LOS ANGELES – The Dodgers won the National League West for the third season in a row and the eleventh time in the past twelve years, and will therefore be no worse than the number two in the NL. That means they will advance past the wild-card round and begin their postseason on Saturday, October 5 at Dodger Stadium with Game 1 of the NL Division Series.

The Dodgers already had a better record on Wednesday than the Brewers, winners of the NL Central. That means either the Dodgers (95-64) or the Phillies (94-65) will be the No. 1 seed in the NL playoffs, and the other will be the No. 2 seed. The Phillies have the tiebreaker over the Dodgers if they finish the regular season with the same record.

In the Division Series, the No. 1 seed will play the winner of the Nos. 4-5 wild card series, while the No. 2 seed will play the winner of the Brewers versus No. 6 seed wild card series.

The Dodgers’ rotation has too many question marks to survive an extra round of the postseason. No Tyler Glasnow, no Gavin Stone, and Clayton Kershaw’s return is becoming more and more unlikely with each passing day. Walker Buehler was uneven at best.

In September, the Dodgers rotation has an ERA of 6.06, averaging 4⅔ innings per start.

Their top two starting pitchers are Jack Flaherty and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the latter left on the injured list after nearly three months and having only three brief starts in the Majors since then, not exactly built up for the postseason.

And given that the Dodgers won’t be using Yamamoto on four days of rest, something he really hasn’t done during his career in Japan and the United States, if the Dodgers had been relegated to the wild-card round, Yamamoto wouldn’t have been able to do that. pitch as he will start Saturday at Coors Field in his final regular-season lineup.

“It’s the goal. Especially where we are now, it would be useful, and it is within our control. That would certainly be welcome,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Sunday about the farewell. “It’s something we still have to earn. We have some work to do.”