Who puts the rattle on the Dodgers?

The Los Angeles Dodgers begin the second week of August with the best record in Major League Baseball, the largest lead of any divisional leader and the best collective numbers among the 30 franchises in the American baseball juggernaut.

After sweeping successive series against their main rivals, the San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres, the Dodgers put their record at 75-33 (.694 percentage) and moved out of first place in the NL West by 15.5 games. The win-loss average is the club’s best in its regular-season history and trails only the .717 (43-17) from the campaign trimmed to 60 games by the coronavirus in 2020.

It was in that shortened campaign that the Dodgers captured their first World Series crown since 1988.

After winning eight consecutive divisional pennants between 2013 and 2020, Los Angeles finished second to San Francisco in 2021 despite tying the franchise record of 106 wins. The Giants captured their first divisional crown since 2012, thanks to a club-record 107 wins.

The 2022 Dodgers lead the majors in OBP (.336), OPS (.782), ERA (2.87), WHIP (1.07) and run differential (+226). Dave Roberts’ troop averages 5.29 runs per game in its first 108 games.

Since 1913, the only team to score five runs per game and have pitchers’ ERAs below 3.00 was the 1942 version of the New York Yankees.

No team has ever posted a collective ERA below 3.00 in a league with the designated hitter at work. That’s what the Dodgers, who are 35-12 against divisional rivals and have lost just 14 times in four months to teams with positive records, are looking for.

After resting Monday, the Dodgers will begin the second week of August by hosting the Minnesota Twins for a two-game miniseries against the American League Central Division leaders before embarking on a seven-game road trip to Kansas City and Milwaukee.