Los Angeles Dodgers: How the Dodgers Could Have Won the NL West

It is hard to believe that after everything that has gone wrong for the Los Angeles Dodgers this season, after Friday's game they were only 10.5 games off the division lead.

I know, 10.5 games out of first place seems like a lot, but when you break the season down month-by-month, it really isn't.

Imagine if the Dodgers could have won just two more games in each of the first four months of the season. If they had done that they would have had 75 wins after Friday's game. That would put them with two more wins than the San Francisco Giants. The Giants were five games out of first after their game on Friday.

Yes, just two more wins each month in April, May, June and July and the Dodgers would be right in the NL West divisional race.

With six games left against the Giants, and seven games left against the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Dodgers would not only be in the race for the division lead, their destiny would be in their own hands.

When you look back at the season, there are so many games the Dodgers could have won with just a little better offense, pitching, baserunning and defense. And they only needed to improve by just two games a month.

Sometimes when a team loses a game early in the year, fans don't worry that much about it. But a loss in April is just as important as a loss in September.

Looking back at each month of the season with this in mind makes you realize how easily the Dodgers could have been right in the middle of the fight for the NL West title.

Just two more wins a month. And imagine where they would be if they had three more wins each month.

I don't even want to think about it.