Dodgers breeze past Reds to clinch 13th NL West division title in 14 years

Maddie Lee, Los Angeles Times on Sep 17, 2026

Published in Baseball

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CINCINNATI — Sheets of plastic were already in place in the Great American Ball Park visiting clubhouse Thursday afternoon, attached to the ceiling with binder clips and folded up above the lockers, ready to be unfurled after the game for the Dodgers' celebration.

It took an extra day for the Dodgers to let them down. But with their 8-2 win Thursday, they clinched the NL West division for the 13th time in 14 years. It was never much of a contest. The Dodgers widened their lead in the division to 9 1/2 games — before the conclusion of the Padres' game against the Rockies.

"What's funny is Los Angeles has always been looked at, as far as sports, a Laker town," manager Dave Roberts said this week. "I don't know, I think we might have market share now in Los Angeles."

They are guaranteed, at the very least, home-field advantage in a wild-card series. The next week and a half, they'll be playing for a first-round bye, straight into the National League Division Series.

On Thursday, however — as the offense surged from top to bottom and the bullpen-day pitching staff, headlined by Justin Wrobleski's three perfect innings and Landon Knack's four scoreless innings, quieted the Reds offense — was a chance for the Dodgers to celebrate what they'd done so far in the season.

It's a big deal," Roberts said. "It's not easy. I think a lot of people think it's easy, it's a rite of passage. It's not easy to win a division when everyone is gunning for you, to keep everyone motivated to play over the course of 162.

"It's something we're all really proud of but that's not the end goal. Like I mentioned [Monday] night when we clinched the postseason berth, you have to celebrate those moments and then turn the page and look forward. But it's exciting."

As wide of a lead as the Dodgers have in the division race, their season hasn't been smooth sailing.

At the beginning of the year, the rotation bore the brunt of the injury bug, with left-hander Blake Snell and right-hander Tyler Glasnow missing months of the season.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers's two big deadline acquisitions didn't make nearly the impact they were expected to.

Right fielder Kyle Tucker — who continued his recent hot streak with a single, two doubles and a home run on Thursday — is still on pace for the worst full season of his career. And reliever Edwin Díaz not only has spent most of the season on the IL but lost the closer spot with poor performance when he was healthy. He's scheduled to be activated off the IL (neck inflammation) Friday.

So, the Dodgers made a splash at the trade deadline, acquiring two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal. He's fit right in, making a now Shohei Ohtani-less projected postseason rotation still the most daunting the sport has seen in decades.

What was supposed to be Ohtani's first full season of two-way duties since joining the Dodgers turned into a second-half injury-management debacle. The Dodgers still hope he'll be back from the 15-day IL (right biceps and left knee injuries) before the end of the regular season.

He's set to progress to hitting off coach-thrown batting practice this week, Roberts said.

"Overall, body feels normalish," Roberts said. "... There's no pain. He's doing everything he needs to do. I still don't know when time to (return to) play is, but everything that I hear is really positive."

Injuries have hit the position-player group hard down the stretch, with center fielder Andy Pages (fractured left hand) — likely to return during the Dodgers' upcoming homestand — and catcher Dalton Rushing (right elbow) also on the IL, and first baseman Freddie Freeman (right knee tendinitis) and infielder Miguel Rojas (right shoulder soreness) playing through ailments.

The rotation also isn't out of the woods. Snell left his start Wednesday with what the team called left groin tightness, and it remains to be seen if he'll make another regular-season start. Right-hander Roki Sasaki is working back from a blister on his middle finger and is penciled in to return from the IL next week against the Padres.

Despite all of that, the Dodgers have already won 93 games — matching their 2025 season total — with nine games to go.

"I don't think we've been able yet in the season to be the whole group healthy and performing the way we know we can perform," left fielder Teoscar Hernández said when the Dodgers clinched a postseason berth Monday. "But at the same time, it's baseball. Things like that are going to happen, so just have to support each other the way we've been doing this year, the past year, in the hard moments, and just keep going."

Ideally, that means the best is yet to come.

But first, champagne showers.