19th win in May puts LAD in select company

Phil Gurnee ♦ May 31, 2017 ♦ 3 Comments

With their nineteenth win in May, last night the 2017 Los Angeles Dodgers moved into select company. Only four other Dodger teams since 1958 have won nineteen games in May and those four are among the greatest in Los Angeles Dodger history.

Split   Year  W W-L%  ERA tOPS+ sOPS+
May     1962 21 .750 3.03    91    77
May     2009 20 .690 3.42   106    86
May     2010 20 .714 3.72    93    83
May     1981 19 .655 3.06   103    85
 May     2017 19 .704 2.96    94    71
May     1974 19 .704 3.24    99    81
May     1965 19 .613 2.46    89    67
May     1973 19 .704 3.17   114    93

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/31/2017.

The 1965 team went 19 – 12 in May on their way to the Los Angeles Dodgers 3rd World Championship and second in three years.  They would win 97 games on the season.

The 1981 team went 19 – 10 in May on their way to the Los Angeles Dodgers 4th World Championship and first since the 1965 team.  That team went 63-47 but they only played 110 games because of the strike that shortened the season.

The 1974 team went 19 – 8 in May and would play the Oakland Athletics in a tightly fought World Series. The young team would ultimately lose to the A’s but it will always remain one of my favorite teams.  It was the Dodgers first time back to the World Series since the Orioles swept them away in four games in 1966.  This team went 102 – 60 and won the most games of any Los Angeles Dodger team in a 162 game season. The 1962 Dodgers also won 102 games but only because of a three-game playoff against the Giants that for some reason has been counted as regular season games.

1973 team went 19 – 8 but unlike the other three teams, there would be no post-season for them.  This team did win 95 games but came up 3.5 games short of the division title. If they had wild card teams back then, they would have made the postseason.  The Mets had won the Eastern division with only 82 wins.  The Reds and Dodgers were by far the two best teams in the NL that year but only the Reds got to the postseason.  The Mets showed that wins mean little over a 162 season when you let postseason advancement be decided in a five-game series.  The Mets beat the Reds three games out of five to get to the World Series.  The Mets lost a thrilling World Series to the A’s 4 games to 3.  If you ever wonder about the talk of the Rollie Fingers age of relief pitching this stat might tell you all you need to know. Rollie Fingers pitched more innings in the World Series than any other Oakland pitcher including three innings in game seven.