Mattingly confident with Greinke, Kershaw

LOS ANGELES -- The book closed Saturday on another stellar regular season for Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander Zack Greinke.

He was the tough-luck loser in a 1-0 defeat at the hands of the visiting Colorado Rockies, but Greinke still finished with a 15-4 record and 2.63 ERA for the NL West champions.

What lies ahead is his second career trip into the postseason. Greinke said he’s satisfied with how he’s pitching.

“It could be worse, that’s for sure,” he said.

Greinke said the only thing that separated this regular season from his AL Cy Young year of 2009 was his consistency. He went 16-8 that year with a 2.16 ERA for a Kansas City Royals team that finished last in the AL Central with a 65-97 record.

“I was more consistent that year and didn’t have any spots where I pitched bad,” he said. “Like this year, there was about a month where it was ugly.”

Greinke then gestured to his left, to the locker stall belonging to left-hander Clayton Kershaw, who is likely to win the NL Cy Young after leading the majors with a 1.83 ERA and the NL with 232 strikeouts.

“Kersh had no bad stretches,” Greinke said. “That’s what you’ve got to do to have a good year like that.”

Despite the late-season injuries that have popped up among his positional players, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said he feels confident heading into Thursday’s opener of the NL Division Series -- at the St. Louis Cardinals or Atlanta Braves -- knowing he has the 1-2 punch that can wreak havoc in a playoff series.

“When those guys take the ball, you feel like you’re going to win,” Mattingly said. “It’s pretty much quality start after quality start.”