| League | National League |
|---|---|
| Sport | Major League Baseball |
| Founded | 1969 |
| No. of teams | 5 |
| Most recent champion(s) | Los Angeles Dodgers (2024; 22nd) |
| Most titles | Los Angeles Dodgers (22) |
TheNational League West is one ofMajor League Baseball's six divisions. This division was created for the 1969 season when theNational League (NL) expanded to 12 teams by adding theSan Diego Padres and theMontreal Expos. For purpose of keeping a regular-season of 162 games, half of the teams were put into the newEast Division and half into the new West Division. Within each division, the teams played 18 games each against their five division mates (90 games), and also 12 games against the teams in the opposite division (72 games), totaling 162 games. Prior to 1969, the National League had informal, internal divisions strictly for scheduling purposes.[1]
Despite the geography, the owners of theChicago Cubs insisted that their team be placed into the East Division along with the teams in New York City,Philadelphia, andPittsburgh. Also, the owners of theSt. Louis Cardinals wanted their team to be in the same division with their natural rivals, the Cubs. The league could have insisted on a purely geographical alignment like theAmerican League did. But the owners were also concerned about what they thought would be a large imbalance in the strength of the divisions. In the previous two seasons prior to realignment, the Cardinals, Giants, and Cubs finished 1-2-3 in the National League standings. The owners were concerned about putting those teams in the same division, thereby creating one very strong division (West) and one weak one (East). Given all of this, the owners of theAtlanta Braves and theCincinnati Reds consented to being placed into the West Division, even thoughAtlanta andCincinnati are both in theEastern Time Zone. Hence, the West Division had teams spread all the way from the East to the Pacific Coast, and scattered over three time zones (no MLB teams played in theMountain Time Zone until 1993, when the Colorado Rockies were enfranchised). The East Division was spread over the Eastern Time Zone and theCentral Time Zone - despite the fact that the National League had six teams in the Eastern Time Zone and six teams spread between the Central Time Zone and thePacific Time Zone. The American League had no such issues, as all six of its teams in the Eastern Time Zone played in the AL East, with the remaining six teams playing in the AL West.
All of this increased the traveling distances and times for all of the teams, and it also maderadio broadcasting andTV broadcasts of the games more difficult to schedule. The Braves and the Reds had to travel all the way toCalifornia three times during each baseball season, and the three teams in California had to travel to Atlanta, Cincinnati, andHouston three times also. Sometimes, the trouble could be alleviated for them by playing some games in Chicago, St. Louis, orPittsburgh on the same long road trips. The 1994 addition of the Central Division would remedy these problems, when the Reds and Braves moved to the NL Central and NL East respectively.
The very first baseball season of division play, 1969, resulted in what might be considered by many to be two of the best pennant races in Major League baseball history. In the National League West, five of the teams battled for the divisional championship - with only the expansion team, theSan Diego Padres, failing to be a contender. The remaining five teams were separated by as few as one-and-one-half games in the standings on August 18, despite theHouston Astros having lost 20 of its first 24 games.
Beginning in mid-August theHouston Astros and theLos Angeles Dodgers started collapsing, leaving the Braves, the Reds, and theSan Francisco Giants in contention. Following a very-long hot streak in July, August, and September, the Braves clinched the divisional championship by winning their next-to-last game. The Giants finished in a close second place. One of the main factors in the big surge by the Braves was that the sluggingoutfielderRico Carty returned to the team after missing the first half of the season while he was recovering fromtuberculosis. Carty immediately resumed his starring role, adding to the powerful offensive line-up of the Braves that also featured the sluggersHank Aaron andOrlando Cepeda and the good singles hitterFélix Millán who was on base to score a lot of runs. Aaron finished in third place for theN.L. Most Valuable Player Award, and thestarting pitcherPhil Niekro finished in second place for theN.L. Cy Young Award.
Perhaps this latter pennant race was overshadowed by that of theNew York Mets and theChicago Cubs, with the Mets coming back from trailing by nine-and-one-half games near midseason to overtake theChicago Cubs for the East championship. The sometimes called"Miracle Mets" won the firstNational League Championship Series over the Braves three games to none, and then the Mets defeated theBaltimore Orioles four games to one in theWorld Series in October 1969.[2]
Place cursor over year for division champ or World Series team.
| NL West Division[A] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Years | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90 | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 |
| Atlanta Braves[C] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cincinnati Reds[C] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Houston Astros[C] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Los Angeles Dodgers | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| San Diego Padres | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| San Francisco Giants | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Colorado Rockies[B] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| NL West Division[A] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 98 | 99 | 00 | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| San Diego Padres | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| San Francisco Giants | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Colorado Rockies | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Arizona Diamondbacks[D] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team not in division Division Won World Series Division Won NL Championship | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Before the forming of a third division in both leagues in 1994, the winners of each division competed in a best-of-five series, with the series being lengthened by two possible games in 1985 to a best-of-seven series, dubbed the "League Championship Series" to determine the winner of the leaguepennant. This format was to be changed in 1994, though it was not carried out until 1995 due to the1994–95 Major League Baseball strike that started on August 12, 1994. There was the addition of two further teams in the playoffs in each league. This has led to the creation of a "Division Series" round of the playoffs, in which two best-of-five series are conducted to determine the participants of the League Championship Series. As before, the winners of each league's pennant compete in the best-of-sevenWorld Series to determine the champion of Major League Baseball.
* – Defeated theLos Angeles Dodgers in aone game playoff for the division title, 7–1.
** – Defeated theColorado Rockies in aone game playoff for the division title, 5–2.
† – Due to the1981 Major League Baseball strike, the season was split. Los Angeles won the first half and defeated second-half championHouston (61–49) in the postseason.
The Cincinnati Reds had the best record in the division (66–42) overall but due to the split season did not qualify for the playoffs.
§ – Due to theplayers' strike starting August 12, no official winner was awarded. Los Angeles was leading at the strike.
†† – TheSan Diego Padres andLos Angeles Dodgers finished the 2006 season tied for first place with identical records. San Diego won the season series 13–5 against Los Angeles and was awarded the NL West title; Los Angeles was awarded the wild-card berth. Had a team from another division won the wild card, aone-game playoff would have decided the division champion.
††† – Due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, MLB teams played 60 games, with teams play within their division and their respective counterpart (NL West vs. AL West, NL Central vs. AL Central, NL East vs. AL East). By virtue of the eight-team postseason format used for that season, division runner-upSan Diego (37–23, .617) also qualified for the playoffs.
The wild card is given to the team in each league with the best record that did not win its division and was first introduced in 1994. The system, however, was not implemented until the following season, as a player strike prematurely ended the 1994 season. Since its implementation, three NL West teams have won the wild card, on six occasions.
* – TheColorado Rockies played theSan Diego Padres in awild card tie-breaker game after both teams finished the season with the same record, 89–73. The Rockies defeated the Padres, 9–8, in 13 innings. A wild card tie-breaker game was still considered part of the regular season, and thus, the Rockies' win made it their 90th victory of the season.
** – From 2012 to 2019, and in 2021, the Wild Card was expanded to two teams. Those teams faced each other in theWild Card Game to determine the final participant in theNational League Division Series. In 2020 only, eight teams, including the three division winners, played in a best-of-three Wild Card Series, with the winners advancing to the Division Series. Starting in 2022, the Wild Card field was increased to three teams, and along with the lowest-ranked division winner, qualified for the best-of-three Wild Card Series to determine the remaining two slots in the Division Series.
| (#) | Denotes team that won theWorld Series |
| (#) | Denotes team that won theNational League pennant, but lost World Series |
| (#) | Denotes team that qualified for theMLB postseason |
| Team | Division championships | Postseason records[a] | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | Year(s) | Most recent | Wild Card[b] | ALWC | ALDS | ALCS | World Series | |
| Current Teams in Division | ||||||||
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 22 | 1974, 1977–1978, 1981, 1983, 1985, 1988, 1995, 2004, 2008–2009, 2013–2017, 2018*, 2019–2020, 2022–2024 | 2024 | 3 | 2–0 | 10–9 | 9–7 | 4–5 |
| San Francisco Giants | 9 | 1971, 1987, 1989, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2010, 2012, 2021 | 2021 | 3 | 2–0 | 4–5 | 5–2 | 3–2 |
| San Diego Padres | 5 | 1984, 1996, 1998, 2005–2006 | 2006 | 3 | 3–0 | 2–5 | 2–1 | 0–2 |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | 5 | 1999, 2001–2002, 2007, 2011 | 2011 | 2 | 2–0 | 3–4 | 2–1 | 1–1 |
| Colorado Rockies | 0 | — | — | 5 | 1–1 | 1–3 | 1–0 | 0–1 |
| Former Teams in Division | ||||||||
| Cincinnati Reds† | 7 | 1970, 1972–1973, 1975–1976, 1979, 1990 | 1990 | — | — | 0–0 | 5–2 | 3–2 |
| Atlanta Braves† | 5 | 1969, 1982, 1991–1993 | 1993 | — | — | 0–0 | 2–3 | 0–2 |
| Houston Astros§ | 2 | 1980*, 1986 | 1986 | — | — | 0–1 | 0–2 | 0–0 |
| Total | 55 | 1969–1993, 1995–present | 2024 | 11 | 5–5 | 18–20 | 18–24 | 11–7 |
* – Won division via tiebreaker
† indicates no longer in division since 1994
§ indicates no longer in division since 1994, and no longer part of NL since 2013
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