"Clinched NL home field advantage and tied the franchise record baaaang" "Extend Gallo" - Los Angeles Dodgers fans celebrate franchise-tying 106th win of the season; clinches home field advantage in NLCS

The Los Angeles Dodgers' win against the St. Louis Cardinals came at the right time. The Dodgers beat the Cardinals 4-1 on Sunday to take the final game of the three-game set. They clinched the number one seed in the National League, and will have home-field advantage throughout the postseason.

The Blue Crew have now won 106 games in 2022 to tie their franchise-record for most wins in a single season. The 2019 and 2021 iterations of the team each finished with a 106-56 regular season record. What makes this year's team special is that they have a chance to break their own record with nine games to spare.

Michael Grove was dominant in his outing for the Dodgers on Sunday. The 25-year old pitched five innings of one-run ball, giving up just three hits and striking out three batters during the outing. Reliever Andre Jackson produced three innings of no-run ball for the first save of his career. It was Jackson's sixth appearance this season.

It was a fairly quiet day at the plate for the Dodgers. They managed to plate just four runs on the day, which is below their season average of 5.32 a game.

Cult hero Joey Gallo made a tremendous diving catch in left center field to record the final out of the game and seal the win for Los Angeles.

On the Cardinals' side of things, the offense was entirely anemic. Their only run came in the second inning courtesy of Yadier Molina.

The Los Angeles Dodgers will now travel to San Diego for a three-game set with the Padres. The Cardinals, meanwhile, will play a two-game series against the Brewers in Milwaukee.

Historic season for the Los Angeles Dodgers

The Los Angeles Dodgers have won at least 106 games three times in the past four non-pandemic shortened seasons. They were within reach to pass the 2001 Seattle Mariners for the most wins (116) in a single season by an MLB franchise. Unfortunately, they came up short. If they win all of their remaining games, they will still be a win short of tying the record.

The Dodgers have now won 636 out of their last 1000 games, dating back to the 2016 season. It bests the Atlanta Braves for the most wins by a franchise in a 1,000-game span since expansion. The Dodgers have made an appearance in the NLCS in all but one season since 2016.

It will be interesting to see how deep they go in the postseason this time around. Will they make it two World Series titles in three years? Or will they fizzle out to an inferior opponent? Only time will tell.

About the author

Daniel Santiago is a journalist who has been reporting on baseball at Sportskeeda since 2022. He was drawn towards the sport after the underlying statistics and the analysis surrounding it grabbed his attention.

Daniel particularly enjoys furnishing reports about historic events in baseball and analyzing the game through a statistic-based outlook, based on Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference. This is in line with how he enjoyed watching baseball as a pastime. As a writer, he is very particular about cross-checking from reputable sources and doing his due diligence.

He became a lifelong Hideki Matsui fan after his exploits in the 2009 World Series for the New York Yankees. Among the current generation, Daniel's favorites include Shohei Ohtani and Jung Hoo Lee. Daniel is a huge follower of Asian baseball and both Ohtani and Lee have been in the top echelon of their respective leagues during their time with the NPB and KBO.

His favorite moment as a baseball fan was the final at-bat of the 2023 World Baseball Classic between Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. He believes there aren't many words to fittingly describe the intensity of the moment.

As an avid sports fan, Daniel watches other sports and Esports when not writing about baseball.

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