The San Diego Padres cruised to an 11-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Dodgers lost 6-5 to the Los Angeles Angels. Despite another heavy-spending offseason, the Dodgers now trail the Padres by one game in the National league West. Alden Gonzalez of ESPN shared an attention-catching statistic from ESPN research in a recent article amid the Dodgers' standings free-fall.

“When the Padres arrive at Dodger Stadium on Friday, it will mark the latest in a season they have held sole possession of first place in the NL West since Sept. 25, 2010, according to ESPN Research,” Gonzalez wrote for ESPN.

The Dodgers have consistently been the best team in the NL West in recent years. Teams such as the Padres, San Francisco Giants and Arizona Diamondbacks have challenged them, but LA has seemingly been the best overall team for the most part. That doesn't always hold true in the postseason, but the Dodgers have been one of the best regular season ball clubs in recent memory.

The Padres have gone 8-2 over their past 10 games while the Dodgers are just 4-6 during that span. Earlier in the season, it became clear that both San Diego and Los Angeles were postseason-caliber teams. However, the Dodgers were seemingly on track to take care of business in the division. As a result, the Padres were likely going to have to settle for an NL Wild Card spot.

If the season ended today, though, it would be the Dodgers in the Wild Card. There is still plenty of baseball left to be played in the regular season, of course, and counting LA out is a risky thing to do. Still, the Padres' resurgence has been impossible to ignore.

As Gonzalez mentioned, the Dodgers will host the Padres over the weekend in a three-game series from Friday-Sunday. The series holds no shortage of importance as San Diego leads the NL West.

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