ESPN

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

LOS ANGELES -- It's more about survival than advancement right now.

If the Los Angeles Dodgers make it until Thursday's tiebreaker, manager Don Mattingly said they will use Joe Blanton against the St. Louis Cardinals. If they survive that, they'll go with Josh Beckett on his normal four days' rest in Atlanta. They contemplated moving Beckett up a day on short rest, but decided a rested Blanton -- who has made three good starts in a row -- gives them a better chance to win.

"If we get to that game, we're going to be feeling pretty good," Mattingly said.

Clayton Kershaw will make Wednesday's start against the San Francisco Giants regardless of whether it means anything. Kershaw missed two starts with a hip injury, but Mattingly said he feels no pain in the hip any longer. The Dodgers would be eliminated tonight with a loss or Cardinals win.

The problem might be tonight. Dodgers starter Chris Capuano is dealing with some pain in his left shoulder blade, a nagging injury he picked up while taking batting practice Monday. There's also this: He is 1-6 with a 5.21 ERA against the Giants in 12 career appearances.

"It's a fairly tough matchup," Mattingly said.

Here are tonight's lineups:

San Francisco
Angel Pagan CF
Marco Scutaro 2B
Pablo Sandoval 3B
Buster Posey 1B
Hunter Pence RF
Xavier Nady LF
Hector Sanchez C
Joaquin Arias SS
Barry Zito P

Dodgers
Mark Ellis 2B
Shane Victorino LF
Matt Kemp CF
Adrian Gonzalez 1B
Hanley Ramirez SS
Luis Cruz 3B
Andre Ethier RF
A.J. Ellis C
Capuano P

The Los Angeles Dodgers are playing some of their best baseball and it couldn't come at a better time, with three games against the rival San Francisco Giants starting Monday night at Dodger Stadium.

Thanks to Sunday's 5-0 win over the Atlanta Braves to cap a 7-3 East Coast road trip, the Dodgers will enter this series in first place, a half-game ahead of San Francisco. With the additions of Shane Victorino and Hanley Ramirez and a rejuvenated pitching staff, other teams are starting to be impressed with their play lately.

"The Dodgers are playing well -- kudos to their GM for making the moves that they did at the trade deadline," the Braves' Chipper Jones told reporters in Atlanta. "They're a lot better club than we faced earlier in the season."

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What started as a feel-good road trip has taken a turn for disappointment.

The Dodgers lost an emotionally draining game in Pittsburgh on Thursday in which their manager and best player were ejected, then they blew an eighth-inning 3-1 lead on Friday to lose to the Atlanta Braves, 4-3 in 11 innings.

The Dodgers can still salvage a winning road trip with a victory in one of this weekend's games in Atlanta.

The Good:

Deserved more. It's got to be the most frustrating situation for a starting pitcher. He has been absolutely dominant, but the manager is on alert because it's getting into the late innings, his pitch count is up and the manager has a full bullpen. Chris Capuano deserved a win for his 7 1/3 innings of rock-solid pitching, but after two guys got on in the eighth inning, Don Mattingly summoned Ronald Belisario. He looked like he might get out of it with the Dodgers clinging to a one-run lead, but Jayson Heyward came up with a clutch RBI single. That cost Capuano a 12th win he was entitled to.

Resumption of power. Andre Ethier hadn't hit a home run since July 14, when he swung at a first-pitch, hanging breaking ball from Tommy Hanson and hit it into the second deck in right field. That sixth-inning shot put the Dodgers ahead for the first time. It's not as if Ethier hasn't been productive since he got back in the lineup, but he is -- after all -- the guy who typically bats cleanup. He has to resume hitting doubles and home runs if the Dodgers are going to continue the offensive surge that started on this trip.

Cruz control. The joy ride continues for Luis Cruz, the 28-year-old lifetime minor leaguer who has given the Dodgers surprising pop since being brought up from Triple-A Albuquerque. Cruz was 3-for-3, walked twice and scored a run. The Dodgers have unappealing options for third base aside from Cruz, so he could be in for some major playing time in the next six weeks. If he keeps this up, it will be impossible to keep him out of the lineup.

The Bad:

Two-way struggles. Matt Treanor hasn't gotten a hit since July 26 (though he plays only once or twice a week). The Dodgers can live with a sub-.200 batting average a little more easily if his defense and pitch-calling are outstanding. But he got flustered when the best base stealer in the National League, Michael Bourn, got on base with one out in the 10th inning. Bourn got a great jump, Treanor rushed his throw and it trickled into center field to let Bourn take third easily. Brandon League was able to pitch around it, but it wasn't a good night for the Dodgers' backup catcher, who was 0-for-5 at the plate.

Quiet night. At times, it seems as if the Dodgers just wait for Matt Kemp to do something big. When he gets no hits -- as he did Friday -- the offense tends to look flat. What's worse is that Kemp is probably looking at a one-game suspension, eventually, for his ejection from Thursday's game, so that will be another challenge for the Dodgers' offense.

Juan, two ... Mattingly must fret about it even before he calls Juan Rivera's name as a pinch hitter: the double play. It has been the bane of Rivera's career since he broke his leg playing winter ball in Venezuela five years ago. Predictably, after Hanley Ramirez led off the 11th inning with a single, Rivera came up and hit one sharply to the shortstop for an easy rally-killing double play. It was the 13th GDP of Rivera's season, a high number considering he has yet to have his 300th at-bat.