Dave Roberts Guarantees Dodgers Will Win NL West Despite Slump

The Los Angeles Dodgers have lost 11 of their last 12 games, but manager Dave Roberts believes his team will have no problem winning the National League West.

After the Dodgers' 3-1 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday, their sixth straight defeat, Roberts told reporters:  "We're going to win the division. I can assure you of that."

Even though the Dodgers are enduring the most difficult stretch of their season, their 92-47 record is still six games ahead of the Houston Astros for the best record in Major League Baseball.

The Diamondbacks, winners of 13 consecutive games, have made the NL West race more competitive than anyone would have expected two weeks ago when they were 21 games out. But they are still 10.5 games behind the Dodgers with 23 games to go for Los Angeles.

The biggest recent collapse by a division leader came in 2007 when the New York Mets blew a seven-game lead with 17 games left, losing five straight games twice in that stretch to allow the Philadelphia Phillies to steal the National League East title.

According to Baseball Prospectus' updated playoff odds, the Dodgers have a 99.9 percent chance to win the division, and their 21.4 percent chance to win the World Series leads all MLB teams.