The Dodgers secured their annual NL West title on Monday, but this one took an extra game and an awful lot of overcoming adversity. Through it all, they got help from some unlikely sources -- at least through the lens of how we might have thought the season would unfold back in the spring -- and that held true in the season's final game, too. 

Infielder Max Muncy and starting pitcher Walker Buehler were teammates when the season started ... for the Oklahoma City Dodgers. Buehler was a highly-touted prospect who the Dodgers took in the first round of the draft in 2015 out of Vanderbilt. Muncy was a lesser known minor leaguer who the A's had released on March 31, 2017. He remained unsigned for nearly a month until the Dodgers grabbed him on April 28. 

And yet, here we are on Oct. 1, 2018 with Buehler and Muncy playing a huge role in the Dodgers winning the division. 

The Dodgers were at one point nine games back in the NL West. They were 16-26 at the low point of the season, having lost six straight games to the Reds and Marlins. They had already lost All-Star shortstop Corey Seager for the season and were dealing with a litany of pitching injuries. 

What came next were players they initially weren't counting on stepping up. That group included Ross Stripling, who was thrown into the rotation and pitched beautifully for a while. Matt Kemp was also surprisingly outstanding for a while. The group also included Buehler getting the call and being what many thought he could be and Muncy arriving on the scene as a surprising star in the batter's box. 

Buehler would take a no-hitter into the sixth inning in the biggest start of his life (so far). He only gave up just one hit -- a soft Charlie Blackmon single with eyes -- in 6 2/3 innings of scoreless ball. He simply dominated the Rockies. He now finishes his rookie year with a 2.62 ERA, 0.96 WHIP and 151 strikeouts in 137 1/3 innings. He's probably stuck finishing third in the NL Rookie of the Year voting behind two historically good ones in Ronald Acuna of the Braves and Juan Soto of the Nationals, but it's a performance that wins the award many years. The Dodgers have plenty of those anyway, right? 

As for Muncy, he made a two-run lead into four with this shot Monday: 

Beautiful stroke to go with the outside pitch like that. 

Thanks to back-to-back homers off Kenley Jansen in the ninth, the Dodgers did allow two runs and that means Muncy's RBI here were the game-winners. Muncy finishes the season hitting .262/.391/.582 with 35 homers. He led the team by 10! There's zero chance anyone -- including Muncy himself -- thought he'd lead the team by 10 home runs at the big-league level this season. 

From this perspective, the win on Monday was a pretty fitting end to the Dodgers' regular season. Now they just need the holdovers and the newcomers to come together for that elusive World Series title. Anything else would be a disappointment after six straight division titles for the defending NL champs.