Editorials

Adrian Gonzalez Sees Importance In Home-Field Advantage

[new_royalslider id=”288″] Last season, the Los Angeles Dodgers finished with a 45-36 road record and 47-34 mark at home. With much of the same team still intact, this season has been a much different story.

The Dodgers recent 6-3 record on a nine-game road trip has them at 40-26 in games played outside of Dodger Stadium. Meanwhile, including Friday’s loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, the Dodgers are 30-28 at what’s been the unfriendly confines of Chavez Ravine.



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For much of the season, the Dodgers were below or around .500 at home and greatly benefitted from going 16-9 in their last 25 home games.

Despite their vastly superior road record, Adrian Gonzalez placed an emphasis on the Dodgers securing home-field advantage throughout the National League playoffs, according to Robert Morales of the Long Beach Press-Telegram:

Regular-season play doesn’t translate to postseason play, so we definitely want home-field advantage because obviously the advantage is to the home team every single game. Our No. 1 key is to get home-field advantage so we can have more games here at home and more games in front of our home crowd.”

The loss closed the gap between the Dodgers and Brewers to 1.5 games for the best record in the NL, but the Washington Nationals have quietly wedged themselves between the two teams in the standings.

With a 7-3 record in their last 10 games, including a current four-game winning streak, the Nationals trail the Dodgers by just one game for first place in the NL.

The Dodgers didn’t have home-field advantage in either one of their postseason series in 2013, though losing Hanley Ramirez was more of an impediment to their success.

While the Dodgers have thus far positioned themselves for homefield throughout the NL playoffs, they’ll be shorthanded for the foreseeable future.

Hyun-Jin Ryu was placed on the disabled list and not much is known regarding his date of return, Hanley Ramirez is currently on the DL as well, and Juan Uribe was removed from Friday’s game due to hamstring tightness.

The Dodgers have two games remaining with the Brewers before concluding the homestand with three-games series against the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks.
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