(St. Louis was the first National League team to clinch a playoff spot and the first to be eliminated in the postseason.) They may have been the first to clinch but look at the division they play in one team over .500, 3 under .500 and one under.400 so 90 games were played against loosing teams. They should have clinched the Division in early Sept.. Now look at the NL West 3 teams ver .500 and the Wild Card team in there as well not LA had to face it's division rivals only 72 games. The unbalanced schedual makes all the numbers and standings a joke, how would have either team have fared in a balanced schedual where they each faced the same teams the same number of times. Would the Dodgers look even better, would good players in the NL Central look as big as they do? Now lets throw in the interleague games. They played Kansas City (65-97) 6 games and Cleveland and Detroit. Cleveland with a DH and Detroit the stronger team in St. Louis without. Now the Dodgers faced the Angels (97-65) 6 games, Oakland, White Sox and Seattle. Forget steroids skewing the numbers the unbalanced schedual and interleague matchups skew it more.