Dodgers' run prevention drives turnaround from 7-8 to 9-6 over last 15 games
Los Angeles improved from 7-8 to 9-6 across two 15-game stretches, with runs allowed dropping from 4.60 to 3.80 per game while scoring barely changed—though a softer schedule explains part of the swing.
Published: · Figures as of September 6, 2026
Asked: How have the dodgers last 15 games compared to the 15 before it?
Dodgers have flipped from 7-8 to 9-6 over their last 15, with the defense doing the work
Los Angeles went 7-8 in the 15 games before this stretch (August 4–19) and are 9-6 over the last 15 (August 20–September 6). The turnaround is almost entirely about runs allowed, not runs scored.
The two windows side by side:
| Window | Runs scored (runs per game) | Runs allowed (runs per game) |
|---|---|---|
| Prior 15 (8/4-8/19) | 4.13 | 4.6 |
| Last 15 (8/20-9/6) | 4.27 | 3.8 |
- league average runs/game this window: 4.49 runs per game
- Offense barely moved: 4.13 runs/game in the prior window to 4.27 now — a 0.14 bump, and still slightly below the league's 4.49 over that same span.
- Run prevention is the real change: 4.60 allowed down to 3.80, a 0.8-run improvement, and well under the league's 4.49 allowed rate over the window.
- Net margin went from -0.47 runs/game (62 runs for, 69 against over the 15 games) to +0.47 (64 for, 57 against) — a full run swing in differential.
But the schedule softened, and that explains a good chunk of it. The last-15 slate included three games each against Atlanta, Detroit and Pittsburgh — clubs the Dodgers held to far below their own scoring norms (Detroit at 1.33 runs/game against, 3.12 below what Detroit was producing before the stretch; Pittsburgh 1.83 below its own norm). Measured against what those specific opponents were doing coming in, LA's runs allowed were 0.69/game better than expectation and its own scoring was 0.24/game worse than expectation — so the pitching improvement is real and opponent-adjusted, while the offense's small uptick is actually a bit below what a schedule-adjusted read would expect. The one loud exception: St. Louis outscored the Dodgers well beyond their own norm in both directions (LAD gave up 7.67 runs/game to the Cardinals, 3.04 above St. Louis's own going-in rate), the one series in this stretch that ran against the trend.
Confidence: medium. Fifteen games is a real but still fairly small sample, run prevention swings like this are common over a stretch this short, and the opponent mix (three sub-.500-ish offenses plus one hot Cardinals series) means the underlying pitching improvement is smaller than the raw 0.8-run drop suggests once you price in who they played.