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LOS ANGELES -- Sunday’s 2-1 loss to the Colorado Rockies began to take on a spring training feel, with starting pitchers piggy-backing each other's outings, with Triple-A players all over the field in the final innings and nobody seeming too worked up about the result.

When you can afford to play like that in Game 162, you’re usually in pretty good shape.

The meaningful action came in the middle of the game, when the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Chicago Cubs to sew up the National League’s top seed, locking in the Dodgers’ first-round playoff opponent: the Atlanta Braves.

The Dodgers went 2-5 against the Braves this season. They got swept in a three-game series in Atlanta and split a four-game series at home, but both of those series came during the Dodgers’ dark days, when they were beset with injuries, and only die-hard Dodger fans had ever heard of Yasiel Puig.

One of the things the Dodgers will begin to find out Thursday, when they open the National League Division Series at Turner Field, will be whether their sluggish September will impact their hopes of playing deep into October.

The season ended with a whimper, with the Dodgers scoring two runs the past two games against the team with the worst ERA in the National League.

That reflected a longer-term slowdown. The Dodgers were the hottest team in baseball until they got swept in a three-game series in Cincinnati. After Sept. 5, the Dodgers went 9-14 to end their season. In many of those games, manager Don Mattingly rested more than one of his everyday position players, cognizant of a big division lead and the fragility of his team’s health.

Hyun-Jin Ryu allowed two runs Sunday, somehow working around eight hits, in four innings and finished his rookie season with an even 3.00 ERA. He will pitch Game 3 of the Dodgers’ first-round playoff series at Dodger Stadium next Sunday.

Much of Sunday was about auditions and brush-up work. Ricky Nolasco, who figures to be the Dodgers' Game 4 starter, if they need one, pitched a scoreless inning. So did Chris Capuano, who is bidding to latch onto a job as a reliever coming off a groin injury.

It was a good season for the Dodgers' box office. Sunday was the 29th sellout, the team announced, the most at Dodger Stadium since 1983. They drew 3,743,527 fans on the season, best in baseball.

SAN FRANCISCO -- The offense has stalled. They have frittered away a chance at home-field advantage. Their momentum heading into the playoff is virtually exhausted.

All of which means what, exactly, when the bright lights come on somewhere other than at Dodger Stadium next Thursday, when the Dodgers begin the postseason on national TV? Depends on whom you ask. To manager Don Mattingly, it's all meaningless -- though he used a stronger word for it.

"You know, I'd like to see all kinds of things. I'd love to see us go out and get 10 runs a night and throw shutouts and everybody get their outs, but I'm going to be honest with you, I don't think any of it's going to matter one bit," Mattingly said. "What's going to matter is the game next Thursday."

If Mattingly's words don’t convince you, perhaps his lineups will. Yet Thursday was one of those evenings when Mattingly started nearly all of his frontline guys, with catcher A.J. Ellis the only healthy regular who wasn't in the starting lineup.

And still, they allowed Tim Lincecum to turn back the clock a couple of years in what may have been his final start as a Giant in a 3-2 Dodgers loss.

The Dodgers were eliminated from the race for best record in the National League. And, unless the St. Louis Cardinals implode this weekend at home against the last-place Chicago Cubs and the Dodgers sweep the Colorado Rockies, the Dodgers will begin the playoffs on the road.

The bigger worry is that the Dodgers can't generate any momentum going into October. Lately, they seem to be gazing ahead at the playoffs rather than focusing on these final regular-season games. They're 6-9 since Sept. 10.

Angel Pagan hit the go-ahead home run in the eighth inning off reliever Paco Rodriguez, who hadn't pitched in more than a week. One of the Dodgers' best relievers has been struggling for a solid month.

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SAN FRANCISCO -- For a while, people were asking whether Ricky Nolasco should be the No. 3 or No. 4 starter in the playoffs. Now, a better question is whether he should be given the ball for any postseason starts.

That's how badly things have been going for Nolasco as the season winds down. For a month-and-a-half after the Dodgers acquired him from the Miami Marlins, he looked like the acquisition of the year.

After Wednesday's 6-4 loss to the San Francisco Giants, Nolasco (13-11) is 1-2 with a 12.75 ERA in his last three starts and he has given up 24 hits while pitching only 12 innings combined.

Wednesday was Nolasco's last start of the regular season. Dodgers manager Don Mattingly indicated the pitcher's stalled momentum won't impact how he feels about him as he sketches out his playoff rotation.

"Your guys are your guys," Mattingly said. "We're not all the sudden going to go do something different. Our guys are our guys. It's like saying a guy is struggling the last week, are you going to quit playing him?"

In his first 12 games with the Dodgers, Nolasco was 8-1 with a 2.07 ERA and he had held opponents to a .213 batting average.

On Wednesday, Nolasco put the Dodgers in a 3-0 hole in the second inning after Tony Abreu cranked a three-run triple to deep right field off the glove of Yasiel Puig, who lunged near the wall. Nolasco's best hope of holding onto the No. 4 spot is the Dodgers' lack of options. The next pitcher on the depth chart, Edinson Volquez, has pitched better lately, with a 3.50 ERA in his last three starts, but he is 9-12 with a 5.77 ERA for the season.

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SAN FRANCISCO -- Barring some unforeseen circumstances -- or perhaps a misguided decision by the Los Angeles Dodgers to go with Ricky Nolasco -- Hyun-Jin Ryu will pitch Game 3 of the Dodgers' first-round playoff series.

If the Dodgers need that game to advance, or even if they need it to stave off elimination, it would appear they'll have the right guy on the mound. Ryu has certainly not looked overtaken by big moments.

Ryu pitched seven strong innings, giving up only four hits and a run in the Dodgers' 2-1 win over the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park on Tuesday. It was certainly not a playoff atmosphere -- the Giants have been playing out the string since August -- but it was a game the Dodgers had to have if they want to maintain hope of opening the playoffs at home. The Atlanta Braves and St. Louis Cardinals both won.

Ryu is 14-7 with a 2.97 ERA. Were it not for Miami phenom Jose Fernandez and the Dodgers' own Yasiel Puig, Ryu would have been a walkaway Rookie of the Year winner.

"I've surpassed my initial expectations," Ryu said through an interpreter. "Not that I thought it was going to be easy, but it's been much better than I thought. That's a good thing."

He had lost four of his previous five starts coming into Tuesday, but all four of those losses were quality starts. In a spotlight game in his native Korea, he pitched brilliantly in a Dodgers' win over the Cincinnati Reds and Korean superstar Shin-Soo Choo back in July. He gave up one earned run in his major league debut.

The Dodgers have gone 11-4 in his past 15 starts. Since the All-Star break, Ryu has walked nine batters in 11 starts while striking out 57. He can even hit a little, though his base running isn't exactly graceful.

"We couldn't have asked, really, for anything more," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said.

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SAN DIEGO -- The Los Angeles Dodgers' bullpen looked more than ready for the postseason in a 1-0 win over the San Diego Padres at Petco Park on Sunday, keeping alive the team's hopes of opening the playoffs at Dodger Stadium.

Closer Kenley Jansen struck out the side in the ninth, the fourth scoreless inning of relief by Dodgers relievers.

The Dodgers are barely in the hunt for the best record in the National League any more, but there are lesser prizes worth pursuing. The Atlanta Braves won, giving them a 2½-game lead over the Dodgers, who have only six games remaining.

The Dodgers could still begin the playoffs at home if they can finish with a better record than any of the teams in the National League Central. Entering their night game, the St. Louis Cardinals had a 1½-game lead over the Dodgers in that race.

Between Zack Greinke and Andrew Cashner, two of the hottest pitchers in baseball, the teams showed barely a hint they were going to score as the afternoon wore on. Finally, the Dodgers broke the ice in the seventh inning.

With two outs, Michael Young cracked a deep fly ball to right field. It sailed over Will Venable's head, but Adrian Gonzalez wouldn't have been able to lumber all the way around from first if Venable hadn't mishandled the ball.

San Diego put together a rally in the next half of the inning off reliever Chris Withrow but couldn't score. Logan Forsythe took a 95-mph fastball for strike three and pinch hitter Mark Kotsay taped one back to Withrow to end the inning.

The Dodgers pulled Greinke after just five innings and 72 pitches despite the fact he was cruising through San Diego's far-from-intimidating lineup. The Padres got two runners on with nobody out in the third inning, but after Cashner's bunt moved them over, Greinke coaxed an infield pop-up from Alexi Amarista and a groundout from Ronny Cedeno.

Greinke gave up only two hits and struck out three in his five innings. It's likely he was pulled early because of the upcoming playoffs, but the Dodgers allowed ace Clayton Kershaw to throw 99 pitches over seven innings Saturday night.

SAN DIEGO -- Los Angeles Dodgers manager Don Mattingly insists he would like to have home-field advantage in the playoffs. He's just not extreme about it.

The Dodgers' lineups figure to get more competitive as the team gets closer to its first playoff game on Oct. 3, but the first post-clinching effort didn't go so well. The Dodgers, or perhaps we should say the Isotopes, lost 2-0 to the San Diego Padres at Petco Park on Friday night.

The good news was nobody got hurt. In fact, nobody who figures prominently in the Dodgers' playoff plans really could have gotten hurt (barring a household accident), because none of those guys played until the ninth inning.

The bad news was that it's looking more and more likely the Dodgers will open the postseason on the road. They trail the Atlanta Braves by 3 ½ games and the St. Louis Cardinals by two. If the playoffs started Saturday, L.A. would be opening at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

One positive development was a strong outing by Edinson Volquez, who is competing for a spot as a long man/emergency starter on the Dodgers' postseason roster. Bear in mind that he was facing the Padres, his former team and the No. 13 offense in the National League. But he had his longest outing as a Dodger, 6 ⅓ innings. Volquez gave up two runs and five hits and struck out six batters.

One negative development was more sloppy defense by Dee Gordon, who threw a ball away after fielding Chris Denorfia's grounder in the first inning, leading to an unearned run. The Dodgers have begun using Gordon at second base -- and even toyed with using him in the outfield -- and that seems like a reasonable course of action at this point.

Gordon has seven errors in 24 games at shortstop this season. His speed could come in handy in October, but carrying him strictly as a pinch runner could be a luxury the Dodgers can't afford, particularly with a bench filled with veterans.

Mattingly plans to play his regular lineup behind Clayton Kershaw on Saturday, with the exception of Hanley Ramirez and Andre Ethier.

"We'll be back at it tomorrow," Mattingly said.

PHOENIX -- It was an unusual division title-winning season. It started with a gradual descent followed by a massive, unrelenting climb before culminating in a short, late-season dip. But in the end, the Los Angeles Dodgers found themselves right where they expected to be all along.

They're the National League West champions, and they have designs on grander goals than that.

The Dodgers became the first team in baseball to clinch a playoff spot with their wild 7-6 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field on Thursday afternoon.

After closer Kenley Jansen got Aaron Hill to fly out to left field, the Dodgers streamed onto the field. Jansen and catcher A.J. Ellis were locked in a bear hug when Clayton Kershaw leaped onto Jansen's back. Players began putting on gray T-shirts that read, "We own the West."

The team formed a scrum, which gravitated to the second-base area before the Dodgers took their celebration inside to the clubhouse.

Ellis, in a deep hitting slump entering the game, hit the go-ahead home run in the eighth inning.

Hanley Ramirez is making a pretty good argument that he's the Dodgers' MVP, presuming you don't think a starting pitcher enters the discussion. The problem has been keeping him on the field. He largely was the Dodgers' offense Thursday, hammering a pair of home runs and driving in four.

Ramirez has hit 20 home runs while playing in just 81 games, his season hampered by thumb, hamstring and, lately, back issues. He was pulled in the ninth inning after appearing to pull up after running hard to first base trying to leg out an infield single.

It looked as if the Dodgers might walk into the playoffs when Ramirez hit his first home run, a three-run shot, into the left-field stands in the third inning. After the Dodgers had bumbled about for two weeks trying to get this division clinched, it seemed to ease the pressure in the dugout.

But Ricky Nolasco came unhinged in the third inning, giving up six runs on seven rapid-fire hits. With the Dodgers' bullpen a bit ragged after Stephen Fife's short start the night before, Don Mattingly left Nolasco out there and he managed to get through two more scoreless innings to give the Dodgers hope of a rally.

Yasiel Puig continued his beginner's-mistake-a-day tour getting a bad read on Jerry Hairston Jr.'s bloop to right field before Ramirez's home run. What would have gone for a base hit became a fielder's choice when Gerardo Parra easily threw Puig out at second. Afterward, Hairston was captured on camera yelling and gesturing in Puig's direction. Adrian Gonzalez later was seen in the dugout with his arm around Puig talking to him.

That's OK. The Dodgers have exactly two weeks to work out any issues before they play another game that matters.

PHOENIX -- Yasiel Puig is back.

Matt Kemp is back, sort of.

Carl Crawford might be back soon. Hanley Ramirez could be days away. Andre Ethier could be right on Ramirez's heels.

But the Los Angeles Dodgers are looking far from healthy as they try to close out the NL West. Kemp pinch hit in the ninth inning -- the only duty he is yet cleared for -- and struck out to end the game in the Dodgers' 2-1 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field.

That kept the Dodgers' magic number stuck on 4. It was the team's ninth loss in the past 12 games and fourth loss in a row.

The Dodgers have taken beatings from two hitters in the NL West above all others: San Francisco’s Hunter Pence and the Diamondbacks’ Paul Goldschmidt.

Of course, it’s a bit more excusable in Goldschmidt’s case, since he’s a bona-fide MVP candidate. Goldschmidt hit a two-run home run about 420 feet to center field in the first inning to get Hyun-Jin Ryu’s night started poorly.

After that, Ryu -- as he normally does -- stabilized. In fact, he did more than that, pitching seven scoreless innings after that, retiring 19 straight batters and allowing just one more baserunner the rest of the night.

Ryu had lost three of his past four starts going into Monday, but three of those qualify as quality starts, so it has been more a reflection of diminishing run support.

Arizona starter Trevor Cahill was cruising right along until he walked Ryu leading off the sixth inning. That sent his outing cascading, and he was out of the game four batters later. Cahill gave up a double to deep center field to Nick Punto and walked Mark Ellis on four pitches.

Adrian Gonzalez hit a fly ball to medium-deep left field, but with Ryu running, third-base coach Tim Wallach didn’t take a chance. That proved wise because Cahill walked Puig to force in a run.

The Dodgers have been struggling in the clutch lately -- as they did the last time they were depleted by injuries -- and reliever Josh Collmenter got Cahill out of the jam by striking out A.J. Ellis and shattering Skip Schumaker’s bat for a groundout.

It’s still worth noting: Of all Puig’s exploits this season, the most surprising might be his willingness to draw a walk. He left spring training without a single walk, but he has 32 walks in 92 games for the Dodgers.

LOS ANGELES -- For the first time in nearly three months, the Los Angeles Dodgers have hit some serious turbulence, and it’s no surprise it has coincided with a series of injuries.

The Dodgers got no closer to clinching the NL West with a 4-3 loss to the San Francisco Giants on Sunday, their eighth loss in the past 11 games. The Arizona Diamondbacks won, so the earliest the Dodgers can clinch is Tuesday at Chase Field in Phoenix.

Yasiel Puig, who was the latest Dodgers outfielder to go down with an injury, pinch hit in the ninth inning and swung at the first pitch from Sergio Romo, grounding out to shortstop.

Due to injuries, the Dodgers had an outfield of Jerry Hairston Jr., Skip Schumaker and Nick Buss on Sunday. Remember those stories about how difficult it would be to accommodate four star outfielders when Matt Kemp gets healthy? Now, the Dodgers are desperate to get Kemp back.

Brett Pill, the pride of San Dimas, Calif., hit the decisive home run off Paco Rodriguez in the eighth inning.

Perhaps this offseason Hunter Pence can celebrate that he kept the Dodgers from clinching right in the Giants’ faces. He had quite a series, mashing five home runs and driving in 12 runs. It wouldn’t have hurt for the Dodgers to make better pitches to him. Edinson Volquez grooved one that Pence sent screaming over the left-field fence in the sixth inning, a two-run shot that tied the game at 3-all.

The last Giants hitter to have five home runs and 12 RBIs in one series was Mel Ott. That was 84 years ago.

The Dodgers didn’t do much against Ryan Vogelsong, but he made the mistake of having to pitch to the wrong man in the wrong situation. Against an injury-riddled lineup, Vogelsong hit Mark Ellis with a pitch to load the bases for Adrian Gonzalez, one of the Dodgers’ best clutch hitters.

Gonzalez pulled a double into the right-field corner to clear the bases.

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Dodgers took another step toward favorable playoff positioning, but they did so with a slight limp.

In front of another sellout crowd on Thursday night, they beat the San Francisco Giants 3-2 in 10 innings when Adrian Gonzalez laced a single into center field to score Carl Crawford. But earlier, one of their recurring injury headaches returned.

Hanley Ramirez left the game in the seventh inning because of a mildly strained left hamstring, a move the team termed "precautionary." Perhaps it is, but Ramirez missed most of May and part of June because of that same strained left hamstring.

The Dodgers reduced their magic number for winning their division to five games, meaning they could clinch as early as Sunday, and stayed only two games behind the Atlanta Braves for best record in the National League.

Closer Kenley Jansen blew his first save since June after converting 18 straight chances. But that just set up the Dodgers' eighth walk-off victory this season.

The Dodgers turned a difficult double play to erase a Giants rally in the eighth inning. Juan Uribe picked up a Hunter Pence grounder, stepped on the third-base bag and threw to first base, where Gonzalez dug an in-between hop out of the dirt.

The hitting hero, as is often the case, was Yasiel Puig. The Dodgers had largely spun their wheels against Matt Cain, but A.J. Ellis hit a sinking popup to right field that Pence misplayed into a single in the seventh inning. Two outs later, Puig yanked a ball into the left-center gap to drive in pinch runner Dee Gordon with the go-ahead run.

The Giants didn't actually score much against Zack Greinke, but they made him work hard to get his outs. Consequently, his pitch count was in the 70s by the fourth inning. The Giants' only run came on Pence's home run in the second inning, which sliced into the right-field stands just out of Puig's reach.

In the same inning Ramirez exited the game, the Dodgers had a strange mix-up on the mound. Paco Rodriguez threw his warmup pitches, but was then replaced by manager Don Mattingly before facing a batter. Apparently, Mattingly had told plate umpire Gerry Davis that J.P. Howell was coming into the game.

So Howell came in and pitched a scoreless inning. Rodriguez was still eligible and pitched an inning later.

LOS ANGELES -- The way the Los Angeles Dodgers looked in the first two games of this series (and the way the Arizona Diamondbacks looked), they figured to be popping the corks off champagne bottles at the nearest possible date.

Make no mistake, it's still coming, but the question now is whether it will flow in Los Angeles or somewhere else. The Dodgers lost to the Diamondbacks 4-1 Wednesday night, keeping their magic number stuck at six. The earliest they can celebrate their first division title in four years is now Sunday, the final home game before a 10-game trip.

Yasiel Puig's highlights -- and one diving stop by Nick Punto -- were the only things worth reliving for Dodgers fans. Puig made a diving catch to take a hit away from Chris Owings in the sixth inning and hit a towering home run in the seventh inning, his 16th.

Puig also discarded the bat in an entertaining fashion, as he often does. He flung it aside with his left hand, dropping it dismissively as if it were too hot to hold.

The Dodgers fell in an early hole behind Hyun-Jin Ryu, pitching for the first time this month. He missed his previous start because of back tightness, and his command wasn't sharp. Arizona bunched three straight singles leading off the game and got off to a 2-0 lead. They tacked on a run in the second and, when he wasn't giving up runs, Ryu was working hard to avoid them.

Ryu gave up 10 hits, the second-highest total of his season, and struck out only one batter. To his credit, he did the best with what he had, somehow getting through six innings.

Ryu's night could have been worse, but Punto dove and stopped an Owings grounder from leaking into right field, saving a run -- at the time -- and minimizing the damage in the second inning.

The Dodgers were facing Arizona's best starting pitcher in 2012. This time Patrick Corbin (14-6) fared better than he had earlier in the year. The Dodgers scored four runs in five innings off Corbin back in June, but Corbin's slider and command were a bit too much for a lineup missing four regulars.

Manager Don Mattingly took advantage of his team's big lead -- as he had done last week in Colorado -- to rest Mark Ellis, Juan Uribe, Carl Crawford and Andre Ethier versus the lefty.

LOS ANGELES -- After they got swept in Cincinnati over the weekend, a couple of Los Angeles Dodgers players said it might have been a good time to hit a little losing streak. Don’t peak too soon. Learn to deal with a spot of trouble. That kind of thing.

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly didn’t bicker with those comments after he read them.

“It humbles you enough to know that you have to be ready to play every day,” Mattingly said Monday.

It didn’t look like humility that earned the Dodgers an 8-1 win over the second-place Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday night, though. It looked more like confidence and raw strength.

The Dodgers hit six home runs, the most they've had in a game in seven seasons, with Juan Uribe going deep three times -- once more than he did all of last season -- to set the stage for a clinching celebration on their home field. The Dodgers increased their NL West lead to 12 games and reduced their magic number for clinching a postseason berth to eight. They have six games left on this homestand, two against Arizona and four against the San Francisco Giants.

It would have been hard to predict this kind of explosion, particularly since the Dodgers played three of their quietest games in months in Cincinnati.

These weren’t cheapies, either. Andre Ethier and Uribe launched back-to-back home runs leading off the second inning. Adrian Gonzalez sliced a two-run shot to left in the third. Uribe hit his second with two outs in the same inning. In the fifth, Hanley Ramirez hit a low drive that seemed to gain altitude as it flew, slamming into the center-field bleachers. Three batters later, Uribe hit another one.

He had a chance to hit his fourth in the eighth inning but swung at reliever Heath Bell’s first pitch and chopped it to Eric Chavez at third base. This was Uribe’s night, though. He beat the throw for another RBI hit.

Shawn Green, who happened to be at Dodger Stadium for a promotional event and was interviewed on the video board before the game, is the only Dodger to hit four home runs in one game. He accomplished the feat -- done 16 times in MLB history -- on May 23, 2002.

Oh, and by the way, Ricky Nolasco pitched well again. He went 6⅔ innings and allowed just three hits and one unearned run, while striking out six. Nolasco is 8-1 with a 2.07 ERA since he became a Dodger on July 6.

The way the Los Angeles Dodgers have been playing, it has seemed at times as if only injuries could keep them from a deep run in the playoffs.

Injuries it is?

The Dodgers got some bad news before the game when the team announced Matt Kemp's rehabilitation has been shut down because of another hamstring strain, and then more bad news two innings into a 3-2 loss to the Cincinnati Reds.

Left-hander Chris Capuano was filling in for Hyun-Jin Ryu, who was scratched from Friday's start because of a stiff back. In an echo of the Dodgers' early-season injury luck, Capuano, too, got hurt. He only lasted 1 2/3 innings before leaving the game because of a mildly strained left groin.

There were some raised eyebrows when the Dodgers signed Edinson Volquez after he had been released by the San Diego Padres last week, but now it is looking like stockpiling depth was a good idea. If Ryu can't pitch next week, Volquez figures to become part of the Dodgers' rotation.

Capuano beckoned Dodgers trainers after he had retired five of the first six batters he faced. He was replaced by reliever Peter Moylan. Capuano was on the disabled list twice this season because of a strain to his calf and a back muscle.

Moylan got through the third and Stephen Fife, who has been effective in limited opportunities for the Dodgers this season, took over and pitched well from there, but aside from Hanley Ramirez's two-run home run in the first inning, the Dodgers' offense made little headway.

The Reds, still fighting for playoff positioning, needed Friday's game more badly than the Dodgers did. Their closer, Aroldis Chapman, closed out the win by striking out Yasiel Puig, Adrian Gonzalez and Ramirez, throwing several pitches that topped 100 mph.

Before Friday's game began, the Dodgers announced Kemp has been shut down indefinitely in his rehabilitation from a sprained left ankle. Kemp has spent time on the disabled list in each of the past two seasons because of hamstring injuries.

It seems unlikely Kemp will return before the end of the season, but the Dodgers are well-protected with Puig and Andre Ethier playing well in Kemp's stead. Then again, as the injuries to starting pitchers have demonstrated, you can never have too much depth.

DENVER -- It's hard to know what the Los Angeles Dodgers learned about their newest pitcher Wednesday night.

On one hand, Edinson Volquez looked very similar to the pitcher who had a 6.01 ERA for the San Diego Padres before the Dodgers salvaged him from the scrap heap of August free agency. On the other hand, the Dodgers won't run into the Colorado Rockies in the playoffs.

Volquez made his first start as a Dodger and lasted just four innings in a 7-5 loss to the Rockies at Coors Field.

Even by the standards of this stadium, it was ugly. In the first two innings, Rockies batters collectively hit for the cycle. Todd Helton hit a majestic, soaring home run to right. Josh Rutledge tripled to center field, the ball short-hopping a wall that's 415 feet from home plate. Troy Tulowitzki pounded a double off the top of the left-field wall.

It's not often a pitcher performs as poorly against one opponent as Volquez has against Colorado this season. He actually lowered his season ERA versus Colorado, from 13.08 to 12.43, though his record fell to 0-5 in six starts.

The Dodgers didn't get much out of Wednesday's game, but they did see one of their best players, Yasiel Puig, get back on the field after sitting out a couple of games because of a sore knee. Puig pinch hit in the eighth inning and struck out against Manny Corpas.

Most of the Dodgers' main players watched most of it from afar.

In spring training, teams are supposed to field lineups with at least four regulars. The Dodgers might have run afoul of MLB with the squad they trotted out Wednesday evening. Hanley Ramirez, A.J. Ellis and Juan Uribe were the only regulars starting, with the rest of the usual starters getting a night off.

Manager Don Mattingly fielded a similar lineup and the Dodgers won on Tuesday, but this one didn't generate much action. Jorge De La Rosa had the Dodgers off balance and, when they got things going, something unraveled it. Scott Van Slyke hit into a double play with the bases loaded in the sixth.

Another new guy, Carlos Marmol, also didn't help his chances of sticking with the Dodgers when they align their playoff bullpen. Marmol gave up three hits and three runs in the seventh inning. It was a spring training-like inning. A ball from the outfield caromed off the mound for an error. Marmol committed a balk to let in a run. In his previous 10 appearances, Marmol had been unscored upon.

On the bright side, Michael Young has looked like a nice pickup, albeit in just two games. Young had three hits, including two RBIs, and is 4-for-9 since coming to the Dodgers in a trade with the Philadelphia Phillies.

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Dodgers continued their roll, but the man most often credited for starting it left the game with an injury.

Yasiel Puig was lifted after he hurt his right knee sliding into third base in the sixth inning of the Dodgers’ 10-8 win over the Colorado Rockies on Monday at Coors Field. He briefly stayed in the game and scored a run, but was replaced by Skip Schumaker when the Dodgers went out to play the field.

The Dodgers described the injury as a mild strain and Puig's status is viewed as day to day. He has tended to return quickly from minor injuries this season.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers won again and they now lead the Arizona Diamondbacks by 12½ games, their largest division lead since September of 1977.

Their magic number for clinching the National League West is now just 14. The race has now become for the best record in the NL and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. They trail the Atlanta Braves by two games for that spot.

The Dodgers won despite allowing 18 hits largely thanks to double plays. Ronald Belisario got a big one from Michael Cuddyer to keep the tying run from scoring in the eighth inning.

Meanwhile, as Matt Kemp continues to languish in his minor league rehab assignment, Andre Ethier is cementing his case for a starting center-field job regardless of Kemp’s health. Ethier launched a two-run home run off reliever Jeff Manship in the sixth inning, finally giving the Dodgers a quasi-comfortable lead in a typical Coors Field event.

Clayton Kershaw had pitched well at Coors Field this season, but like a lot of pitchers, it has never been his favorite place to work. He came into Monday’s start with a 4.98 ERA pitching at mile-high elevation.

That number got a bit worse after one of the shakiest starts of Kershaw’s career. He gave up 11 hits in five innings and allowed five runs. When the Dodgers rallied to take a 5-3 lead in the fifth inning, Kershaw gave the lead right back and it could have been worse if not for some loud outs in the inning. Nolan Arenado had an RBI double and Jordan Pacheco singled home Arenado.

The 11 hits were the most Kershaw had ever allowed.

The Rockies took a 3-0 lead in the first inning, but the Dodgers had action in their half of the inning. Puig interfered with second baseman DJ LeMahieu while trying to field an Adrian Gonzalez grounder and that cost the Dodgers a run. The next inning, LeMahieu leaped to snare a Puig liner that started an inning-ending double play.