Wide-open NL West a 5-team race

This National League West race is insane — five teams bunched within 3 1/2 games of one another. Sure, it’s early. We all understand that. On the other hand, the NL West hasn’t been this close on this date in 10 years.

That’s especially important for teams like the Rockies and Padres, who weren’t expect to contend. Confidence grows a day at a time. Who says we can’t? If we believe, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks.

That’s true of the Dodgers, too, but in a different way. They were widely expected to win the division. But they began the season with a dozen players on the disabled list and have 10 on it at the moment.

One of their offensive cornerstones, Yasiel Puig, has hit .161 over the past three weeks and been benched twice in the past seven games. All that said, the Dodgers are tied with the Giants for first place.

If Los Angeles can still be in first place with everything that has gone wrong, it should be feeling that great things are going to happen once players start returning. That’s the larger story of an entire division. Every team has a reason to believe.

Let’s do a quick checklist:

1. Dodgers (16-15)

Even with all the injuries, the rotation has a respectable 3.43 ERA. Rookies Kenta Maeda and Ross Stripling have lined up nicely behind Clayton Kershaw. Mike Bolsinger is nearing a return, and Brandon McCarthy remains on track to return in the second half of the season. Even better, 19-year-old left-hander Julio Urias — MLB.com’s No. 2 overall prospect — has a 1.88 ERA at Triple-A Oklahoma City. Offense could be a …

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