All that is true, yet, there is fear and doubt in Dodgerville.
LA snapped an 11-game losing streak with a 5-3 decision over the Giants last night but the Dodgers are still reeling over the last three weeks with only 13 games left on the schedule.The question now is which Dodgers will show up in the playoffs? The team that owned baseball all summer or the team that has stumbled through the past three weeks?
The Dodgers were the hottest team in baseball up until the bottom fell out.
In a flash, the team that couldn't do wrong couldn't do anything right.
Starting pitching fell apart, hot bats went silent, and the middle of the bullpen suddenly started pitching like it was batting practice.
After building an obscene 20-game lead in the NL West, Milwaukee went into LA and took two of three from the Dodgers.
That started the slide. The Dodgers went to Arizona and were swept by the Diamondbacks, losing 7-6, 6-4 and 8-1.
Los Angeles opened September with a 1-0 win over the Padres as Clayton Kershaw returned from the DL. The Dodgers then lost three in a row to the Padres and three more to Arizona back in Chavez Ravine.
Colorado was next, taking four in a row at Dodger Stadium Sept. 7-10 and Los Angeles was mired in a 10-game losing streak.
The Dodgers went to San Francisco on Monday and the streak grew to 11 games in an 8-6 Giants win.
LA ended the streak last night with a 5-3 win over the Giants powered by Kershaw's pitching, a splasher into McCovey Cove by Chase Utley, a two-run double by Yasiel Puig and some sparkling defense by Justin Turner and Cody Bellinger.
But can they regain the magic?
Yu Darvish takes the hill tonight and it's getting more and more urgent for a pitcher other than Kershaw to have a good outing.
As it stands now, the Dodgers will face Wild Card Arizona in the first round of the playoffs -- a Diamondbacks team that has beaten the Dodgers the last six times they have played. Should LA get past Arizona, they would face either Washington or Chicago, both teams playing better baseball than Los Angeles.
In a sport where momentum is everything the Dodgers are still looking for it.
