Excellent Start For Baseball's Nl West Foreshadows A Potentially Historic 4-team Summer Race

The Los Angeles Dodgers seem like they have nearly unlimited amounts of money , three former MVPs in their starting lineup with Shohei Ohtani , Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman , and a pitching staff that never runs out of overpowering arms.

So far, that's good for third place in their five-team division.

Welcome to the National League West, which is far from a one-team show four weeks into the season. Going into Friday night's games, the San Diego Padres 17-8, San Francisco Giants 17-9, Dodgers 16-9 and Arizona Diamondbacks 14-11 are all off to a good start, foreshadowing a potentially fascinating summer race.

"For us, who are so close to it, not surprised," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. "They're all very good teams. I think it's the best division in baseball. We're all sort of built differently, too, which is interesting and fun if you look at the construction, the strengths, weaknesses of the four clubs.

"It's going to be an interesting season how this all plays out."