Dodgers set franchise record with 107th win

Sep 29, 2022 - 5:32 AM

The Dodgers set a franchise record by winning their 107th game on Wednesday night, beating the Padres at Petco Park in San Diego.

With seven more games remaining on the regular season schedule, the Dodgers have a chance to still add to what is already tied for the fifth-most wins by a National League team.

Wednesday’s win broke the team mark of 106 wins, set by the 2019 and 2021 teams. Los Angeles still needs four more wins if they are to break the franchise record for winning percentage in a full season, but they already beat the two top teams at this point in the schedule. The 1899 Brooklyn Superbas were 101-47 (.6824), while this year’s Dodgers were 103-45 in their first 148 games. In 1953, Brooklyn finished 105-49 (.6818), and these Dodgers were 106-48 in the same amount of games, through Tuesday.

Wednesday was the Dodgers’ 155th game of the season, close enough that we can compare across eras. In the times of 154-game schedules – before 1961 in the American League, before 1962 for the National League – seven teams won at least 107 games. Three others won 106, as the Dodgers did in their first 154 games this year.

In the six-plus decades of the 162-game schedule, only three other teams – the 1969 Orioles (107-48), the 1998 Yankees (107-48) and 2001 Mariners (110-45) – won at least 107 of their first 155 contests.

Rarefied air for the Dodgers.

It’s hard enough to sustain excellence over an entire season, but when considering the old record for franchise wins was set in 2019 and matched in 2021. The Dodgers are the only team in MLB history to win at least 106 games in three consecutive full seasons. In between was the pandemic-shortened year that saw the Dodgers go 43-17 en route to winning the World Series.

At the moment, the Dodgers have the best four-year winning percentage in the National/American League in over a century. At 362-177 (.6716), the Dodgers have a better record than the 1941-44 Cardinals (413-202, .6715) and 1936-1939 Yankees (409-201, .670).

You have to go all the way back to the Cubs from 1907-10 to find a better four-year stretch than the 2019-2022 Dodgers. Those Cubs were 414-199 (.675), and really had a jaw-dropping five-year stretch, also winning 116 games in 1906.

To maintain a higher four-year win percentage than those 1940s Cardinals teams, the Dodgers this year need to finish with at least 112 wins, which requires at least a 5-2 finish.