Posted by Brian Joseph on Thursday, May 7, 2009 at 2:18 am

The Dodgers continued to dominate at home as they took advantage of the hapless Washington Nationals to run their ‘09 home winning streak to 13, a new Major League record.

Unimpressive is the list of teams the Dodgers have defeated at home — the Nationals (1), Diamondbacks (2), Padres (4), Rockies (3), Giants (3) — and they dodged Brandon Webb (injured), Danny Haren and Tim Lincecum but they’ve also outscored their opponents 88-32.

So far, the Dodgers have trailed in only three games at home and never beyond the seventh. In back-to-back games against the Padres, the Dodgers won 1-0 on a Russell Martin walk-off walk and 2-1 in 10 innings on an Andre Ethier walk-off win.

Wednesday’s record setter was a 10-3 blowout, their fourth win of five runs or more. It wasn’t their biggest margin of victory — that came on April 19th in a 14-2 pounding of the Rockies — but it was the third time they registered double digits in the run column.

Don’t think this is a Manny Ramirez thing either. Sure, ManRam is hitting .333 at home but he’s actually hitting better on the road. Manny was 1-for-3 with two RBI in their win over the Nats and was one of five Dodgers to get hits in the game. Manny has reached in every game at home though. Then there’s Orlando Hudson who went 2-for-3 and extended his home hitting streak to 13 straight — every home game in ‘09.

The ‘09 Dodgers are now 21-8 and passed the ‘11 Tigers who won 12 straight home games to start off the season en route to a 21-2 start and had already passed the ‘03 Royals who won 11 straight home games at the beginning of that season en route to a 20-9 record. Neither the Tigers nor the Royals made the postseason despite their torrid starts and the ‘09 Dodgers saw the D-backs begin last season 20-8 but not able to withstand the rigors of a 162-game season.

However, it’s hard to deny how good this year’s version of the Dodgers look. Since trading for Ramirez at last year’s deadline, the Dodgers are 51-32 (.614) and are the only team in the National League West with a winning record during that stretch.

The 21-8 start is the best by a Dodgers team since ‘77 when L.A. began the season 23-6 and won the National League pennant. To make more Major League history, the Dodgers have a long way to go. Since 1954 (according to Baseball-Reference), the longest home winning streak in the Majors is shared by the ‘78 Pirates and ‘88 Red Sox at 24 games. (Writer’s note: This will be updated if I can locate the longest home winning streak before 1954.) In order for the Dodgers to approach 24 straight, they have to dispatch of the Nationals again, the Giants three more times, the Mets thrice and the Angels three times. Then, the Dodgers would host the Diamondbacks for three June 1-3 with a shot to pass the 24 straight by the Red Sox and Pirates.

Plus, there’s the 1886 Detroit Wolverines who according to the Elias Sports Bureau won 18 straight at home. These Dodgers still have some work to do.