Monday night gave the Dodgers a little slice of franchise history, and it wasn’t just about finally playing their first extra-inning game of 2026. That snapped a 91-game run to open the season without going past nine innings, a stretch that ranked as the second-longest to start a season and sat seven games behind the 2005 Boston Red Sox.
The bigger marker came in the series opener against the Colorado Rockies. With that game, the Dodgers hit a strange and tidy balance point in their long run as a franchise: 11,109 games in Brooklyn, and now 11,109 games in Los Angeles when you combine the regular season and postseason.
That symmetry reaches all the way back to the club’s beginnings in 1884, when the Dodgers launched in Brooklyn in the American Association. They spent six seasons there before moving into the National League in 1890.
The early postseason landscape looked nothing like the one fans know now. The World Series didn’t begin until 1903, and earlier championship attempts often left things unresolved.
In 1890, after winning the National League, the Dodgers met American Association champion Louisville Cardinals in the “World’s Championship Series,” only for the matchup to end in a 3-3-1 tie that was never settled. Their only other 19th century postseason came in 1889, when they lost to the NL-champion New York Giants, six games to three.
Brooklyn also finished first in the National League in 1899 and 1900, but there was no postseason waiting for them in either year.
In the modern era, the Brooklyn Dodgers appeared in nine World Series and played 56 total games in those Fall Classics. Since the move to Los Angeles, the Dodgers have taken part in 14 World Series and 79 Fall Classic games, along with 174 other games.
In Other News...
Dodgers Are Paying For Their Spending Again In The 2026 Draft
The Dodgers habit of spending aggressively has finally come back around on them in draft form. Because they pushed past the Competitive Balance Tax surcharge threshold, their highest pick in 2026 gets knocked back 10 spots from where it would have landed naturally, and the bonus-pool hit leaves them with just $3,951,900 to work with, the smallest pool in baseball. For a front office that has often used financial muscle to widen its options, that is a meaningful squeeze.
Even so, there are still ways to find value if the board breaks right. Names like Virginia commit Bo Lowrance could come into play because of signability, while Logan Reddemann and Brody Bumila fit the kind of profile teams often monitor late in the first round and beyond when health questions or medical history start to push talented players down the board. For the Dodgers, the challenge is less about identifying talent than figuring out how far that talent might fall before the money and the pick slot finally line up. [Read more 🡒]
Dodgers Waste Dominant Start In Another Rockies Loss That Stings
Justin Wrobleski gave the Dodgers exactly what they needed on the mound, working seven strong innings while the offense did enough to build a cushion against Colorado. Shohei Ohtani also delivered a milestone moment in the opener of the series, and Andy Pages plus Alex Freeland helped push Los Angeles to three runs, the kind of support that usually makes a road trip feel manageable even when the margins are thin.
Instead, the game turned on one ugly defensive inning and left the Dodgers staring at another loss to a Rockies club they should have handled. The lead was in place late, the pitching line was there, and the bats had done their part, but a few misfires in the field erased all of it in a hurry and turned a solid night into one that will linger a while. [Read more 🡒]
Mookie Betts Just Said What Dodgers Fans Feel About Will Smith
Will Smith has been out since June 6 with a neck injury, and the Dodgers have spent the stretch leaning on Dalton Rushing behind the plate while he gets a crash course in the jobs less glamorous demands. Smith has started hitting and throwing again as he works his way back, but the full ramp-up still has a few boxes to check before he can even think about rejoining the lineup.
Mookie Betts, like plenty of Dodgers fans, has come away with a sharper appreciation for what Smith brings when he is healthy. Rushing has had the kind of learning moments that come with catching a major league staff, and the Dodgers are still waiting on the next steps in Smiths recovery before they can circle a more realistic return window, likely sometime in late July or early August. [Read more 🡒]