them, too. After the Rockies series, they were up by two and a half games. The Angels won game one, 4-0, and the Dodgers returned the favor in game two, 4-0. Off to Anaheim, they lost game one, a walk-off win by the Angels, 3-2, and won the second game, 6-2.
They continued the road trip, taking two of three from the Padres. Then they went back home for a six-game homestand with the Diamondbacks and the Royals. They swept both series, with two of the wins being walk-offs by identical 5-4 scores. One against each team. They went back on the road for a short 5-game road trip against the Marlins and the White Sox. When they left on the trip, their lead in the NL West was up to seven and a half games.
They swept both series and came home to face the Braves with an eleven-game lead. Atlanta won the first two games, the only time during the run that the Dodgers would lose two straight games. They won the next two games against the Braves, 6-2 and a walk-off 5-4 win in 10 innings.
The Dodgers scored six runs in all three games against the Twins. The third game was another walk-off victory, 6-5. The Giants came in for a three-game series next. They swept the Giants for their eighth straight win. The last win was another walk-off, 3-2.
On August 1st, they started a nine-game road trip to Atlanta, New York and Phoenix. They took two of three with the Braves, swept the Mets, and took two of three with the D-Backs. When the road trip was over, they had a 16-game lead in the west. However, the 50-game 43-7 run was over on the 5th. They continued to win through the 25th of August when the division lead reached 21 games.
They were 10-3 after that road trip until their five-game losing streak started on the 26th of August. They won the first game they played in September, and then the 11-game losing streak started. During the stretch, where they won all those games until August 26th, they had seven walk-off wins and two walk-off losses. Kershaw had eight wins over that stretch. Kenley Jansen notched 26 saves.
Their lead was such that even though they had an eleven-game losing streak, they still had a big enough cushion to cruise through September and win the division by eleven games. Month by month, they were 14-12 in April, 19-9 in May, 21-7 in June, 20-3 in July, 17-10 in August, 12-17 in September, and 1-0 in October. It was a special year. They would go to the World Series, and we all know what happened in that.
By comparison, the 2022 team never came close to a run like that. But what that team did was never go into an elongated losing streak. The 2017 team had, by far, the best 50-game run of any Dodger team ever.
Discussion (19)
Disagree, not disagreeable
BOBBY ICE.
Happy Kershaw Day!
So mlb.com has documented that Mookie and Freddie are among the best one-two punches in baseball history–at least in terms of batting first and second.
https://www.mlb.com/news/mookie-betts-freddie-freeman-historic-lineup-duo
Another nice win today, with Bobby Miller’s performance as the highlight.
In non-Dodger news, the Rays’ chances have taken a big blow with Shane McClanahan set for a TJ surgery. Expected to miss all of 2024. He looked like the Cy Young frontrunner during the first half.
Thank you JDM for finally opening the can that let the worms slither free.
KIKE!!!!! Good to be home!
Lifting a cruising Miler EARLY after only 74 pitches to (presumably) ration his usage for the post-season…
better not backfire for this game!
Well, all the good timee fun we’ve had watching the good guys fatten up their record against the triple & quadruple A posers has ended. Now it’s time for the men in blue to keep it going against some real major league competition beginning tonight against the Brewers. Let’s see what we’ve got.
.It would be interesting if Varland wins tonight against the team that let him go.
I would be happy with him pitching a perfect inning.
https://twitter.com/mookiebetts/status/1691470451158257664?s=20
10:10 PM ET
Brewers (65-54)
Dodgers (71-46)
SP Adrian Houser R
4-3 4.38 ERA
SP Bobby Miller R
6-2 3.89 ERA
Confirmed Lineup
2B Mookie Betts R
1B F. Freeman L
C Will Smith R
3B Max Muncy L
DH J. Martinez R
LF D. Peralta L
RF J. Heyward L
CF James Outman L
SS Miguel Rojas R
82° Wind 11 mph Out
Who is Gus Varland?
He is a guy who throws his 4-seamer in the mid-90s with pretty good control. His slider is a work-in-progress, and when he masters it, he might be a closer (maybe IF he masters it). He has a decent change, but generally throws it to lefties. This guy has a chance to be very good. He was very good at OKC after being awful at Milwaukee, but of course, the Dodgers have a way of doing the voodoo that they doo.
Shout to Quas
Nobody was brave enough to take you up on your bet even when things looked a bit dicey . Fair play mate – you knew!
DODGERS SELECT GUS VARLAND
LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Dodgers have selected the contract of right-handed pitcher Gus Varland and placed him on the active roster. In order to make room on the 40-man roster, the Dodgers transferred Jake Marisnick to the 60-day injured list.
Varland, 26, appeared in 30 games for Triple-A Oklahoma City, going 2-1 with a 2.16 ERA (8 ER/33.1 IP) and 39 strikeouts. He started the season in the Brewers organization after being selected in the Rule 5 Draft by the Brewers on December 7, 2022. He made eight appearances with the Major League club, going 0-0 with an 11.42 ERA (11 ER/8.2 IP) and six strikeouts. In his five combined minor league seasons, he is 9-13 with a 4.14 ERA (96 ER/208.2 IP) and 226 strikeouts in 110 games. He was originally drafted by the Oakland Athletics in 14th round of the 2018 First Year Player Draft out of Concordia University.
Marisnick, 32, appeared in four games for the Dodgers, going 2-for-5 with an HBP. He has been in the Major Leagues parts of 11 seasons with Miami (2013-14), Houston (2014-2019), New York-NL (2020), Chicago-NL (2021), San Diego (2021), Pittsburgh (2022), Chicago-AL (2023) and Detroit (2023), hitting a combined .228 (469-for-2053) with 96 doubles, 65 homers and 223 RBI. He was originally drafted in the 3rd round of the 2009 First Year Player Draft out of Riverside Polytechnic High School.
Dodgers picked up a half game on all of the pretenders last night. SD And AZ all lost.
The Dodgers also had that impressive run when they first called up Puig. They were floundering. There was talk of Mattingly losing his job. Puig helped turn that season around. I think the Dodgers stuck with Puig’s antics for as long as they did because he showed so much promise in that half season.
I think the Dodgers also went off during the second half the year they got Manny.
Boring night with no game. So, I watched a bunch of documentaries about spying. Pretty interesting stuff. Varland will get added to the roster sometime today. As for the 17 title, I would not have wanted it. People would have bitched that it was just given to the Dodgers, and they did not win it on the field. But I always felt it should have been vacated and no Champion crowned. That would have been the correct punishment. As it was, the Stros got a slap on the wrist.
Possible playoff preview tonight at the Ravine. Course what happens in these next 3 has zero to do what will happen in October….
The point is absolutely valid.
Not understanding the reason MLB did not vacate the title is puzzling.
MLB has lucrative contracts with major gaming (i.e. gambling) entities. Imagine the chaos that not having a definitive conclusion to the playoffs would create.
Baseball has gotten itself into a situation where integrity is no longer paramount. We might as well get used to it.
Every time I read or hear that it would have been fair that Dodgers should have received the championship in ’17, it’s true that HOU cheated, but to be fair, then NYY should have gone to the world series, so no one knows what could have happened. I think it would be fair to take the championship away from HOU, but I don’t know if it would have been fair to give it to the Dodgers
No question, that was an incredible team.
The only way for the Astros to beat them was to cheat.