Tucker's near-cycle helps Dodgers lock up fifth straight NL West title, 13th in 14 years.

Even as the Dodgers attempt to view 2026 as a standalone campaign, what they've accomplished this year cannot be separated from the backdrop of over a decade of excellence. Fourteen consecutive postseason berths. Five straight division crowns. A rare shot at three consecutive World Series titles.

The Dodgers hit another milestone on their title defense. On Wednesday at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, they beat the Reds 8-2 to clinch the NL West once again. Just three days earlier, they had popped champagne to secure a playoff spot. Now with the division title in hand, the clubhouse erupted in celebration again, hoping it's the first of many in the coming weeks.

"Every year you get so immersed that it's hard to have a big-picture perspective," said Andrew Friedman, president of baseball operations. "We've had plenty of challenges this year too. In several areas, we've had to work harder than anticipated. But what matters is how we finish and how we enter October."

During their record-tying run of 14 straight playoff trips, the Dodgers have won 13 division titles. The only team to knock them off was the 2021 San Francisco Giants, who edged out the Dodgers in one of the most competitive NL West races in recent years.

Since the divisional format began in 1969, the Dodgers lead all MLB clubs with 24 division titles, one more than the Atlanta Braves (who are currently poised to win the NL East) and three more than the New York Yankees. Each year's achievement raises the bar for the next. The external expectations on the Dodgers are almost impossible to satisfy, but they embrace them.

"The expectations are certainly higher, and if you don't win the World Series, it's a failure," said manager Dave Roberts. "But that's pretty much part of what you sign up for when you join the Dodgers."

The Dodgers' lineup has dealt with consistency issues this season, but it provided early firepower to support the planned bullpen game. Kyle Tucker stood out with four hits and three RBIs, falling just a triple shy of the first cycle for the Dodgers since 2017. Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy, Josue De Paula, and Miguel Rojas also drove in runs.

Justin Wrobleski opened the bullpen game with three perfect innings. Although Blake Treinen gave up a solo homer in the fourth, Landon Knack threw four scoreless innings before Seth Halvorsen allowed a run in the ninth.

With nine games left in the regular season, the Dodgers are far from full strength. Their best hitter, Shohei Ohtani, is on the 15-day injured list, as is first-time All-Star Andy Pages. The six-man starting rotation used for most of the season now has only four fully stretched starters on the active roster, forcing the team to use a bullpen game today.

"It's been like this for the past few years," Muncy said. "Someone goes down, someone steps up. That's what we ask for, and we've gotten through a lot of adversity."

The Dodgers expect to get a number of injured players back before the postseason, and if they can secure a first-round bye and advance directly to the NL Division Series, they will have five days off after the regular season, which would be beneficial. They currently lead the Braves by four games and hold the No. 2 seed in the National League.

This Dodgers team is not without flaws, but then again, the 2024 and 2025 back-to-back championship teams were not perfect either. After becoming the first team in a quarter-century to successfully defend their title last year, they are now chasing the first three-peat in MLB since the Yankees from 1998 to 2000.

Although talk of a three-peat began almost as soon as the Dodgers completed their back-to-back titles last November, Roberts has urged the team to focus on the present while keeping the bigger goal in mind. In his annual speech on the first day of full-squad spring training, he delivered this message: Be a greyhound, put on blinders, and look only forward.

When Roberts gave his spring training speech, Tarik Skubal was not yet a Dodger, but after being acquired at the trade deadline, he saw how that message manifested in the club. When he first joined, the team was starting a season-worst seven-game losing streak, and that tough stretch allowed him to feel the culture behind the sustained success of his new team.

"I don't think anyone on this team panicked," Skubal said. "I think that's why in big moments, the pressure really doesn't break these guys."

The Dodgers still have a long way to go to return to the World Series, but it bears similarities to the path they've walked before. Each year might be a fresh start, but they have experience navigating challenges on the road to the promised land.

"It's a different year, but I feel like it's pretty much the same," Mookie Betts said. "Same group of guys. We know what to expect and what we bring to each other. The goal is the same every year. Once you get here, you can't overthink the process; just get there in the end."