The Dodgers Are Literally Walking All Over the Competition

The Dodgers have always been a team that promotes patience at the plate, being a top two team in walks over the regular season the past three years.

This year, the walks are coming at the most high-stakes moments of the games.

These walks are not just coming a dime a dozen. For example, the go-ahead run was a bases-loaded walk in Thursday night's 2-1 win against the Colorado Rockies. However, that was actually the third walk issued by the Rockies pitching staff that inning.

The Dodgers love players that are patient at the plate and they reward players that exemplify this approach.

Max Muncy walks over 16% of the time this year in his plate appearances. Since joining the Dodgers in 2016, he has walked 15% of the time he comes up to the plate.

The Dodgers as a team are currently leading the MLB with 481 walks which average 4.2 bases on balls a game. The next playoff team in the walks leaderboard is the Texas Rangers who have 408 walks and have played one more game.

Currently sitting at 68-46, the Dodgers have a 6.5-game lead for the National League West title and with the way they are playing right now, that lead will likely only grow.

Patience in the postseason also comes at a premium and should be heavily enforced for batters wearing blue this year. During the 2020 World Series run, the Dodgers as a team walked 83 times in just 18 games. 

The competitors, the Tampa Bay Rays, walked 63 times while also playing two more games that postseason.

If the Dodgers want to win their second World Series in the last four years, they will need to take it one pitch at a time.