How the Current Dodgers Hot Streak Compares to Similar 2013 and 2017 Streaks
The Dodgers have won 41 of their last 50 games, which is really, really impressive. The crazy thing, though, is that it isn’t even the Dodgers’ hottest 50-game stretch in the last decade. Heck, it’s not even their second-hottest stretch!
The 2013 Dodgers had a famous 42-8 stretch from late June to mid-August, while the 2017 team went 43-7 from early June to early August.
The Dodgers are 41-9 in their last 50 games. They have a 19 1/2 game lead in the NL West. The run differential is now up to +275 on the season.
— Dodger Insider (@DodgerInsider) August 25, 2022
Let’s look at each of these three historic runs and see how they stack up with each other.
2013 Dodgers: 42-8, June 22 through August 17
This stretch might stand out the most in the minds of the fans who were around back then, simply because of the three, it’s the only one that took the Dodgers from being a bad team to a good team.
.@clariceann__27 Certainly the 42-8 stretch was bordering on the miraculous. That was really amazing. #AskVin
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) December 16, 2013
After a 5-2 loss to the Padres on June 21, the Dodgers were 30-42 and sitting in last place in the National League West, 9.5 games out of first place. Yasiel Puig had been called up three weeks earlier, and while the revisionist history says Puig’s arrival ignited the hot streak, the Dodgers actually went 7-10 in the first few weeks after his arrival.
On June 22, they beat the Padres, 6-1, to kick off a six-game winning streak. They wouldn’t lose two straight games again until August 18 and 19, by which point they were in first place with an 8.5-game lead.
During this 50-game stretch, Los Angeles scored 244 runs and allowed just 140.
After the stretch, the 2013 Dodgers went 20-20 the rest of the way, winning the division by 11 games.
2017 Dodgers: 43-7, June 9 through August 6
When this streak began, the Dodgers were in second place in the NL West, 2.5 games out of first. They had been in first place the week before, but a three-game losing streak to the Brewers and Nationals knocked them off their precarious perch.
The last time Stephen Strasburg pitched at Dodger Stadium was June 7th, 2017. I was there, and the #Dodgers and Kershaw won 2-1. This would start their 43-7 run. It was a day I will never forget https://t.co/p3kzc4ToQd
— Dodgers Nation (@DodgersNation) April 21, 2018
They got right back on it, though. They were actually 44-7 starting on June 7, but for purposes of 50-game stretches, we’re looking at the games starting on the 9th. They won six straight games before losing in Cleveland, then reeled off 10 straight wins before a loss to the Angels. Unlike the 2013 team, this team did have a two-game losing streak during their stretch, dropping consecutive games to the Braves at Dodger Stadium, the second of which was Alex Wood’s first loss of the season on July 21.
But this team had winning streaks of 10, 11, and 9 games ins a six-week span, and they went from down by 2.5 games to up by 15.5 games over their 50-game stretch in which they scored 281 runs and allowed 159.
The 2017 Dodgers followed their hot stretch by going 25-26 the rest of the way, punctuated by a stretch in which they lost 16 of 17 games in late August and early September. They finished with 104 wins, then a team record, and won the division by 11 games, eventually losing the World Series to some other team for certain reasons.
2022 Dodgers: 41-9, June 29 through August 24 (so far)
This year’s historic stretch is the first one the Dodgers started when they were already in first place. After losing two straight games to the Rockies on June 27-28, the Dodgers were 17 games over .500 and held a 1.5-game lead in the NL West. Since then, they have winning streaks of 4, 7, 8, and 12 games in the past two months. They’ve actually scuffled into the 43-7 mark, having gone just 7-4 in their last 11 games.
Having started with a 1.5-game lead, the Dodgers now lead the division by 19.5 games. They’ve scored 296 runs and allowed just 146 during the streak.
How do they compare?
The wins and losses are easy to count. Let’s rank these hot stretches in some other ways:
Runs scored: 2022 (296), 2017 (281), 2013 (244)
Run differential: 2022 (150), 2017 (122), 2013 (104)
Games gained in the division: Three way tie! All three teams gained 18 games in the standings.
How they finished: Both 2013 and 2017 finished relatively slowly after their hot stretches, which is at least somewhat to be expected as a team takes its foot off the gas. Only time will tell how this 2022 team finishes.
Other than in the actual wins and losses, this year’s stretch has been better than the other two. Neither the 2013 team nor the 2017 team accomplished the ultimate goal of winning the World Series, although 2017 had e*tenuating circumstances. This year’s team started the hot stretch from a much better position, and we’ll see how well they follow it up.
No matter what happens, though, these Dodgers teams of the past decade have given us a lot of history to watch.
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