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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

LOS ANGELES -- September can make for some weird moments, when players who have scarcely been heard from jump up and affect a season at a critical moment. Who knows, maybe they'll even affect a postseason game at a critical moment.

The Los Angeles Dodgers got a little dose of that Tuesday night, when Scott Van Slyke hammered a walk-off home run to give them a 5-3 11th-inning win over the Arizona Diamondbacks. It trimmed their magic number for clinching the National League West to just six games, meaning they could be celebrating a division title as early as Saturday.

As nice as Van Slyke's shot was, two other young players who shuttled back and forth between Triple-A and the major leagues all summer could prove useful in a few weeks.

Shortstop Dee Gordon, who has had virtually no impact on this Dodgers season, could give them a dangerous pinch runner for the late innings of close games. Reliever Chris Withrow and his 98 mph fastball might come in handy, too.

Manager Don Mattingly still refuses to talk much about postseason roster possibilities until the Dodgers clinch, but he said both Gordon and Van Slyke will get long looks for a bench spot.

"One guy hits a home run, another steals a base," Mattingly said. "We'll kind of deal with those questions and throw them around upstairs and downstairs if we can get there."

Gordon could give the Dodgers another Dave Roberts nine years after Roberts stole that key base to spark the Boston Red Sox's World Series run. Gordon pinch ran for Adrian Gonzalez in the 10th inning Tuesday night, stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch.

He stayed stuck there when Juan Uribe struck out on a 3-and-2 pitch from Josh Collmenter, but you could see how Gordon's presence on the bases distracted the Arizona reliever. The last thing a pitcher needs in a pressure-packed playoff setting is somebody that fast in his peripheral vision.

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LOS ANGELES -- He won't say it publicly, but one of manager Don Mattingly's biggest challenges the next three weeks is balancing how much he rests his aching players with pushing for home-field advantage in the playoffs.

The issue arose Sunday when Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw told reporters in Cincinnati he still has his sights on securing the best record in the National League. With 20 games left, the Dodgers trail the Atlanta Braves by two games for that distinction.

Does it matter? Apparently not a great deal to Mattingly, who has already inserted highly unpredictable starter Edinson Volquez in his rotation for at least two turns and rested most of his starters last week in a series in Colorado. Mattingly said it "would be nice" to secure home field -- hardly a resounding rallying cry.

"Basically, you've got to win games everywhere," Mattingly said.

And, if you look at the numbers, you really can't argue. ESPN Stats & Info's Mark Simon dug into the numbers:

• Since the 2-2-1 format was adopted in the division series in 1998, teams with home-field advantage have won 30 of the 60 series.

• Since the current format was adopted in the championship series in 1996, teams with home-field advantage have won 17 of the 34 series.

Not a math whiz here, but it looks like teams have got about a 50-50 shot of winning no matter where they play.

There are exceptions, though. If the Dodgers should play the Braves in the second round and it were to go seven games, they would be better off playing four of those at home.

Atlanta, with its powerful, but strikeout-prone, lineup, has played at a .718 rate at home and a .479 rate on the road. Dodger Stadium is one of the best pitchers' parks in baseball. Turner Field has much friendlier home run fences.

Here are lineups for Monday's game with the Arizona Diamondbacks, as the Dodgers look to trim their magic number for clinching to eight:

Arizona

1. Adam Eaton CF
2. Aaron Hill 2B
3. Paul Goldschmidt 1B
4. Eric Chavez 3B
5. Martin Prado LF
6. Miguel Montero C
7. Gerardo Parra RF
8. Didi Gregorius SS
9. Randall Delgado RHP

Dodgers

1. Yasiel Puig RF
2. Carl Crawford LF
3. Hanley Ramirez SS
4. Adrian Gonzalez 1B
5. Andre Ethier CF
6. Juan Uribe 3B
7. Mark Ellis 2B
8. Tim Federowicz C
9. Ricky Nolasco RHP

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 -- 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 -- 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 -- If there is a common thread between the acquisitions of Carlos Marmol and Edinson Volquez, it's pitching coach Rick Honeycutt.

In both cases, general manager Ned Colletti asked Honeycutt to look at tape of the struggling pitchers before striking deals. In both cases, Honeycutt said he thought he could help the pitchers get back on track.

If Marmol is any indication, the Dodgers might be able to salvage something from Volquez, the former San Diego Padres starter with the 6.01 ERA whom they signed Friday. Marmol had a 5.86 ERA with the Chicago Cubs, but since working with Honeycutt, he has changed his fortunes. All 10 of Marmol's August appearances have been scoreless.

Neither pitchers' struggles could be linked to a decline in velocity, part of the reason the Dodgers were encouraged to pursue them. According to Fangraphs, Marmol's average fastball this season has been 93.3 mph. Volquez's has been 92.3 mph.

Marmol said Honeycutt got him to stand up straighter before going into his delivery.

"It feels great, especially to be pitching for a team that wins every day," Marmol said.

Volquez's final straw in San Diego was an Aug. 23 start, in which he gave up six runs in two-thirds of an inning to the Chicago Cubs. Volquez will pitch in relief for the Dodgers initially, but he figures to make a few starts in September as well, according to Colletti.

"The pitching coach [in San Diego], he did everything he could to get me better," Volquez said. "Sometimes, it doesn't work out the way you want it to. This is the first year I'm struggling."

Here are lineups for Friday's game against the team that just released Volquez:

San Diego

1. Chris Denorfia RF
2. Will Venable CF
3. Jedd Gyorko 2B
4. Yonder Alonso 1B
5. Jesus Guzman LF
6. Logan Forsythe 3B
7. Nick Hundley C
8. Ronny Cedeno SS
9. Eric Stults LHP

Dodgers

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

SAN DIEGO -- Despite losing Clayton Kershaw to a stomach flu after the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner gamely battled through three shutout innings, the Los Angeles Dodgers bullpen was just good enough hold the San Diego Padres at bay in a 5-3, season-opening victory for the Dodgers before a sellout crowd of 42,941 at Petco Park.

The Dodgers went ahead to stay on a pair of bases-loaded walks in the fourth inning by James Loney and A.J. Ellis, then put the game to bed on Matt Kemp's two-run homer in the top of the eighth. Javy Guerra, who as a rookie saved 21 games for the Dodgers last season, notched his first one of 2012 by pitching the ninth inning.

Kershaw's early departure forced the Dodgers to go deep into their bullpen in their first game of the season, as he was followed by a parade of five relievers. But manager Don Mattingly didn't call on long reliever Jamey Wright, meaning the Dodgers probably are OK for Friday night's game without calling up additional bullpen help from the minors.

The good

Beast mode. Any concerns about Kemp's high strikeout rate in spring training quickly dissipated as the Dodgers center fielder went 2-for-4 with two runs scored, three RBIs and his first home run of the season, a two-run shot off Padres reliever Brad Brach in the eighth inning that landed atop the out-of-town scoreboard in right-center.

Glove Swag. Dee Gordon might have been robbed of his first triple of the year by a tough official scorer, who ruled three-base error on a ball that ticked off the glove of Padres center fielder Cameron Maybin. But nothing could take away the defensive play Gordon made to end the fourth inning, a diving stop behind the bag and on the edge of the outfield grass. Gordon got to his feet quickly and fired a bullet to first, taking what would have been a clean single to center away from Yonder Alonso.

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A year ago, Aaron Harang went to spring training with the San Diego Padres with a guaranteed spot in the starting rotation and a new $4 million contract. There was nothing in any of that to suggest his career was some sort of reclamation project, but it most definitely was, which is why Padres pitching coach Darren Balsley started looking at old video long before Harang even reported to camp.

Old video of Harang. From his days with the Cincinnati Reds. When he was a No. 1 starter. When he was winning 53 games over a four-year stretch.

When he had no idea what awaited him in the years to come -- a slew of injuries to a slew of different body parts plus an appendectomy.

What Balsley found was a delivery that bore no resemblance to the one Harang was now using.

"The mechanics from 2006 and 2007 were completely different from the mechanics from 2009 and 2010,'' said Harang, the veteran right-hander who signed a two-year, $12 million free-agent deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers this winter. "Everything was different. My arm slot. The length of my stride. Over time, you start battling injuries and maybe changing things just a little bit to try to compensate for any discomfort. Pretty soon, you have changed your whole delivery without even realizing it.''

Once he identified his old mechanics and went back to them, they felt totally natural almost immediately -- "It's kind of like riding a bike,'' Harang said -- and the results came almost as quickly. After going 18-38 over those three injury-plagued seasons with the Reds, including tying for the major league lead with 17 losses in 2008, Harang went 14-7 with a 3.64 ERA for the Padres last year. He likely would have won more games if he hadn't spent a month on the disabled list with a bruised right foot.

By all indications, he was back. And for a Dodgers team that was losing Hiroki Kuroda to free agency, that made him worth the risk.

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