With a week and a half left in the regular season, the Dodgers are closing in on potentially a fourth consecutive National League West crown and 12th in the last 13 seasons.

The Dodgers on Thursday night host the Giants at Dodger Stadium. Earlier in the day the Padres lost their series finale to the Mets at Citi Field in New York. Los Angeles is up two and a half games on San Diego.

Dodgers 85-67 (.559) – – – Padres 83-70 (.542) 2 1/2 GB

By virtue of beating the Padres nine times in 13 games to secure the season series, the Dodgers hold the tiebreaker over San Diego. So they only need to tie the Padres to clinch the division.

The Dodgers magic number to clinch the National League West is now 7.

Put another way, the Dodgers have 10 games remaining, the Padres have nine games left, and

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