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With the Dodgers, you always have to circle back to the first principle: The regular season is a 162-game extension of spring training for them. They’re not trying to win 117 games, despite my fervent hopes, just winning enough to make the playoffs, maybe get that bye. Their goal isn’t to put their best team on the field on March 27 or May 27 or even September 27, but rather to make sure that come October 4 at Dodger Stadium, they have their top 26 guys healthy, rested, and ready to win 11 games. It’s a cynical approach to a baseball season, but after years of dominating for six months and then being told they were failures because they lost three of four or four of six at the wrong time, the Dodgers finally leaned into the ethics of modern baseball. They won a title last year for their trouble and remain the favorites to do so again.
