ESPN

The Cincinnati Reds and Los Angeles Dodgers meet with the Reds trying for a series sweep on "Sunday Night Baseball" at 8 p.m. ET (ESPN). Here’s a look at five statistical storylines our broadcast crew will surely be talking about.

1. Despite a three-game losing streak, the Dodgers are 36-11 since the All-Star break. If they can maintain that pace, it would be the fourth-best second-half winning percentage by a team since the All-Star Game began in 1933. After a 30-42 start, the Dodgers are 53-16 in their past 69 games. Their starting pitchers entered Sunday with a 3.09 ERA, best in the majors. The Reds rank second with a 3.37 ERA.

2. Clayton Kershaw enters Sunday night with a 1.89 ERA, which would be the lowest by an NL lefty since Sandy Koufax’s 1.73 in 1966.

Kershaw could be only the fifth pitcher to lead his league in ERA in three straight seasons (the first since Greg Maddux from 1993 to 1995) and only the third to lead the majors in three straight seasons (joining Maddux and Hall of Famer Lefty Grove, 1929 to 1931).

Kershaw is the only pitcher in the majors with at least 60 strikeouts on three different pitch types (69 slider, 68 curveball, 63 fastball).

Kershaw is coming off his worst start of the season. In his first start of September, he allowed more earned runs (five) than he did in five starts in August combined (four).

3. Reds starter Homer Bailey is 5-0 with a 2.42 ERA in his past seven starts. Bailey enters this start with back-to-back outings of seven innings pitched and no earned runs allowed. The last Reds pitcher with three straight such outings was Jim Maloney in 1968.

4. The Kershaw-Joey Votto matchup should be a good one. Lefties are hitting an NL-low .159 against Kershaw this season. Votto is 5-for-20 against Kershaw with 11 strikeouts, his most against any pitcher. He’s also one of four left-handed hitters to hit a pair of homers against Kershsaw. (The others are Adam Dunn, Carlos Gonzalez and Brad Hawpe.)

5. Each team has a rookie doing something notable from a historical perspective. Yasiel Puig is currently hitting .347. Over the past 80 years, the only players 22 or younger to finish a season with a batting average higher than that (minimum 300 plate appearances) are Ted Williams, Alex Rodriguez and Stan Musial.

Meanwhile, the Reds now have a unique offensive weapon in Billy Hamilton, who stole 75 bases in the minor leagues this season. The Elias Sports Bureau reports that Hamilton, who has not yet come to the plate in a major league game, is the first player in the modern era (since 1900) to record a stolen base in each of his first four major league games.

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.

Los Angeles Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti talks to Max & Marcellus about shutting down rehab for Matt Kemp but still having his back, explains why the team took the chance on signing Yasiel Puig to a $42 million contract, and discusses the much-improved bullpen.

Click here to listen to the full interview

Ron Karkovice was a first-round draft pick and a highly touted defensive catcher, but for much of his career he was stuck behind Carlton Fisk. It wasn’t until Karkovice was 28 years old (and Fisk was 44) that he finally got an opportunity to be the Chicago White Sox starting catcher.

Fisk, it has been said, was none too eager to foster Karkovice’s improvement. Such a dynamic is common in major-league clubhouses, with veterans typically wary of losing their jobs to younger talent.

The Dodgers have tried to pre-empt such an issue on their team by asking A.J. Ellis to help Tim Federowicz along.

“That’s one thing we’ve been talking about, that his job partially is to bring Fed up,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. “Really, we’re asking him, ‘Train Fed to take your job and then fight him off.’"

Ellis, 32, has been the Dodgers’ primary catcher for the past two seasons. Federowicz, 25, is in his first full season.

Ellis’ catcher’s ERA of 3.10 is the best in the majors, tied with his former teammate Russell Martin of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Federowicz, without the luxury of catching Clayton Kershaw when Ellis is healthy, isn’t far behind with a CERA of 3.49. He has become the personal catcher for Ricky Nolasco, who has been one of the hottest starters in the league.

Ellis said he is just returning a favor.

“I wouldn’t be the major-league catcher I am without the help of Brad Ausmus,” Ellis said. “I latched onto him and he mentored me on how to become a major-league catcher, how you need to handle yourself and how you need to prepare and what your main priority is.”

Eleven of Federowicz’s 35 starts have come since Aug. 1 and his emergence (he’s also batting .333 in his last 16 games) has allowed Ellis to get more rest than he did a year ago, when he fell into a major batting slump in September. Ellis admitted in 2012 that he had begun to wear down mentally. That should be less of a problem down the stretch this season.

DENVER -- Remember the last time the Los Angeles Dodgers played a series against a playoff contender? They had the Boston Red Sox in town and, even though it came in the middle of one of the greatest runs in franchise history, manager Don Mattingly was a little miffed after they lost two of three.

"If we're going to get where we want to go, those are the kinds of teams we're going to have to beat," Mattingly said. "It gives you a little barometer of what kind of baseball you need to play to win."

Fans in L.A. might not want to hear about barometers right now given the heat, but the Dodgers will get to check another one this weekend in Cincinnati. They'll be playing against a team they might well meet again in the playoffs, a team desperately trying to scramble for better postseason position.

It could feel a little more intense than these last few series -- against the Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres and Colorado Rockies.

"We're definitely playing against one of the best teams in the National League and one of the most potent lineups out there, so we have to come to play, in their ballpark especially," catcher A.J. Ellis said. "It will be a tough weekend for us, so we have to be ready to go from the first pitch on Friday."

So, all these little experiments and days of rest in Colorado are over for a while. The Dodgers are scheduled to fly from Denver, where they played three listless games against the Rockies with spring training-caliber lineups, and arrive in Cincinnati on Thursday for a three-game weekend series.

The fun and games will be over for a while.

(Read full post)

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.

DENVER – Hyun-Jin Ryu has been scratched from Friday’s scheduled start in Cincinnati because of back stiffness and will be replaced by Chris Capuano, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said.

The Dodgers are hoping Ryu can return to pitch Tuesday or Wednesday of next week against Arizona. Mattingly said he doesn't anticipate the injury being a long-term one.

"We're not really concerned," Mattingly said. "Again, we're just being cautious, but no matter what the separation was [in the standings] right now, he wouldn't be pitching Friday. We would make sure he was right before he went out there."

Ryu slid awkwardly into home plate while scoring a run in Friday's game, which may have contributed to the injury. He threw in the bullpen before Tuesday's game and still felt tightness.

Ryu, a Rookie of the Year candidate who signed with the Dodgers in December after pitching in South Korea, is 13-5 with a 3.02 ERA. Capuano is 4-7 with a 4.50 ERA in 21 games.

* Yasiel Puig was not in the starting lineup for a second straight game because of soreness in his upper right calf. Mattingly says he expects Puig to play Friday night and that he could pinch hit Wednesday.

* Matt Kemp had 13 at-bats in a simulated game in Arizona and Mattingly said he went 5-for-9 with four walks. Then again, there were no fielders, so that's kind of open to interpretation. Kemp is on the disabled list because of a sprained left ankle. He will stay in Arizona through the end of the week and won't re-join the Dodgers until at least Monday.

Here are lineups for Wednesday's game in Colorado, with four more regulars getting a day off:

Dodgers

1. Jerry Hairston Jr. LF
2. Nick Punto 2B
3. Hanley Ramirez SS
4. Michael Young 1B
5. Scott Van Slyke RF
6. A.J. Ellis C
7. Juan Uribe 3B
8. Skip Schumaker CF
9. Edinson Volquez RHP

Rockies

1. Dexter Fowler CF
2. Josh Rutledge 2B
3. Troy Tulowitzki SS
4. Michael Cuddyer RF
5. Wilin Rosario C
6. Todd Helton 1B
7. Nolan Arenado 3B
8. Charlie Blackmon LF
9. Jorge De La Rosa LHP

DENVER -- If you didn’t know Ricky Nolasco was this good, you’re not alone. He pitched a lot of good innings and won a lot of games with the Miami Marlins for eight years without people ever really making much of a fuss over him.

“I’ve been hiding in Miami, but I’m not going to complain,” Nolasco said. “I like flying under the radar.”

Soon, everyone’s radar will be too keenly attuned to fly under. It’s hard to be invisible in the playoffs. With a postseason berth getting closer and closer by the day, the Los Angeles Dodgers have turned this stretch of their season into an evaluation period, a chance to sift through their roster to determine roles, some of them crucial, for October.

The Dodgers are lucky enough to have a solid month to ferret out answers. The league announced the playoff schedule Tuesday, and the Dodgers wouldn’t begin postseason play until Oct. 3.

Plenty of time to field the roster best suited for marching through the rigors of the playoffs.

After Tuesday’s 7-4 win over the Colorado Rockies and another loss by the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Dodgers now have a 13½-game lead in the NL West. Their magic number is 12. The earliest they could clinch would be Tuesday, but it’s more likely they’ll be celebrating with the San Francisco Giants in town -– how much would Dodgers fans love that? -– in one of the games between Sept. 12 and 15.

In the meantime, some questions have emerged.

Could Nolasco, who has been largely dominant his past three starts, overtake Hyun-Jin Ryu for the No. 3 spot in the Dodgers’ rotation, a crucial distinction in a best-of-five first-round playoff series?

Which of the young relievers, and which of the reclaimed veterans, will merit that final bullpen spot? Could Michael Young or Jerry Hairston Jr., two battle-tested veterans, be in danger of not securing one of the bench spots on a 25-man roster?

They refuse to admit they’re thinking that far ahead. Nolasco has never pitched in the playoffs, and it’s impossible to believe he hasn’t started thinking about it -– particularly that he’s now on his hometown team –- but that’s what he says.

“Once we finish the season, we’ll start thinking about that,” he said.

Young made his Dodgers debut Tuesday, and it wasn’t particularly scintillating, though he had a single to fuel a key ninth-inning rally. Young hit into a rally-killing double play in the first inning and struck out twice to go 1-for-5.

These are important times for the new guys –- and other Dodgers on the bubble -- to cement themselves in the team’s October plans.

The Dodgers will get a look at another recent acquisition, reclamation project Edinson Volquez, who is starting Wednesday’s game in an audition for a possible postseason role. All of general manager Ned Colletti’s pickups have been solid or better. Carlos Marmol hasn’t allowed a run since July.

But Colletti’s biggest score, by far, has been Nolasco. Acquired from the Marlins on July 6 for three minor league pitchers, Nolasco is 7-1 with a 2.27 ERA for the Dodgers.

Tuesday’s wasn’t his most artful start, but it was more than adequate. Nolasco has looked better than what the Dodgers bargained for, a solid No. 4 starter.

He cruised through the first four innings, allowing just two base runners, but the Rockies got a better handle on him the third through the lineup. Charlie Blackmon hooked a double into the right-field corner and the pitcher, Jhoulys Chacin, shot a single to right to drive in one run.

Nolasco’s previous outings were both eight-inning shutouts.

Manager Don Mattingly conceded before the game that, aware of the Dodgers’ massive lead, he is beginning to rest the team’s regulars. Hanley Ramirez, Juan Uribe and A.J. Ellis were all off; he said Yasiel Puig, bothered by a nagging calf injury, would have tried to play if Tuesday were a playoff game.

But the watered-down lineup proved scrappy. That's how it has been lately. It doesn't matter who they throw out there. Nick Punto went 4-for-5, Skip Schumaker scored a run, Tim Federowicz went 2-for-3 with an RBI. The biggest hit was Carl Crawford’s two-out, two-run single into the left-field corner.

The Dodgers lately have been able to beat the inferior teams even when fielding their least-competitive lineups.

So, yeah, a lot of the next few weeks will be spent watching games, finding clues to how players will perform under October pressure. But let’s not forget, the bulk of the evaluation has taken place over the past five months.

“If we don’t know them by now, then it’s our fault,” Mattingly said.

DENVER – The Los Angeles Dodgers extended the injury rehab assignment of former All-Star outfielder Matt Kemp Tuesday, making it unlikely Kemp would return to join the team this week. He has been out since July 22 with a sprained left ankle.

In five games with Class A Rancho Cucamonga, Kemp went 0-for-18 with seven strikeouts. He will travel to Arizona and face some of the Dodgers’ minor league pitchers in simulated games starting Wednesday and probably will stay for at least three or four days.

The Dodgers had been hopeful he would join them this weekend in Cincinnati, but it now seems more likely he would return next Monday at the earliest.

Kemp has had an injury-ravaged season, with three stints on the disabled list totaling 75 games. But the Dodgers have had good production from all three of their healthy outfielders, Yasiel Puig, Andre Ethier and Carl Crawford.

"If we were in the first four games of spring training, we really wouldn’t be worried about [Kemp’s struggles] that much,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. “That’s really where he’s at for me, trying to get that timing back.”

The Dodgers are hoping to get Kemp 10-12 at-bats per day in Arizona.

Puig left Monday’s game with a mildly strained right knee and was held out of Tuesday’s lineup for cautionary reasons, but he is expected to return to the lineup Wednesday or Friday.

When Kemp -– the 2011 NL MVP runner-up -- does return, it’s hard to predict where or when he will play. Ethier has played strong defense in center field and is batting .279 with a .364 on-base percentage.

“It’s hard to do anything with ‘Dre,” Mattingly said.

DENVER – Tuesday might be remembered as the day the Dodgers eased their foot off the gas pedal.

Yasiel Puig told the Dodgers he could play Tuesday, one day after tweaking a sore right knee, but he was held out of the lineup anyway for caution’s sake and might also miss Wednesday’s game. Hanley Ramirez got the day off, too, as did A.J. Ellis and Juan Uribe.

Wednesday, Andre Ethier, Carl Crawford and perhaps Adrian Gonzalez will get days off, manager Don Mattingly indicated. Edinson Volquez will make a spot start (despite an 8.39 career ERA at Coors Field) to give the team’s pitchers extra rest.

It’s not that the Dodgers aren’t interested in catching the Atlanta Braves for the best record in the National League and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. It’s just that they view getting their players rested and healthy for the postseason as the bigger imperative.

The fact that they’re able to begin the process nearly a month from the start of the playoffs could be a huge edge. The Dodgers went into Tuesday’s game with a 12 ½ game lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks, their magic number to clinch the West just 14 games.

“If there was a game separating us or we were a game back, I think we’d do it differently, but you have to use common sense,” Mattingly said. “But still, when I write that lineup today, I expect to win.”

Here are the rest of the lineups for Tuesday’s game vs. the Colorado Rockies:

Los Angeles

1. Carl Crawford LF
2. Nick Punto SS
3. Adrian Gonzalez 1B
4. Michael Young 3B
5. Andre Ethier CF
6. Mark Ellis 2B
7. Skip Schumaker RF
8. Tim Federowicz C
9. Ricky Nolasco RHP

Rockies

1. Dexter Fowler CF
2. DJ LeMahieu 2B
3. Troy Tulowitzki SS
4. Michael Cuddyer RF
5. Wilin Rosario C
6. Todd Helton 1B
7. Nolan Arenado 3B
8. Charlie Blackmon LF
9. Jhoulys Chacin RHP

DENVER -- Just as the Los Angeles Dodgers envisioned when they agreed to pay Zack Greinke all that money back in December, he is leading the league in one category and Clayton Kershaw is leading it in another. The only oddity is that Greinke leads the NL in batting average and Kershaw leads it in RBIs.

OK, so they also are all over the pitching leaderboards, but the hitting part has been the pleasant surprise. They knew both pitchers were good athletes who could handle the bat, but they didn’t expect actual production, sometimes even game-changing production.

After his single (and stolen base) in Sunday’s game, Greinke is batting a league-high .347. Kershaw swatted a pair of singles in the Dodgers’ 10-8 win over the Colorado Rockies on Monday, including a key two-RBI hit, and he has 10 RBIs this season, most in the league, while batting .176.

Hitting has become a theme for Dodgers pitchers this year. Even the new guy, Edinson Volquez -- who will start Wednesday’s game, the team announced -- is among 14 NL pitchers with a home run. Hyun-Jin Ryu is hitting a more-than-respectable .200 (with a triple!).

Dodgers pitchers collectively are batting .177. Outfielder Roger Berardina of the Philadelphia Phillies has managed to get 197 at-bats this year while hitting .173.

They spend most of their time consulting pitching coach Rick Honeycutt, but apparently they’ve spent a little time in the cage with Mark McGwire as well.

“Ryu and Greinke rake, so I’m just trying to keep up,” Kershaw said. “Obviously, Greinke’s in another world right now. As long as guys are on base and we’re getting some runs in and moving that lineup over, just keep going. Who knows how long it’ll last.”

Kershaw was feeling pretty good after he gave the Dodgers a 5-3 lead in the fifth inning, but it was an uncharacteristically poor day for him on the mound. He gave it right back the next half-inning. He allowed a career-high 11 hits though he picked up his 14th win.

In his previous start, Kershaw was pulled in the sixth inning and, even in his start before that, when he pitched eight scoreless innings in Miami, manager Don Mattingly thought he was a little antsy and on edge.

Kershaw (14-8) said he hasn’t felt any different lately and he was probably due to be bailed out by the offense for once, given the nearly criminal lack of run support he has gotten all season. He still leads the majors with a 1.89 ERA. And this is Coors Field we’re talking about.

“It’s always good to get some hits, especially if you’re not going to pitch good,” Kershaw said.

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.

 

DENVER – Somebody asked Michael Young, who grew up 20 miles from Dodger Stadium, who his favorite player was as a kid. Quickly, Young answered “Don Mattingly.”

It still didn’t get Young in the lineup Monday.

“We’ll see what he says once the season’s over,” Mattingly joked. “Sometimes, guys like you until they get to play for you, then they might not like you so much.”

Young flew from Philadelphia, where he hastily packed up his apartment, and met the team in Colorado before Monday’s game. There is a good chance he will make his first start Tuesday, because third baseman Juan Uribe is 0-for-15 in his career against Colorado’s starter, Jhoulys Chacin.

Young, 36, said he told Philadelphia general manager Ruben Amaro months ago that he would OK a trade to the Dodgers, not because it was the team he grew up rooting for, but because he wanted another chance at a World Series ring. He lost twice in the World Series when he was with Texas. Young has a full no-trade clause.

“I think it’s pretty self-explanatory,” Young said. “This is a hell of a team.”

Getting used to a part-time role could be something of an adjustment for Young, who has been one of the game’s most consistent everyday players in this generation. From 2002 to 2011, he played in at least 155 games every season but one.

“My role is winning player for the Dodgers,” Young said. “That’s my role. You could probably ask every guy in this locker room and they’d all probably want to get five at-bats a game. We wall want to play at a very high level, but the second the lineup goes up, it’s winning time.”

He’ll spell Uribe at third and, occasionally, Adrian Gonzalez at first, but the Dodgers don’t envision using him at either of the up-the-middle infield positions at this stage of his career. Young doesn’t tend to score well in advanced statistical measures of his defense, but Mattingly said he’ll keep an open mind.

“The times I’ve gotten to see him, I didn’t notice anything,” Mattingly said. “It’s like, early on, they told me Andre [Ethier] didn’t play good defense and I think he’s been good.”

Here are lineups for Monday’s game in Colorado:

Los Angeles

1. Carl Crawford LF
2. Yasiel Puig RF
3. Adrian Gonzalez 1B
4. Hanley Ramirez SS
5. Andre Ethier CF
6. Mark Ellis 2B
7. A.J. Ellis C
8. Juan Uribe 3B
9. Clayton Kershaw LHP

Rockies

1. Josh Rutledge SS
2. DJ LeMahieu 2B
3. Michael Cuddyer RF
4. Wilin Rosario C
5. Nolan Arenado 3B
6. Charlie Culberson LF
7. Jordan Pacheco 1B
8. Charlie Blackmon CF
9. Chad Bettis RHP

DENVER – The Dodgers were essentially overpowered by the pitcher they were facing, a towering right-hander named Andrew Cashner, who was pumping 98, 99 and even 100-mph fastballs past their hitters as late as the seventh inning.

Not a lot you can do in a situation like that, just hold on and hope you’re in striking distance when he gets tired.

Thanks to Chris Capuano, the Dodgers were. And thanks to Zack Greinke, they were the next day, too, winning essentially the same game -- by the same 2-1 score.

If anyone doubted the Dodgers' pitching was taking over a few weeks ago, nobody doubts it now. The Dodgers had the best pitching in the majors in August. In fact, three of their starters, Clayton Kershaw, Greinke and Ricky Nolasco, had ERAs in the top five in the National League.

The last Dodger team to pitch that well in a month did so in April of 1981, a World Series year.

Things are trending up, in other words. To have suggested the Dodgers would win 100 games in April, May, June or even July would have been moronic. To suggest it now seems like a pretty good reading of the winds. The Dodgers need to go 19-7 to win 100. Amazing.

SCORING

Yasiel Puig continues to be impossible to ignore.

Bench him and it only seems to stoke his desire. After his first disciplinary benching, he hit the decisive home run. After his second, last Wednesday, he came back to go 4-for-5 with two stolen bases in the next game.

Puig was cold, but now he’s not any more. Because he’s such a free swinger and has such great strength and hand-eye coordination, his streaks don’t follow normal trends. It reminds me of former AL MVP Vladimir Guerrero. An advance scout said he never put Guerrero in the “cold” category, because the minute he did, Guerrero would hit two home runs and go 3-for-5 and the scout looked bad.

Puig has multi-hit games in five of his last eight games. He is batting .596, best in the majors, when he swings at the first pitch. That raises the question: So why not bounce a slider or throw a fastball above the neck on every first pitch? Because he’s adjusting. Remember when he never walked? Now he has a .409 on-base percentage.

Other than Puig’s contributions, one big night from Adrian Gonzalez and some clutch hits from Mark Ellis, it was a ho-hum week for the Dodgers' offense. The Dodgers averaged 4.1 runs per game, but nine of those came in one game against San Diego, much of it at the expense of one reliever, Anthony Bass.

But give the Dodgers credit. They score according to the game, somehow finding ways to scrape runs across to support their pitchers, at least pitchers not named Clayton Kershaw.

Grade: B-

DEFENSE

Kenley Jansen isn’t getting enough publicity. If he keeps this trend up for another 17 or 18 years, other teams are going to give him a farewell tour like they did for Mariano Rivera. Rivera is the only comparison for Jansen that is apt at the moment, even if it is essentially absurd.

Confining the discussion to 2013, is there a more unhittable closer in baseball? Jansen gives teams no hope of late-inning heroics. He has nailed his last 17 save chances and, over that time, had a 1.03 ERA with 41 strikeouts (in 17 games). For his career, batters are hitting .155 against him.

It’s only Sept. 2, but Greinke’s first season has exceeded even the expectations raised by his then-record, $147 million contract. He is pitching at his 2009 level, though through slightly different means. Greinke’s ERA has gone done in three consecutive seasons, so the Dodgers can feel good about getting him in the middle of his prime.

Once again, Kershaw was the only Dodgers pitcher to take a loss and he’s not just a virtual lock to win the Cy Young, but he’s getting talked up for the league MVP trophy. Go figure. The Dodgers need to start making life a little easier on their ace, so he doesn’t have to throw a shutout to get a win.

Hanley Ramirez is showing signs of reverting to the way he played shortstop last year, reacting slowly to ground balls and getting his footwork tied up, sometimes sailing his throws. The Dodgers should, and probably will, make Ramirez's defense a point of emphasis in the final month.

Grade: A-

DECISION-MAKING

Should we just trust Ned Colletti and Don Mattingly and assume that Michael Young’s leadership skills and still-useable bat will make up for the fact he is going to take playing time away from another player who puts up at least comparable offensive numbers and plays better defense?

How is Young an upgrade, particularly since he costs the Dodgers $1 million and a young pitcher who might one day be a useful big-league arm?

It seems the Dodgers’ early-season trauma -- a seemingly endless string of injuries -- has pushed them into a cautious footing as they begin to eye a post-season run. They’ve begun to hoard depth. Young, like Carlos Marmol, Brian Wilson and Edinson Volquez, is viewed as a more-capable injury replacement than any of the players the Dodgers have at Triple-A.

So there’s that.

It will be interesting to see how the veterans blend into the fabric of the team over the next month, as the Dodgers make evaluations for their 25-man playoff roster.

Grade: B-

CHEMISTRY TEST

The Dodgers clubhouse has become a frat house. Wilson and Juan Uribe, longtime teammates, yell at each other across the room, usually on the topic of each others’ wardrobes. There’s no telling what dugout shenanigans Uribe, Puig and Ramirez will get into.

They seem to have the ability to snap into business mode at about 7 p.m., so nobody’s really too worried about the joking around. It has been interesting to see how quickly Wilson has gotten comfortable, considering all the years he pitched for the team the Dodgers like least.

Young, like Uribe, Wilson, Nick Punto and Skip Schumaker, is another World Series veteran, one more reason the Dodgers thought he would be a useful addition. That’s their desired destination, after all, so why not invite in players who know what it's like to get there?

Grade: A-

STATE OF CONTENTION

It’s getting close.

In fact, the Dodgers have put themselves in position where, even if something goes terribly wrong in this final month, they should back into the playoffs.

Their magic number is 16 with 26 games left. There is a very good chance the Dodgers will clinch some time during a four-game series at Arizona that starts Sept. 16. To have the division in hand so early would allow the Dodgers to align their pitching perfectly for October.

Remember when the 2005 Chicago White Sox were able to rest their starting pitchers and they all came out throwing 95 mph and up, just strong-armed their way to the World Series title? Well, the Dodgers could set up a similar scenario, only with much more accomplished pitchers.

Grade: A-

LOS ANGELES -- To understand just how well Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander Zack Greinke has pitched lately, turn the calendar back to 2009, when he won the American League Cy Young Award with the Kansas City Royals.

Greinke went 16-8 with a major league-leading 2.16 ERA that season, beating out Justin Verlander, Roy Halladay, CC Sabathia and Felix Hernandez for the honors.

Greinke said he’s pitching even better lately.

Few could argue after watching Greinke breeze through seven innings Sunday against the San Diego Padres, allowing one run and two hits while striking out seven in the 2-1 victory.

Greinke won his sixth consecutive decision to improve to 14-3 and trimmed his ERA to 2.78. It marked the fourth time this season that he has allowed two hits or less while working at least seven innings.

Greinke was asked after the game if he’s pitching better than he did in 2009. When it comes to throwing the ball where he wants, definitely, he said.

“It’s probably the best location I’ve had for a long period of time,” he said.

Greinke began Sunday’s game by breaking the bat of leadoff hitter Will Venable. He then broke Alexi Amarista’s bat on a groundout to second. He retired the first seven hitters before experiencing his only hiccup, giving up two walks and an RBI single in the third inning.

(Read full post)