Brewers hold 1 1/2-game edge on Dodgers in race for MLB's top record
The short version
- Milwaukee is 98-59 after a 6-4 loss to Philadelphia on Tuesday.
- Los Angeles began play at 96-60 with six games remaining, five for the Brewers.
- The Brewers won the season series 4-3 and hold the NL seeding tiebreaker.
- A Dodgers sweep of San Diego plus a Brewers split with Philadelphia would leave both at 99-60.
- Shohei Ohtani could return Wednesday as he recovers from left knee and right biceps injuries.
Milwaukee leads Los Angeles by 1 1/2 games with five contests left, but the Dodgers can pull even or move ahead this week in the National League standings battle.
The Milwaukee Brewers continue to sit atop the baseball standings race, holding a 1 1/2-game cushion over the Los Angeles Dodgers. A 6-4 defeat against the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday dropped Milwaukee to 98-59. Los Angeles started the night at 96-60 heading into its contest with the San Diego Padres, with six games left on its schedule versus five for Milwaukee.
A season series decided in August could end up determining the whole thing. Milwaukee claimed the head-to-head matchup 4-3, which means the tiebreaker for National League postseason seeding belongs to the Brewers. Should the clubs end even in the standings, the No. 1 NL seed would go to Milwaukee, so the Dodgers have to finish one game clear to take the top spot.
The first projected scenario has both teams at 99-60 by Friday. That would require the Dodgers to sweep San Diego and the Brewers to split their remaining two contests with the Phillies. Beating the Padres in three straight is a tall order given that San Diego had won 13 of its previous 14 games and is still fighting for Wild Card position. Los Angeles arrived on a four-game winning run, with Andy Pages and Roki Sasaki back from the injured list and Shohei Ohtani possibly activated Wednesday as he recovers from left knee and right biceps ailments.
Los Angeles turned to its bullpen for Tuesday's opener, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto lined up for Wednesday and Tyler Glasnow expected Thursday. The projection then calls for the Dodgers to grab the outright lead by winning Friday's opener in San Francisco while the Brewers fall to the visiting Cardinals, which would make it 100-60 for Los Angeles against 99-61 for Milwaukee.
The final call has the race ending level at 101-61, with Milwaukee taking its last two against St. Louis while the Dodgers split their final pair versus the Giants. That finish would mark the Brewers' first 100-win campaign, and because they own the head-to-head edge, the deadlock would hand them the NL's No. 1 seed without a playoff. Even five wins in their last six games would not be enough for the Dodgers to move past their division rival unless they finish alone on top.
