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The Dodgers have lost in a lot of ways this season, which is not surprising since they’re six games under .500 in mid-May.

Most frequently, it has been insufficient offense. Sometimes, it has been bad pitches by relievers. Occasionally, the starting pitcher has flamed out early.

Friday night, it was fielding that let them down. Luis Cruz and Carl Crawford made costly errors, Dee Gordon misplayed another grounder and the Dodgers lost 8-5 to the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field. Only four teams in the majors have made more errors than the Dodgers' 30.

When Cruz dropped a line drive in the sixth inning, it meant lefty Paco Rodriguez had to face the most dangerous slugger in the National League this season, Justin Upton, with the bases loaded and one out. To the surprise of few, Upton slugged a massive grand slam, his 14th home run this season.

For the first time this season, Hyun-Jin Ryu didn't make it through the sixth inning, putting a bit of strain on the Dodgers' overworked bullpen. He held the Braves to two runs and five hits, but five walks took their toll, his pitch count hitting 100 after five innings.

Cruz's roster spot appears to be in imminent danger. Mark Ellis could be returning from the disabled list in a matter of days and Cruz is batting .097.

No Dodgers hitter is within eight of Upton's lead league in homers, but the team did see a little slugging from its bench, at long last. Scott Van Slyke, who had been pounding the Pacific Coast League before his promotion last week, hit a pair of home runs and made a sliding catch near the right-field line.

In 1969, the save became an official MLB statistic and managers have pretty much been in its power ever since.

Media and fans started rewarding saves with awards and attention, guys who piled up a lot them became famous. Famous people in baseball make more money than obscure people. Jonathan Papelbon, who has pitched 16 2/3 innings, or 4 percent, of the Philadelphia Phillies’ innings this season is earning $13 million.

In a refreshing, maybe crucial, twist, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly has tried something new and he sounds like he's sticking with it.

Instead of using his best reliever for save situations -- which can be as low-leverage as a three-run lead and the worst three hitters in a lineup coming to the plate -- he has forced Kenley Jansen into jams, whatever time of game, confident the big right-hander can pitch his team out of it.

Tuesday, when Clayton Kershaw started getting tired and allowed a couple of deep flies and a single, Jansen came in to get the final out (and a save in a 2-0 game). The next night, with the tying run at the plate in the seventh inning, Mattingly summoned Jansen. Why? Because the Nationals’ best healthy hitters, Ryan Zimmerman and Adam LaRoche, were about to come up.

Jansen allowed consecutive hits to open the eighth, but muscled his way out of the jam.

In a way, Jansen has the worst of both worlds. He has to do the heaviest lifting and he gets only a sliver of the rewards. Relievers tend to get paid according to their save numbers and Jansen is arbitration eligible for the first time next season.

Jansen said he’s not concerned about when he pitches, saying he stays ready for “whenever the phone rings.” Mattingly joked that he is just trying to toughen up his laidback reliever, who is from the Caribbean island of Curacao.

“It’s what we’ve talked about before, how we’re going to use Kenley to kind of attack,” Mattingly said Wednesday night. “I try to give Kenley the toughest job, just to harden him up. He’s from the Netherlands, everything’s good for him.”

The impetus for the strategy has been Brandon League’s struggles in his last eight games (8.64 ERA, blown save, two losses, 1.80 WHIP). You wonder whether Mattingly will stay committed to his approach if League gets his mechanics straightened out, or if Jansen has a momentary blip, as relievers always do. League is earning nine times as much as Jansen and some teams would feel pressure to keep a well-compensated player happy.

For now, it’s working, and it’s another reason to think that Mattingly, in his third season, is growing in the job. Good managers -- think Tony LaRussa, Bruce Bochy, Joe Maddon -- tend to innovate. Maybe Mattingly is finally confident enough -- or desperate enough -- to start doing things his way.

If you hadn't noticed, Clayton Kershaw is kind of consistent.

He led the league in ERA in 2011, he led the league in ERA in 2012 and, through the first six weeks of 2013, he's leading the league in ERA.

That kind of repetitive excellence doesn't happen by accident. Kershaw is diligent before the game and focused to an extreme during the game, those traits combining with his natural gifts to make the perfect storm, a hitter's bad dream.

An underrated part of Kershaw's success: catcher A.J. Ellis, who is with him start after start, thinking his way through a lineup so Kershaw doesn't have to and helping create an environment in which the Dodgers' ace can thrive. Two days after Kershaw's 11-strikeout masterpiece against the Washington Nationals, we caught up with Ellis to see what it's like to work with the the brilliant young lefthander:


Q. How does your close personal relationship with Clayton play into your on-field chemistry?

A. I think we’re both really professional guys and, when the game starts, it’s about winning that game, so we’ve got that in common. He’s very diligent in his pregame preparation, knowing the hitters. I have my ideas. We have a meeting before the game to bounce ideas off each other. We kind of go from there. Then, it’s up to me to feel how the game is going, what pitches are working for him and try to stay on that same page.

Q. Can you tell us more about that pregame meeting?

A. Usually, he’s very particular and he dictates. He watches a lot of video, studies these hitters he’s going to face. Basically, he runs the meeting. It’s him, myself and [pitching coach] Rick Honeycutt. Usually it’s an hour and 45 minutes before first pitch. He runs through the lineup, he tells me what he wants to do with the leadoff hitter, what he thinks, what he sees, and 95 percent of the time, we just kind of move on to the next guy. There are a couple times when Rick or I will add something like, “This guy’s really bad on two-strike sliders,” or, “This guy, you can beat him away late. You can catch him looking away.” He’ll kind of push back a little bit, but it’s a really good meeting.

Q. So, once the game starts, it’s your job to think your way through the other team’s lineup, applying the advance scouting report, and to let him concentrate on the mechanics of making pitches?

A. The one thing we do as catchers, myself, Tim Federowicz and Ramon Hernandez, we all look at the other team before the series starts, break down their strengths and weaknesses. The hard part is trying to match that up with what he wants to do. There will be certain times when you’ll say, “This guy’s a really good hitter on fastballs inside,” but if his strength is throwing fastballs inside, there will be times when we have to say, “You know what? Here’s what the report says, but we’re sticking with your strengths.”

Q. [Tuesday] night, he had the good curveball early. When he has that, do you think, “It’s over?”

A. Almost. It’s a great feeling to have, when you know he has a feel for it, because it’s a pitch we use early, but mainly we use it with two strikes. He’s got the feel to throw that thing just behind the strike zone that ends up a ball. It’s such a part of his repertoire, such a tough pitch to make contact on. Yet it’s such a hard pitch to lay off. It has so much break on it.

Q. So, is it just a matter of getting to two strikes and then, "Good night, drive home safely?"

A. With that pitch, especially [Tuesday] night, my job was pretty simple. Just put the No. 2 down, because that was probably the best feel he’s had for his curveball all season. If he’s got that one, the strikeouts are going to pile up.

Q. He’s an intense guy when he’s pitching, I guess. What are visits to the mound like?

A. He’s very to-the-point, very matter of fact, basically, “What are you doing out here? What do you want to talk about?” Basically, that’s it. There’s no room for any fluff or anything else. I rarely have to go out there. He’s so good at staying in the moment and he’s so good at calming himself down when the game gets fast. He’s really good at controlling the pace of the game. He knows when he’s got a good rhythm going, so it’s time to get going, going, going. He knows when it’s time to back off and slow down. My job when he pitches is to stay out of the way and let him do his thing.

Q. Can you see him change, day by day, as his start gets closer?

A. He’s the exact same guy for four days. He’s a great teammate, a leader on this team. He’s always on the top step cheering on his teammates, working relentlessly to get ready for his next start, but his personality is fun, really energetic, positive always. But I’ve never seen somebody who can change so totally. From the time you see him in the parking lot on his game day, it’s like a light switch is turned and do not talk to him about anything other than that night’s hitters and what’s going on. There is a focus and intensity that is unbreakable. That was the great thing for me, seeing him on Opening Day hit that home run in the eighth inning and to see the smile on his face running around the bases and then to see him try to refocus. That never happens. He always stays in it.

Q. Have you worked with other pitchers who are the opposite, like to joke around the day they’re pitching and keep things loose?

A. There are a lot of guys who are very talkative the day they pitch, have a lot to say, are very energetic and just want to talk and talk. Everybody’s got a different personality and everybody gets ready in a different way.

Q. Does your hand hurt after catching Clayton, or any of the other hard throwers?

A. Not so much. The mitts they make for us nowadays are so strong and protective. I wear a batting glove under my hand. My hand hurts more from getting broken bats sawed off at the plate.

Q. Do catchers get enough credit for when a guy pitches well?

A. I don’t think there’s any place for us to get any credit. They’re the ones out there doing the work. It’s up to us to just get on the same page. There’s a rhythm of the game thing, but it’s all about their execution and what they’re able to do. I’m more than willing to give all the credit and then shoulder the blame if things don’t go well. I won’t say anybody can catch Clayton, but it’s not a difficult task, because he’s so unique and special.

Q. Do you ever hear any funny comments from hitters when Clayton is pitching?

A. A lot of opposing pitchers when they hit. They’ll see a pitch and be like, “Well, this’ll be fast,” or they’ll strike out on a curveball and be like, “Really? A curveball?” The hitters, I would guess, don’t want to give any impression that they’re intimidated.

LOS ANGELES -- On April 13, Dr. Neal ElAttrache spent about 90 minutes with Zack Greinke at White Memorial Hospital, about five miles east of Dodger Stadium. The pitcher was out cold, anesthetized while the surgeon repaired his broken left collarbone by inserting a metal plate to stabilize it.

That may have been the best mechanical adjustment Greinke will make all season.

It's amazing what modern medicine, combined with modern training techniques and old-fashioned determination, can do these days. Greinke on Wednesday night looked almost as if he were pitching five days after that fateful collision with Carlos Quentin, not 34 days later. He held the Washington Nationals to one run over 5 1/3 innings in a 3-1 win.

"I'm sure Doc ElAttrache was sitting at home patting himself on the back," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said.

Greinke didn't consider it anything out of the ordinary. In fact, he said he felt he could have pitched two weeks ago, or barely over two weeks after the doctor cut him open, fixed his bone and sewed him back together. It's not as if Greinke doesn't deserve some credit for getting back so quickly, three weeks ahead of schedule. He went about his business in a quiet, grimly determined manner while he was out.

Now, this could be just the jumping-off point.

"I think he'll get stronger and stronger as he goes," Mattingly said. "It's pretty amazing what this guy was able to do tonight."

The Dodgers didn't go 10-19 in Greinke's absence because he wasn't pitching every fifth day. At most, his outings would have gotten them another couple of wins. They'd still be under .500, still be digging to get back to contention.

But Wednesday felt like a mile marker for this Dodgers season. Greinke's return means the Dodgers have, essentially, their Opening Day roster once again. If they continue to flounder, they won't be able to say it's because they're hurt. So, let the evaluation period begin.

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LOS ANGELES -- Zack Greinke looked as if he had never absorbed that charge from Carlos Quentin.

The Dodgers' ace right-hander returned just 4½ weeks after fracturing his left collarbone in a fight with the Padres' outfielder and continued to get his Dodgers career off to a running start. Greinke held the Washington Nationals to a run and five hits, striking out four, in 5⅓ innings Wednesday night in a 3-1 win at Dodger Stadium.

Greinke's strong return was another sign -- the biggest yet -- that the Dodgers could, gradually, be emerging from this early-season rut.

They displayed some clutch hitting. If you've forgotten what that is, let's refresh your memory. Twice, the Dodgers came up with runners in scoring position and two outs in the first two innings. Twice, they came up with hits. Adrian Gonzalez lined a single to center to drive in Matt Kemp in the first and Greinke himself -- despite orders to swing gingerly -- lined an RBI hit to right in the second.

That had to be the most entertaining part of Greinke's night. He's a lifetime .173 hitter.

The Dodgers also saw roles continue to shift in the bullpen. It appeared Kenley Jansen had overtaken Brandon League as the closer, but he came in in the seventh inning and nearly blew it in the eighth.

The first two batters reached on bloop singles, but Jansen buckled down. He got Adam LaRoche to hit a shallow fly to left, struck out Ian Desmond and coaxed a fly ball from Kurt Suzuki. It was a display of why Jansen, by all the available evidence, is the Dodgers' most imposing late-innings pitcher. He has good enough stuff to pitch his way out of virtually any jam.

The Dodgers' offense went dormant after those first two innings, but Kemp -- who has been productive without his usual power -- sparked a rally that led to a key extra run in the eighth. Kemp led off with a single (he had already extended his hitting streak to 14 games) and stole second. Four batters later, pinch hitter Carl Crawford drove him in with a sacrifice fly.

League allowed a leadoff single to ratchet up the stress of the ninth inning, but managed to get out of the jam. That included an at-bat against pinch hitter Bryce Harper, who hadn't played since slamming face-first into the right-field scoreboard Monday night. Harper bounced out to first.

LOS ANGELES -- Don Mattingly wasn't more than a handful of questions into his postgame media session Tuesday night when the topic abruptly shifted from Clayton Kershaw's dominance to whether he has a new closer.

In a way, it's amazing that issue didn't arise weeks earlier. Many people thought Kenley Jansen was a better ninth-inning option than Brandon League before the season even began.

Circumstances seem to have finally born that out. League never budged in the ninth inning as Kershaw began to run out of pitches. Lefty Paco Rodriguez got up, as did Jansen, who struck out the final batter to earn his second save.

So, yeah, the Dodgers probably have a new closer -- Jansen -- but in a way it's not a particularly important question. Mattingly had been using Jansen to get the other team's best hitters in earlier situations. If the No. 3 and 4 hitters were up in the seventh, Jansen pitched then. If it was the eighth, that's when he got the ball.

He might find pitching the ninth to be less stressful, not more.

Hitters apparently find it a challenge to make contact off Jansen these days. He has 15 strikeouts and three walks in his last nine innings. Contrast that with League's five strikeouts and three walks -- plus his 9.82 ERA, his blown save and two losses -- in his last seven games and it seems to be the right time to make a move.

Jansen said he doesn't care when he pitches.

"Whenever they say your name, just try to go out there and get the first out. Then, get the second out and the third," Jansen said. "That's all I'm trying to focus on. I'm not going to try to strike people out, but if I get two strikes, heck yeah, you try and put them away."

Here are lineups for Wednesday night's game with the Washington Nationals:

Washington

1. Denard Span CF
2. Steve Lombardozzi LF
3. Ryan Zimmerman 3B
4. Adam LaRoche 1B
5. Ian Desmond SS
6. Wilson Ramos C
7. Danny Espinosa 2B
8. Roger Bernadina RF
9. Ross Detwiler LHP

Dodgers

1. Dee Gordon SS
2. Nick Punto 2B
3. Matt Kemp CF
4. Adrian Gonzalez 1B
5. A.J. Ellis C
6. Andre Ethier RF
7. Scott Van Slyke LF
8. Juan Uribe 3B
9. Zack Greinke RHP

LOS ANGELES -- Andre Ethier wasn't even sure he'd get to hit.

After a wild pitch, the Dodgers had runners on second and third and two outs in the third inning, the moment more pivotal than most third-inning moments because of who the Dodgers had on the mound.

Washington Nationals manager Davey Johnson presumably had the same numbers in front of him that had been handed out in the press box hours earlier. Ethier came into the game batting .426 off the pitcher in the game, Dan Haren.

The Nationals quite easily could have taken their chances with catcher A.J. Ellis, but -- for whatever reason -- Johnson and Haren decided to go after Ethier. It wasn't a bad pitch, a splitter away, but Haren left it up a bit and Ethier was able to make solid enough contact to knock it up the middle, despite a backhand swipe by Haren.

Such a small thing, really just a trifle. The decision, maybe not a great one. The execution, maybe just a tick off. And, voila, the Dodgers got something rare, a clutch hit, and something else rare, a win over a quality team, 2-0 on Tuesday night.

That's the beauty of having a pitcher as good as Clayton Kershaw. When he is rolling as he was Tuesday night, he slows down the game for everybody around him. Not in the way Josh Beckett slows down the game, in a literal sense, but in the way Kershaw does. It's a simpler day of work, the requisite task more well-defined.

In other words, get him a run -- maybe two -- and you can kind of feel you've done your job.

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LOS ANGELES -- Every once in a while, you get a glimpse of what this Los Angeles Dodgers team could be. You get a sense of how it can pull itself out of this mess and get on track for the World Series run it envisioned this spring.

Funny how Clayton Kershaw happens to be pitching a lot of those times.

The Dodgers announced some good news before the game -- Zack Greinke will resume his season Wednesday night -- then got more good news during the game. Kershaw was brilliant again Tuesday, striking out 11 Washington Nationals in a 2-0 Dodgers win.

Fans were on their feet in the ninth inning as Kershaw tried to complete the shutout, but Adam LaRoche had a tough at-bat and singled to center, prompting manager Don Mattingly to come out of the dugout to replace Kershaw. His 132 pitches were a career high.

Kershaw's biggest problem has been everybody else around him. The Dodgers simply don't score for him. They had scored an average of 2.10 runs per game when Kershaw was pitching, the worst run support in the majors. That number went down Tuesday.

The Dodgers couldn't get far against wily veteran Dan Haren, who kept them off balance with cutters and split-fingers, masking a fastball that rarely cracked 89 mph. But the Dodgers did have one brief breakthrough, and it was all Kershaw needed.

Andre Ethier, batting .420 in 50 career at-bats off Haren, did it again. He lined a single behind Haren and into center field to drive in two runs with two outs in the third inning. It was the kind of hit the Dodgers -- and Kershaw -- have seemingly been waiting for all season.

Interestingly, Dodgers closer Brandon League -- who has struggled in his last seven outings -- never warmed up in the ninth inning, even as Kershaw's pitch count crept over 120 pitches. Instead, Kenley Jansen and lefty Paco Rodriguez were getting warm, perhaps a sign manager Don Mattingly is shuffling roles at the back end of the bullpen.

Jansen got the final out, a Tyler Moore strikeout, to pick up his second save.

LOS ANGELES -- Andre Ethier can tell you about the stiff, unforgiving wall in Arizona. He can describe the location of each of the fence posts in San Francisco.

But, after eight seasons in Los Angeles, he is most familiar with the topography of Dodger Stadium's right-field fence. He said Bryce Harper had the misfortune of hitting "one of the least-forgiving spots he could have hit," in Monday night's game.

The Washington Nationals phenom went face-first into the right-field scoreboard, which is protected by a chain-link fence. Ethier said the gap between the fence and the scoreboard is only about two inches. Harper had to get 11 stitches in his neck and missed Tuesday night's game because of general soreness.

"It's one that definitely hurts," Ethier said. "You see that and that's like, 'Ouch.' I'm glad to see he's not too badly hurt. When you go hard for a ball and try to make a play, sometimes you lose awareness. We saw Matt [Kemp] do that last year."

LOS ANGELES -- He's been ineffective, but is he hurt?

The Los Angeles Dodgers seemed to have a hard time getting the story straight after Monday's 6-2 loss to the Washington Nationals. Josh Beckett, who is 0-5 with a 5.19 ERA, left the game after just three innings in part, manager Don Mattingly said, because he slightly strained a groin muscle covering first base on an Adam LaRoche groundout.

Beckett is also battling an assortment of minor injuries, Mattingly said. But what?

"He's had some little stuff going on in different areas, and I think it was bothering him tonight," Mattingly said.

Little stuff, such as?

"We had known some little stuff was going on," Mattingly said.

And what about Beckett? How did he pinpoint these injuries? After all, it's his body. He repeated the phrase, "I'm not a doctor," several times in his postgame interview when asked what has been bothering him. Do you have to be a doctor to know where you're feeling pain?

"I don't know how they treat things here," he said.

He also said, "I'm healthy enough to pitch," which might be a regrettable phrase if the Dodgers, indeed, put Beckett on the 15-day disabled list Tuesday. The timing would be opportune as it appears Zack Greinke will come off the DL to pitch against Washington Wednesday night. Mattingly wouldn't confirm that Greinke will pitch Wednesday, but said they've settled on a starter.

The Dodgers owe Beckett about $26 million between now and the end of the 2014 season and, aside from the DL, there's really nowhere else to put him. He's been out of options for a decade. He hasn't pitched in relief since 2003, and the Dodgers saw earlier what can happen when you try to stash extra starting pitchers in the bullpen.

If Beckett avoids the DL and makes his next scheduled start, the Dodgers can only pray he'll work a bit faster than he did Monday. Beckett needed 30 seconds between pitches in the first inning when he wasn't throwing over to first. The Dodgers are beginning to see a link between Beckett's laborious pace, their defensive crispness and his overall effectiveness. Pitching coach Rick Honeycutt has asked him to pick it up a bit.

"I'd like to see him work really quick," Mattingly said. "Some guys work quicker, some guys work slower."

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Dodgers seemed to walk with a little extra bounce in their step Monday afternoon, having beaten the last-place Miami Marlins a couple of times over the weekend.

Hard to know how they were feeling about themselves after Monday night’s 6-2 loss to the Washington Nationals, but they didn’t leave a particularly confident impression.

The Dodgers played one of their most lifeless games in a so-far-miserable season. They misplayed ground balls. They flailed in their few at-bats in the clutch. But, above all, they stood and stood and stood, waiting for Josh Beckett to throw a pitch.

It’s hard to know how much longer the Dodgers can continue to run Beckett out there, particularly since they’ll soon have other options. Veterans Zack Greinke and Ted Lilly will be back within a couple of weeks. Rookie Matt Magill has shown promise at times. Zach Lee has a 2.61 ERA at Double-A Chattanooga. You could run through a lot of names before Beckett starts to sound like the more appealing option.

It’s mid-May, and he’s 0-5 with a 5.16 ERA. It's mid-May, and Matt Kemp has one home run. You don't need to know much else besides those two facts.

Beckett is often setting a slow, passive early tone. Monday, he plodded through three innings in 68 pitches, leaving the Dodgers’ bullpen once again to clean up after him. It’s not the first time he has done that. In fact, the bright spots are few and far between so far for the veteran right-hander. He has failed to get through six innings in all but three of his seven starts.

Beckett allowed only three hits and he struck out five, but he walked two batters who scored, including opposing pitcher Jordan Zimmermann.

Zimmermann (7-1), meanwhile, seemed pretty self-assured going after a Dodgers lineup that came into the game ranked 28th in the majors in runs scored. In the fourth inning, with a runner in scoring position, Zimmermann threw a couple of 94-mph fastballs past Kemp to pick up a big strikeout.

The game's most frightening moment came in the fifth inning, when A.J. Ellis sent a ball screaming toward the right-field scoreboard. Washington's brilliant young outfielder, Bryce Harper, couldn't catch it and collided face-first into the wall. Harper laid on the warning track for several minutes and eventually left the game with a trickle of blood across his neck.

LOS ANGELES -- Los Angeles Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said he wasn’t even sure where Zack Greinke would be pitching Wednesday if he’s not at Dodger Stadium, which tells you there’s a pretty good chance it will be here.

The Dodgers say they are ironing out the final details of how they want Greinke to approach his first start in five weeks -- will he hit or just take pitches? Should he field his position more carefully? -- before giving him final clearance.

If Greinke doesn’t pitch Wednesday, it would be rookie Matt Magill making his fourth major league start. The Dodgers are getting feedback from their team doctors, from the Dodgers front office and from Greinke before making the final call, Mattingly said. Greinke broke his collarbone in a brawl with Carlos Quentin of the San Diego Padres April 11.

“We don’t want to wait too long. We just want to make sure everybody’s on the same page,” Mattingly said.

LOS ANGELES -- If the Dodgers have a narrow lead in the ninth inning Monday night and Josh Beckett is out of the game, Brandon League would come in to pitch. Beyond that, manager Don Mattingly is making no pronouncements.

Asked if League is still his closer, Mattingly said, "Yeah, for right now he is. I hate to say it like that, but for now."

The situation certainly appears tenuous. In his past seven games, League has two losses, two blown saves and a 9.82 ERA. The main rival for the closer spot, Kenley Jansen, has 12 strikeouts in his past five games. League has five strikeouts in his past seven games.

In a way, Jansen's task has been harder, too. Mattingly typically tries to line Jansen up to pitch either the seventh or eighth inning, depending when the opponent's best hitters are coming up. Jansen might have overtaken League as the Dodgers closer by now had he not allowed a May 8 game-winning home run to Arizona's Paul Goldschmidt. The other ninth-inning option, Ronald Belisario, has been wildly inconsistent.

"Kenley has given up a game-winner, [League] has given up a game-winner, Belly has given up a game-winner," Mattingly said.

Here are lineups for Monday night's game versus the Washington Nationals:

Washington
1. Denard Span CF
2. Steve Lombardozzi LF
3. Bryce Harper RF
4. Ryan Zimmerman 3B
5. Adam LaRoche 1B
6. Ian Desmond SS
7. Danny Espinosa 2B
8. Kurt Suzuki C
9. Jordan Zimmermann RHP

Dodgers
1. Carl Crawford LF
2. Dee Gordon SS
3. Adrian Gonzalez 1B
4. Matt Kemp CF
5. Andre Ethier RF
6. A.J. Ellis C
7. Skip Schumaker 2B
8. Nick Punto 3B
9. Josh Beckett RHP

LOS ANGELES -- Los Angeles Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis never thought he needed glasses growing up, and he certainly didn’t think he needed them as he stood in line waiting to get a driver's license at the Department of Motor Vehicles in Lexington, Ky., 16 years ago.

“I go up to get my driver’s license,” Ellis remembers. “And they said, ‘You can’t see.’ I couldn’t pass the vision test.”

Ellis went to see an eye care professional the next day and was tested and fitted for glasses and passed the eye exam a week later. Not only did his glasses help him get his license, but Ellis said they helped him become a major league baseball player.

“Not only could I drive a car, but I could see the baseball now when I played baseball,” Ellis said. “Even more importantly than that, when I went to school, I could see the board, I could read books and I became a much better student. Everything in life just started to feel a lot better.”

As Ellis touched his glasses, he said, “These eyeglasses right here changed my life. I wear contacts when I play, but I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t get my eyesight checked.”

Ellis shared his story Monday morning to a group of students at Dorris Place Elementary School, along with Dodgers reliever Brandon League and Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti, as the Dodgers announced a new partnership between the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation and Vision To Learn, a nonprofit organization that provides free eye exams and free glasses to elementary school students in low-income communities throughout Los Angeles.

The idea for the visit came after Colletti had dinner with Austin Beutner, who at the time was the Los Angeles First Deputy Mayor and Chief Executive for Economic and Business Policy (Beutner recently campaigned to become the city’s mayor).

Beutner started Vision To Learn in March 2012, when he said he learned that up to 15 percent of L.A.’s elementary students have undetected vision problems. Since the organization's launch, Vision To Learn has visited 110 schools, examined 8,129 students and provided 6,148 children with free eyeglasses. It’s a number Beutner and the Dodgers hope to more than double in the coming year.

“I wore glasses and had Lasik surgery a few years ago,” Colletti said. “I was one of those kids when I was five or six, and I couldn’t see my hand in front of me most of the time. But somebody took the time to make sure that I was OK, and I’m taking the time to make sure we can make as many people as OK as possible.”

Ellis and League both wear glasses, though each wears contacts when playing. The two Dodgers were featured on the side of a new Vision To Learn Mobile Eye Clinic, which will travel throughout Los Angeles.

“I’ve been wearing glasses ever since I was 10 years old,” League said. “If it wasn’t for glasses, who knows, I might not be standing here today. Sometimes, it can be a hassle, and, sometimes, they can be uncomfortable, but vision is important, and plus, they make you look cool.”

Ellis and League helped examine some of the students' vision in the mobile eye clinic and gave out over 40 pairs of glasses after the event.

“I wish I had something like this when I was younger,” League said. “It wasn’t until I couldn’t read the board in school and had trouble reading the book; now these kids are going to get glasses today and see the world in a different way.”

LOS ANGELES -- The Dodgers are riding a humble two-game winning streak, but does it have more to do with their improved play or the fact they were playing the bad and injured Miami Marlins? You could make an argument for either side, but it's really not worth the effort. Just wait a few days and see.

The Dodgers face nothing but contenders (depending how you feel about the Milwaukee Brewers) between now and Memorial Day. The Washington Nationals, with their dominant pitching and phenom right fielder, have come back from an early hole in the NL East and now trail the Atlanta Braves by just a game. The Dodgers have to face a hot pitcher, Jordan Zimmerman, tonight.

Then they travel to Atlanta and Milwaukee before coming home to play the No. 1 team in ESPN's latest Power Rankings, the St. Louis Cardinals.

The disturbing truth is that the Dodgers have managed to get off to a lousy start despite playing a soft early schedule. Their strength of schedule is 23rd in the majors and their RPI, according to ESPN, is 25th in the majors.

There is, however, hope. The Dodgers could find out today whether Zack Greinke will be back to pitch Wednesday. Mark Ellis isn't far behind. Hanley Ramirez could return in a few weeks. It's hold-the-fort time, once again, with the barbarians are at the gate.