The Dodgers cap the regular season with a 98th win
Yesterday at 06:28 PM
by Cary Osborne
The last few things to decide for the Dodgers in their 2024 regular-season finale were milestones for Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernández and a 98th win for the Dodgers.
The last of the three happened.
The Dodgers beat the Colorado Rockies 2–1 in Denver on Sunday, scoring the winning run on a balk in the eighth inning.
The Dodgers will open the postseason in Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Saturday against the winner of 4 vs. 5 seed Wild Card Series. One of those seeds is the Padres, and the other will be the New York Mets or Atlanta Braves. The Mets and Braves finish their regular season with a doubleheader on Monday.
Here are the scenarios for them and the Arizona Diamondbacks, who could make the postseason as the №6 seed and face the Milwaukee Brewers in the other Wild Card Series.
· If the Mets sweep, the Mets and Diamondbacks are in, and the Braves out.
· If the Braves sweep, the Braves and Diamondbacks are in, and the Mets out.
· If there's a doubleheader split, the Braves and Mets in are in and Diamondbacks are out.
Hernández did not drive in a run and ends his impactful regular season with 99 RBI. And Ohtani will not win the National League Triple Crown.
He went 1-for-4 with a single and a stolen base and ends the season second in the NL in batting average at .310 to San Diego's Luiz Arraez, who hit .314.
Instead, Ohtani ends up leading the National League in:
· Home runs (54)
· RBI (130)
· On-base percentage (.390)
· Slugging percentage (.646)
· OPS (1.036)
· Runs (134)
· Extra-base hits (99)
· Total bases (411)
He will also lead in advanced metrics such as bWAR, fWAR, OPS+, wRC+.
He finished second in the Majors in homers and second in stolen bases (59). Not only is he the only 50/50 player in MLB history, but he is also the third — joining Hall of Famers Honus Wagner (1908) and Ty Cobb (1909) — to finish top two in the Majors in homers and stolen bases.
"First and foremost, I think the most important part of all this is that I was able to play consistently throughout the whole year, and I'm very thankful and grateful for all the staff who supported me throughout this year," Ohtani said.
The Dodgers went with opener Anthony Banda and turned it over to rookie Landon Knack for bulk innings on Sunday — a potential strategy for the postseason with manager Dave Roberts saying this weekend that Knack will be part of the postseason pitching plan.
Banda threw a scoreless inning and Knack allowed one run over four innings.
Knack made 15 appearances this season — eight times going at least four innings and allowing one run or fewer.
Chris Taylor's score-tying, solo home run in the eighth inning, to make it 1–1, lifted his season batting average over .200 and continued a positive run in the second half for the veteran utilityman. Taylor was 9 for his first 90 this season (.100). He went 34 for his last 123 (.276). He batted.303 (20-for-66) in the second half and finished the season at .202 overall.
"My year is what it is. I've accepted that a while ago," Taylor said. "And for me, my goal has kind of just been helping this team any way I can, and trying to get ready for the postseason and kind of hanging my hat on being ready and helping this team win a World Series."
The Dodgers scored the go-ahead run on a balk from Rockies reliever Seth Halvorsen in the eighth inning.
The Dodgers finish the regular season with a Major League-best record of 98–64.
The Dodgers cap the regular season with a 98th win was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
