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LOS ANGELES -- When Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw takes the mound for his next start Thursday in the opening round of the NL Division Series, he’ll have that same youthful-looking appearance.

He’ll just be a completely different-looking pitcher.

Kershaw has evolved into one of the top hurlers in baseball, proving so once again Friday night while throwing six shutout innings in an 11-0 victory against the visiting Colorado Rockies.

Kershaw improved to 16-9, but the stat that’ll likely stand out for years to come is his ERA. He dropped that mark to 1.83, the lowest in the major leagues since Pedro Martinez posted a 1.74 as a member of the Boston Red Sox in 2000, and the lowest by a southpaw since Ron Guidry of the New York Yankees in 1978 (1.74).

Kershaw also became the first pitcher since Greg Maddux of the Atlanta Braves (1993-95) to lead the majors in ERA for three consecutive seasons and just the second member of the Dodgers to finish with a sub-2.00 ERA. Sandy Koufax accomplished that feat three times in the 1960s.

The Dodgers made things easy on Kershaw by scoring four runs in the first, another in the third and three more in the fourth on Carl Crawford’s three-run blast. Kershaw had a hand in that, too, singling with one out before Crawford launched his sixth home run of the season.

Adrian Gonzalez and A.J. Ellis also homered for the Dodgers, and Juan Uribe had three hits and two RBIs.

Kershaw showed he was on his game right from the start, striking out Charlie Blackmon on three pitches to open the game. He twice struck out soon-to-be-retired first baseman Todd Helton. Kershaw allowed four hits among his 82 pitches, struck out eight and didn’t walk a batter.

Of course, the Dodgers can’t seem to take two steps forward without taking one back this season. Yasiel Puig left the game in the top of the sixth after fouling a pitch off his left foot for the second time in the game. He returned to the batter’s box and hit the next pitch in the air to right field, limping noticeably as he jogged to first.

The injury brought back memories of the last weekend series at Dodger Stadium, when the hosts lost Puig, fellow outfielders Andre Ethier and Carl Crawford and shortstop Hanley Ramirez to injuries. Ethier remains sidelined with a lower left leg injury.

The other downside Friday night was the St. Louis Cardinals' beating the Chicago Cubs, assuring the Dodgers of a road game Thursday when they open the playoffs against either the Cardinals or Atlanta Braves.

But on this night, once again, it was all about Kershaw.

“He’s still the same kid who was tough and worked hard and was hard-headed, in a sense, with his stuff, but he’s come so far from the standpoint of his willingness to get better,” said Dodgers manager Don Mattingly, who played five seasons with Guidry in New York.

Kershaw didn’t hold runners on base very well when he first joined the Dodgers. Now he does. He had only two pitches in his arsenal, a fastball and a curve, but has since added a slider and changeup. He dominated just one side of the plate. Now he owns both corners. He’s even become a better hitter.

“He has just evolved,” Mattingly said. “He’s a total different matchup for you as a hitter than he used to be. This is obviously the same guy, the same person, but you probably wouldn’t recognize him if you looked at the games he pitched then versus now.”

Kershaw was a wide-eyed 20-year-old when he made his first postseason appearance five years ago, pitching two innings of relief in a five-game loss to the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL Championship Series. He returned to the postseason the following year and made three starts before the Dodgers were again cut down in the NLCS.

Four years later, Kershaw gets another shot at winning a World Series. Just getting to the playoffs is no longer good enough.

“Nobody remembers second place,” Kershaw said. “Nobody remembers who won the American League or who won the National League, they remember who won the World Series. So getting to the playoffs is nice, it’s definitely a huge accomplishment, but at the end of the day, unless you win the whole thing, no one remembers.”

The game that sent the Los Angeles Dodgers to the playoffs wasn’t particularly reflective of the kind of season that got them there.

It wasn’t very well-pitched, with Ricky Nolasco melting down and allowing six runs in the third inning. Its biggest hit came from a player in a deep slump, catcher A.J. Ellis, who swatted the go-ahead home run.

And in the days following the win, much of the attention went to how the Dodgers celebrated -- with a romp in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ pool -- rather than on the accomplishment itself.

But the one shining moment from an otherwise blasé week for the Dodgers was that afternoon game in Arizona. It guaranteed that the rest of the week -- in which the Dodgers went a pedestrian 3-3 -- really didn’t matter all that much.

The minute Kenley Jansen got that final out, the rest of the Dodgers’ season became about preparing for the playoffs. They were the first team in the major leagues to clinch their division. So, yeah, it was a good week.

SCORING

It was fairly evident before last week, but it became even clearer in the past seven days. The Dodgers are really good when their star players are on the field and average when they are not. If you were to fret about one thing going into the playoffs and next season it would be the lack of depth, a problem created by a mediocre Triple-A team.

Hanley Ramirez, Matt Kemp, Yasiel Puig, Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford and Andre Ethier all missed time due to injuries, most of them the nagging kind.

The day after the Dodgers clinched, they started a lineup entirely of Triple-A-caliber players and bench guys and they looked incapable of scoring a run while losing 2-0. The next day, the Dodgers started most of their guys with Clayton Kershaw on the mound and hit a pair of home runs to get Kershaw some rare run support in a 4-0 win.

Which lineup do you think is more likely to be on the field on Oct. 3, when the Dodgers begin the post-season? If they’re fortunate and if manager Don Mattingly manages to keep everybody healthy, it figures to be the latter.

In other words, the Dodgers are still a dangerous lineup even if they haven’t always looked the part lately.

Grade: B-

DEFENSE

Until his last two starts, Nolasco might have been a candidate to pitch Game 3 of the Dodgers’ first playoff series, perhaps nudging ahead of Hyun-Jin Ryu if the Dodgers faced a team adept at hitting lefties (eg., the Pittsburgh Pirates).

Now, it looks like Ryu is the right choice no matter who the Dodgers face. Nolasco allowed 11 earned runs on 16 hits in his last 6 1/3 innings and that raises red flags at this time of year, particularly because Nolasco has never pitched in the post-season.

On the other hand, the rest of the Dodgers’ starting pitchers stayed true to form and the bullpen at times was dominant. Kenley Jansen, entering his first post-season, and Brian Wilson, a closer on a World Series team, could be a solid combination at the end of games. Together, Jansen and Wilson struck out eight batters in six innings, simply shutting down the final innings.

Another area of worry, of course, is fielding, which has been slightly below mediocre all season. There will be times in the playoffs, when Hanley Ramirez and Michael Young are in the game at the same time, when the Dodgers have a highly permeable left side of the infield.

And, while Dee Gordon is tempting to keep on the roster because of his value as a pinch runner, it might be tough to carry him because he looks like such a defensive liability.

Grade: B-

DECISION-MAKING

Mattingly has had some embarrassing moments lately. Two weeks ago, he gave the umpire the name of the wrong left-handed pitcher, meaning Paco Rodriguez had to leave the mound without ever throwing a pitch. Last week, he tried to remove a pitcher shortly after Rick Honeycutt had already visited the mound and was sent back to the dugout.

In neither case did it cost the Dodgers, but Mattingly and his staff aren’t going to want to be in those kinds of situations in October.

The front office is on a tear, with Wilson and Young both looking like excellent acquisitions and Carlos Marmol and Edinson Volquez even chipping in here and there.

Some people have been upset at Mattingly for resting his regulars so much, but it’s hard to knock him if you’re not sitting in on his meetings with the medical staff. And given the evidence about homefield advantage in the playoffs – it’s a 50-50 proposition in both the division series and championship series – it seems like the right course of action.

Grade: B-

CHEMISTRY TEST

The day after the Dodgers clinched, a group of players was lounging around the clubhouse in San Diego as TV commentators were discussing – what else – pool-gate. When the network showed Brian Wilson’s Twitter response to Sen. John McCain’s pointed criticism, the room erupted in laughter.

The Dodgers really don’t care what other people think about their celebration.

Their animosity with the Diamondbacks ran deep even before that incident, so it will be worth monitoring when the two teams face each other in spring training.

The Dodgers have become accustomed to deflecting criticism as a group this season. They’ve dealt with it after a series of brawls, when it was coming at rookie Yasiel Puig hot and heavy and, now, this. It doesn’t seem to have dented their sense of camaraderie. In fact, just the opposite.

Grade: A-

STATE OF CONTENTION

If the Dodgers don’t start playing with a bit more urgency, they figure to open the playoffs on the road. And this is a problem, because…?

It’s not as if Kershaw and Zack Greinke aren’t perfectly capable of keeping a stadium quiet long enough to let the Dodgers offense come to life. Meanwhile, Ryu has a 2.23 ERA at Dodger Stadium, so he could be poised to finish an opponent off.

It’s far more important who the Dodgers play than where they play them, but since they have limited control over that, they’re better off getting their players as physically sound than worrying about home field.

Grade: A-

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 -- Before the Los Angeles Dodgers took the field Saturday night to face the San Diego Padres, manager Don Mattingly gathered his players in the clubhouse for an impromptu meeting.

He didn't have a particularly long or motivational speech prepared. He simply outlined where the Dodgers are and what they have to do during the final games of the regular season before the playoffs start.

"They all know where we're at," Mattingly said. "It's about where we're going, not about where we've been."

Where the Dodgers are going will actually have a lot to do with how they play over the final week of the regular season. Despite clinching the NL West and their first playoff berth since 2009 on Thursday, the Dodgers still have no idea who they will play when the playoffs start and, more important, where they will be to open the postseason.

After Saturday's 4-0 win over the Padres, the Dodgers are tied in the overall NL standings with the Pittsburgh Pirates, one game ahead of the Cincinnati Reds, two games behind the St. Louis Cardinals and 2½ games back of the Atlanta Braves.

It would be natural to assume the Dodgers are still eyeing to claim the best record in the National League and home-field advantage in the playoffs, but the truth is they are more concerned about going into the playoffs healthy and rested.

"We feel like we can win anywhere," Mattingly said. "We feel like we can win on the road, but you want to be healthy. I would also like to be at home. I would much rather have home-field advantage but do I want home-field advantage and not have Hanley [Ramirez] or Adrian [Gonzalez] in the lineup? No. The priority is I'm going to try to get these guys as healthy as I can and keep them sharp."

The Dodgers have certainly been a strong road team this season. They have the best road record in the National League and the second-best road record overall. They won a franchise-record 15 consecutive road games this summer and celebrated clinching the division on the road by celebrating in the Arizona Diamondbacks' pool.

So Mattingly is more than comfortable taking his team on the road to open the postseason as long as his team is healthy.

"We're going to play, we're going to keep playing," Mattingly said. "But not at the risk of [playing someone hurt]. When medical says Hanley is a little tight, I'm not going to use him. We're going to be more safe than sorry later."

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SAN DIEGO -- The old adage in football is you take 24 hours to enjoy a big win before moving on to the next game. That's not really possible in baseball in which the daily grind of the regular season forces you back on the field for the next game within hours of the final out of the last game.

Don Mattingly, however, made sure the Los Angeles Dodgers had at least 24 hours to savor clinching the NL West before moving on to the rest of the regular season and attempting to secure home-field advantage in the playoffs.

Mattingly's lineup Saturday for the Dodgers' 4-0 win over the San Diego Padres returned to normalcy one night after he went with a lineup more reminiscent of a spring training game in Friday's 2-0 loss to the Padres.

"We want to win every day and we want to have home-field advantage, but we've been at this for close to 200 games when you count spring training," Mattingly said. "It's one of those where you felt like these guys needed to sit there and enjoy that and now we have more work to do and we're going back to work."

The Dodgers didn't waste any time getting back to work with Clayton Kershaw on the mound. The Cy Young favorite pitched seven scoreless innings, giving up only three hits and striking out 10. With one start left in the season, Kershaw owns a 1.88 ERA and will likely be the first Dodger since Sandy Koufax to end a season with a sub-2.00 ERA.

A.J. Ellis, who hit the winning home run to clinch the division in Arizona, hit a two-run homer to left in the fourth inning Saturday to get the Dodgers on the board first and score all the runs they'd really need with Kershaw starting.

Yasiel Puig put the game away with a two-run blast in the seventh inning that could have easily landed in the Gaslamp Quarter. Puig's home run was calculated at 457 feet, making it the second-longest home run in Petco Park history. The first was a 458-foot home run by Adrian Gonzalez in 2009. The two friends and teammates will no doubt be debating that one foot for a while.

Mattingly will now go into the final seven games of the regular season not only looking to gain home-field advantage but also shore up any issues the Dodgers might have heading into the playoffs.

"One of our goals coming out of spring training was to win the division and set ourselves up where we could do what we're doing," Mattingly said. "We also wanted to set our pitching up the way we want it. We've at least accomplished that much of it. It's now an opportunity for us to touch on some other things. This is a great opportunity for us."

SAN DIEGO -- Adrian Gonzalez is a hitter's hitter, a technician with a bat.

A surprising number of major-league hitters will describe their approach in the simplest terms: "See the ball, hit the ball." If Gonzalez were to take that approach, he says, he would be "the worst hitter in the world."

Gonzalez spends more time studying video of opposing pitchers than any Los Angeles Dodgers hitter with the possible exception of Andre Ethier. He's not just looking for clues to picking up the ball out of the pitcher's hand, but trying to glean a pattern that can give him an advantage in that night's at-bats. It's more detailed than you might think.

He's looking for what a pitcher does when he's ahead in the count, what he does to try to put hitters away, what pitches he tends to leave over the plate -- the hittable kind -- and whether he tends to pitch in or away, up or down, soft or hard. The permutations are practically endless.

When he's not studying hitting, he's often talking hitting.

"He'll use terms that leave you scratching your head," Carl Crawford said.

It's a cerebral approach that wouldn't work for many hitters. It would cloud their heads with too many thoughts. It clearly works for Gonzalez, who leads the Dodgers in home runs, RBIs and runs and is third with an .804 OPS. While Yasiel Puig and Hanley Ramirez have been the straws that stir the drink, Gonzalez has been the ice that never melts.

Crawford marvels at Gonzalez's gap-to-gap approach, how he rarely gets out ahead of the ball, letting it travel deep in the strike zone before swinging.

"Signs of a professional hitter," Crawford said.

If you watch closely, you can see Gonzalez adjust to situations as they arise, altering his approach. His swing is different when there are runners in scoring position versus empty bases, with two strikes or with fewer than two strikes, with the score tied or in a blowout. That adaptability leads to consistency. He is two RBIs away from reaching 100 for the sixth time in the past seven years. The time he didn't get to 100, he finished with 99.

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SAN DIEGO -- Don't read too much into Friday night's lineup.

The fact the Los Angeles Dodgers were starting six players who spent most of the season at Triple-A, two bench guys and a pitcher who figures to be nowhere near their postseason roster is kind of par for the course after a team clinches a division title.

The Dodgers' celebration probably didn't end with that little dip in the pool that you may have heard about, but probably continued on the flight from Arizona and spilled into San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter, where the team hotel sits.

What the team does beyond Friday might be more telling. Hanley Ramirez, Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, Yasiel Puig and Adrian Gonzalez -- each of whom has had some form of injury in the past two weeks -- will get plenty of rest between now and the end of the season Sept. 29.

Manager Don Mattingly spent a large part of his afternoon meeting with the Dodgers' medical staff and with the players themselves, to set up their programs for the last nine games. Mattingly said he would lean more toward resting players than fighting hard for home-field advantage in the playoffs.

"We feel like we can win anywhere," Mattingly said. "We feel like we can win on the road, but you want to be healthy."

There was some meaningful on-field activity. Ethier took batting practice on the field for the first time since injuring his ankle two weeks ago and could be playing in games by the final three-game homestand against the Colorado Rockies next weekend.

Here are the lineups:

Dodgers

1. Dee Gordon SS
2. Jerry Hairston Jr. 3B
3. Skip Schumaker 2B
4. Scott Van Slyke LF
5. Tim Federowicz C
6. Nick Buss CF
7. Alex Castellanos RF
8. Drew Butera 1B
9. Edinson Volquez RHP

Padres

1. Will Venable CF
2. Chris Denorfia RF
3. Jedd Gyorko 2B
4. Chase Headley 3B
5. Tommy Medica 1B
6. Kyle Blanks LF
7. Ronny Cedeno SS
8. Nick Hundley C
9. Robbie Erlin

PHOENIX – Don Mattingly’s lineup Thursday had a “get-it-over-with-already,” vibe.

Matt Kemp, who just came off the disabled list four days ago, was starting his third straight game. Hanley Ramirez was playing again, even though Mattingly indicated he likely would get the day game off as the Dodgers try to nurse him through an irritated nerve in his back.

Adrian Gonzalez was out of the lineup, but that’s only because he has a mildly strained quadriceps, and Carl Crawford was sitting, but that was performance-based. He’s batting .208 against left-handed pitchers this season and Arizona is starting lefty Wade Miley.

All in all, the Dodgers would love to get a win Thursday and clinch the National League West. Otherwise, they have to win two games in San Diego this weekend or have Arizona cooperate by losing before they can relax and start setting their team up for a playoff run.

Far tidier to take care of things Thursday.

“The toughest thing is, right now, nothing’s really done,” Mattingly said. “So, even though it looks really good, you’re not really where you want to be yet.”

Here are the rest of the lineups:

Los Angeles

1. Yasiel Puig RF
2. Jerry Hairston Jr. 1B
3. Hanley Ramirez SS
4. Matt Kemp CF
5. Mark Ellis 2B
6. Juan Uribe 3B
7. Scott Van Slyke LF
8. A.J. Ellis C
9. Ricky Nolasco RHP

Diamondbacks

1. Adam Eaton LF
2. A.J. Pollock CF
3. Paul Goldschmidt 1B
4. Martin Prado 3B
5. Aaron Hill 2B
6. Miguel Montero C
7. Didi Gregorius SS
8. Gerardo Parra RF
9. Wade Miley LHP

PHOENIX -- Whether it's because everyone's paying closer attention, because the games often are well-pitched and close or because of the pressure everyone is under, postseason games often boil down to one moment so memorable it freezes in time.

It's often a mistake.

There is Jeremy Giambi electing not to slide. There is Nelson Cruz misplaying a David Freese line drive. If you want to go all ESPN Classic, there's always Bill Buckner, of course. Pick your favorite or least-favorite team. You can probably rattle off a list.

Wednesday's 9-4 Los Angeles Dodgers loss at Chase Field -- keeping them frustratingly stuck on the brink of clinching the NL West -- didn't feel much like a playoff game. For one thing, the stadium was about two-thirds full and one of the teams had virtually nothing at stake.

But it illustrated the peril of the ill-timed mistake twice, in fact -- once by a player, the other by an umpire.

A year from now, the Dodgers wouldn't have had to worry about Jim Joyce blowing a call when he called out Michael Young after he slid into home in the sixth inning. Don Mattingly could have challenged it, the umpires would have reviewed it and -- if they trusted the replay everyone else saw -- they would have reversed it.

Instead, Young was called out, the Diamondbacks retained a 4-3 lead and the game went downhill from there.

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PHOENIX -- You could sense the Los Angeles Dodgers' determination as they desperately tried to crawl that final inch, but their search for the National League West title remains exactly that -- a crawl.

They fought back from a 4-0 deficit to get to within one run, but after some bad breaks, they lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks, 9-4, at Chase Field on Wednesday night. Their magic number remained stuck on two. They only have one more chance, Thursday afternoon, to finish it off in the tidiest manner, against the team they're trying to eliminate.

For now, the champagne stayed neatly tucked away in the visiting clubhouse, the plastic sheeting stored nearby.

The Dodgers, hot as lava from late June through early September, have lost 10 of their past 14 games with the prize so close.

Wednesday they had a turn of misfortune at a bad time. Michael Young appeared to get his hand on home plate ahead of Miguel Montero's tag in the sixth inning, but umpire Jim Joyce, running toward the plate from his first-base position, called him out.

Adrian Gonzalez, who had hit the double that sent Young home, was so upset, he was ejected by second-base umpire Andy Fletcher. Gonzalez is a laid-back sort and it was only the third ejection of his career. It proved costly because, after that, the Dodgers' only power bats were Matt Kemp and Yasiel Puig.

Arizona scored five eighth-inning runs off Ronald Belisario and Peter Moylan to keep the Dodgers stuck an inch from the finish line.

The game was televised by ESPN and the first four innings gave viewers in other cities a pretty good summation of everything Puig. He was as exciting as ever, both when he got picked off second base following his leadoff double and when his powerful arm intimidated Montero from trying to score in the third inning.

The Dodgers' biggest worry with Puig is that he'll get angry or upset and lose focus at a critical moment. After he had been picked off, he seemed in a bit of a fog when Adam Eaton grounded a hit to right field. Puig took his time and Eaton hustled his way to second for a double. It wouldn't have mattered where he was in the end, because Paul Goldschmidt -- who else? -- homered to give Arizona a 2-0 lead.

Puig hit a 442-foot home run to spark the Dodgers' offense to life in the fourth inning. It always seems to be the good and the bad with Puig, in this case in roughly equal measure.

The Dodgers had to fight to get out of the hole the Diamondbacks dug them against spot starter Stephen Fife, who was lifted in the third inning having given up four runs and six hits. The Dodgers gave Fife the start to afford ace Clayton Kershaw extra rest in anticipation of a deep run in the playoffs.

PHOENIX -- Don Mattingly used the word "careful" four times in less than two minutes discussing his team's strangely tenuous position right now, poised for a playoff berth but petrified that one of its leading hitters will go down yet again.

Mattingly is like a playground monitor these days, keeping an alert eye for peril.

He said he gets nervous every time Hanley Ramirez or Matt Kemp runs, as do thousands of people watching from the stands and at home. Soon, he can add the joy of fretting every time Andre Ethier and Carl Crawford take off, too. Mattingly pulled Ramirez and Kemp late in Tuesday's 9-3 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks to avoid some further catastrophe.

All it takes is one bad step, one slight stumble and this team's World Series hopes could be left dangling by a thread.

That's where things stand as the Dodgers try to close this thing out. Should they win one of the next two games, they are the champions of the National League West. And at that point, they might as well give Kemp, Ramirez, Crawford and Ethier -- heck, maybe even Adrian Gonzalez, too -- an extra week of vacation.

The Dodgers just went a laborious 3-9 trying to finish things when those guys were largely out of the lineup, so it looks as though they need them to get there. They certainly looked a bit more spry Tuesday night when they got two key hitters back.

The Dodgers already knew what Ramirez could do. He has been doing it all year, so when he singled the first time he had a competitive at-bat in almost a week, nobody was too surprised. When he got on base three more times, it was fairly par for the course.

But seeing Kemp make his first start in nearly two months and go 4-for-4 with a couple of hard-hit doubles was something of a revelation for many of the Dodgers. If he's back to doing what he once did and Ramirez and Yasiel Puig keep doing what they've been doing, what could this team become?

"I've never seen [Kemp] swing the bat like he is right now," pitcher Zack Greinke said. "I haven't played with him last year, haven't played with him before, only faced him a couple times. People talk about how good a hitter he is, but I haven't had the opportunity with him being injured. That was pretty exciting."

It's pretty obvious that neither Kemp nor Ramirez is running as well as they normally might, but Ramirez picked it up when Michael Young was running up his back while tripling in the eighth inning. And Kemp said he can still turn it on if he has to.

"Yeah, definitely," he said.

Wednesday brings a whole new round of excitement. It starts the minute Mattingly spends his 15 minutes with the team's trainer and then ambles out to post his lineup card.

It could end in a fog of champagne. That tends to be good for aches and pains.

PHOENIX -- Had things gone differently, the Dodgers could have been spraying champagne and other eye-stinging liquids on their fans on Sunday afternoon. What a perfect moment to cap a magical season that would have been.

It seemed headed in that direction when the Dodgers won the first two games against the second-place Arizona Diamondbacks to start the homestand. Then things got a little squirrelly.

They couldn’t handle Patrick Corbin in the finale of that series, Arizona bought a little time and the Dodgers suddenly needed six of seven events to go their way in order to clinch Sunday.

It wasn’t even close. The Dodgers lost four of five games, Hunter Pence proudly delaying their clinching party with a monster five-home run weekend at Dodger Stadium.

But the real issue is injuries, exactly what made the first three months of this Dodgers series a blur of disappointment. First, Hanley Ramirez started feeling tightness in his hamstring and, after doctors took a look, they discovered a nerve is irritating his back. Then came Andre Ethier, limping off on a sprained ankle. Carl Crawford felt tightness in his back. Yasiel Puig has been dealing with some hip soreness.

In other words, the Dodgers will be trying to clinch with a rag-tag crew, most likely, this week.

SCORING

Juan Uribe had a nice week on Monday.

He hit three home runs that day, four for the week and he nearly hit one out Sunday, but the ball clanged off the top of the wall (and had to be reviewed by the umpires), resulting in a triple.

Overall, Uribe batted .348 with a 1.332 OPS.

But an interesting thing happened in Sunday’s game, one that could hint at other managers’ strategy for playoff games. The San Francisco Giants intentionally walked Adrian Gonzalez to get to Uribe with first base open. Uribe struck out against Santiago Casilla. At this age -- and with how hard he swings -- Uribe often struggles against pitchers who throw 94 mph and up. That could mean Michael Young has a role on the post-season roster given his short swing and success against good fastball pitchers.

Hanley Ramirez was hot again before he had to take himself out of a game with a strained hamstring that later was determined to being caused by irritation in a nerve in his back. Adrian Gonzalez continues to be one of baseball’s great clutch hitters. He had eight RBIs, putting him at the precipice of 100 yet again.
And, still, it was a mediocre week for the hitters, who scored an average of 3.57 runs per game.

Grade: C

DEFENSE

There was some chatter in the past two weeks that the Dodgers’ hottest pitcher, Ricky Nolasco, should be considered as the No. 2 starter behind Clayton Kershaw in the playoffs. Nonsense.

Even before Nolasco got knocked around by the Giants Saturday, this plan made no sense. For one thing, would you make the call based on Nolasco’s good two months or on Greinke’s outstanding career, including a Cy Young award, and the fact you agreed to pay him $147 million to be exactly that -- the No. 2 starter behind Kershaw.

You could make a case that Nolasco should move ahead of Hyun-Jin Ryu, but that determination will be made based on the opponent the Dodgers play. The Pittsburgh Pirates lead the National League with a .742 OPS against lefties. The St. Louis Cardinals are 13th with a .667.

Prediction: If the Dodgers face Pittsburgh, Nolasco will pitch Game 3. If they face St. Louis, Ryu will pitch.

Overall, it was a bad week for Dodgers pitchers, who allowed an average of 5.29 runs per game, but that was wildly skewed by the 19 runs San Francisco scored Saturday -- against several pitchers who won’t even be on the post-season roster.

Greinke allowed one run in six innings against the Giants Thursday and Kershaw was fine, though he blamed himself for giving up a lead in the seventh inning.

Grade: C-

DECISION-MAKING

Don Mattingly is beginning to treat questions about injuries as an NFL or major-college football coach would. He provides the fewest possible details and the vaguest possible timetables.

Regardless of his public stance, how he handles this rash of injuries could have a major impact on the Dodgers’ chances next month. By all indications, he’s going to give Ramirez, Yasiel Puig, Carl Crawford and Andre Ethier all the time they need. Bravo. Why chase homefield advantage when there’s no evidence it makes any difference where these games are played? Since the current playoff formats were instituted, the ALDS and ALCS both are exactly 50-50 between home and road teams.

Grade: B

CHEMISTRY TEST

The man who said the Dodgers “can’t buy chemistry,” before spring training -- first baseman Brandon Belt -- went 6-for-13 with a home run and six RBIs in the series at Dodger Stadium over the weekend. So, he’s got that going for him. Living well might be the best revenge, so the Dodgers can just leave that one alone.

There are a lot of different personalities in the Dodgers clubhouse. Last week, Mattingly called Michael Young the “anti-Brian Wilson,” because of his quiet, attention-shy demeanor. Who would the “anti-Yasiel Puig,” be?

Probably Mark Ellis, who said this in an interview with ESPNLosAngeles.com two months ago: "Nobody would watch baseball if everybody was like me. You need guys like [Puig] that are entertaining."

Either way, the key is tolerance. And, so far, little evidence has emerged that personality conflicts are disrupting the team’s ability to function at a high level.

Grade: B

STATE OF CONTENTION

This week couldn’t be simpler. The Dodgers will be NL West champs for the first time in four years if they win two games in these next four in Arizona.
If they do, we can just wait to find out who they play and where they’ll play in the playoffs. No use getting too worked up.

If they lose three of four or worse, they’ll have to take the party to San Diego or San Francisco, but the champagne won’t taste any less bubbly in the cooler climate.

Grade: A-

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 -- A month or so ago, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said he considered Adrian Gonzalez his team's MVP, a stance that's becoming difficult to defend from a statistical standpoint.

Clayton Kershaw, Hanley Ramirez and Yasiel Puig all have higher WARs despite playing in a fraction of the games Gonzalez has (and, remember, WAR is a counting stat).

But in addition to hitting, hitting for power, throwing, fielding and running, there's a sixth tool that might be the most crucial of them all: staying on the field. Some people consider staying healthy a skill, and Gonzalez has been a master of it.

Since he established himself as an every-day player in 2006, Gonzalez has never missed more than six games in a season. With the rain of injuries the Dodgers endured in the season's first few months, that ability has been crucial to this team's chances. It became clear again Thursday, when Ramirez had to be pulled once again because of a tight hamstring.

"I think you look back at the season and you think that Adrian's really been the glue that kept us going, kind of kept us hanging around," Mattingly said after Gonzalez drove in the winning run in the 10th inning of the Dodgers' 3-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Thursday. "It could have been a lot worse with all the injuries. Adrian was able to kind of steady the ship almost and just keep us around."

As usual, Gonzalez is hitting better with runners in scoring position (.326) than he is without runners in scoring position (.285). He has long been a master of the clutch hit, largely because he simplifies in pressure situations. He lined a single just past diving shortstop Brandon Crawford to drive in Carl Crawford from second base Thursday.

The Dodgers have enjoyed eight walk-off wins at Dodger Stadium this season, and Gonzalez has been in the middle of many of them. He has enjoyed them so much, he'd like to do it again in a few weeks. Gonzalez has been to the playoffs only once, in 2006, when he batted .357 for the San Diego Padres.

"That's one of the reasons why we want home-field advantage in the playoffs, because you get an extra edge," Gonzalez said.

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.