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ATLANTA -- The Dodgers are riding a rising blue tide into their first playoff series in four years and we’re not just talking about their fans. The experts are wholeheartedly on board, too, and remained so with full knowledge the Dodgers will be without Matt Kemp for the postseason and are not yet sure what they may get out of Andre Ethier against the Atlanta Braves.

ESPN asked its panel of experts to predict each of the playoff series and the Dodgers come out looking like heavy road favorites. You had to scroll down a few screens to get to the first voter who picked Atlanta, ESPN TV reporter Pedro Gomez. In all, 26 of ESPN’s crew took the Dodgers and six took the Braves.

Seems a bit strange at first glance, considering Atlanta went 5-2 against the Dodgers this year and pretty much dominated its division all season. The Dodgers were in last place going into July, took off like a bottle rocket in July and August and then settled into a blah September.

It’s pretty easy to see what makes them tick: feeling good. Before June 22, the Day the Season Changed, the Dodgers used the disabled list 20 times. After that, they used it five times. Toward the end of September, the injuries started cropping up again, like weeds you thought you’d pulled.

When they were unhealthy, they were bad. When they were healthy, they were great. When they were moderately healthy, they were mediocre.

By the way, the Braves -- who also had the luxury of a massive division lead -- didn’t exactly sail through September either, losing 13 of 24. So, momentum seems to be a wash.

We could get a good read on the Dodgers’ health in Game 2. If Hanley Ramirez, who has been on the on-again, off-again playing regime for weeks because of an irritated nerve in his back, plays Friday, that is good news for the Dodgers. It might mean they’ll have their frontline guys all series.

Ramirez had a strained hamstring when the Braves and Dodgers met in May.

“I feel good,” Ramirez said Sunday. “I think what we’ve been doing -- one game, one off -- it’s been helping me a lot. Now it’s about to get real.”

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LOS ANGELES – Should the Dodgers have pushed harder for homefield advantage last week?

Going into their Tuesday game at AT&T Park, they trailed the Atlanta Braves by two games and the St. Louis Cardinals by one. The Dodgers went 2-4 from that point. They weren’t going to catch the Cardinals, who won all five of their remaining games. And they weren’t going to catch Atlanta, which went 3-2, but held the tiebreaker over the Dodgers.

So, the answer to that question is a fairly definitive, “no,” unless you think that by half-stepping in the final two series, the Dodgers lost their edge heading into the playoffs. That could well be true, but it didn't feel that way. We'll find out if the Dodgers can flip the switch again Thursday.

Overall, it was a pretty bad week and a continuation of the Dodgers’ lackluster September, but you could also argue, who cares?

SCORING

Here’s where the worriers might have some justification. The Dodgers’ lineup didn’t look dangerous last week, scoring an average of 3.5 runs per game and batting .222. Yasiel Puig (.167, five strikeouts in six games) struggled badly. One of the few Dodgers swinging a hot bat in San Francisco, Matt Kemp, was shut down for the entire postseason with an inflamed ankle.

And it won’t get any easier Thursday, when the Dodgers face Braves right-hander Kris Medlen, who is 3-0 with a 1.23 ERA against the Dodgers.

Of course, the counterargument to the worriers is that manager Don Mattingly continued to give his frontline players revolving days off. Beginning Thursday, barring a setback, Hanley Ramirez, Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford and Puig will all be in the lineup for every game.

While the loss of Kemp and, probably, Andre Ethier, will sap the lineup of some depth, the Dodgers have the names and resumes to do damage once again. If they can only find the spark they’ve been missing.

Grade: D+

DEFENSE

Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke finished up their regular seasons exactly as you would want them to, by dominating. Kershaw put a ribbon on his Cy Young-bound season Friday and Greinke pitched nearly as well the following day while, somehow, picking up the loss.

Hyun-Jin Ryu had another one of those starts where he gives up a bunch of hits, but generally pitches out of trouble. Ricky Nolasco’s slump is something of a concern, but if the Dodgers’ top three starters pitch to form, maybe they won’t have to worry about a Game 4, who knows?

It was that kind of week for Dodgers pitching, which lost four games while pitching to a 1.92 ERA.

Most of the key relievers seem to be sharp heading into the playoffs, Kenley Jansen has been unhittable, Brian Wilson continues to go strong and J.P. Howell has pitched well. Paco Rodriguez has been struggling, but Mattingly said he feels fine about his young lefty heading into the playoffs.

Grade: A-

DECISION-MAKING

Mattingly needs to keep his day job, because he would make a terrible psychic. All season, he has been asked to assess the severity of Dodgers injuries and, all season long, he has started out being as optimistic and conservative in his estimates as he can be.

Pretty much every time, the injury proved to be more serious than first hoped.
Last weekend, Mattingly thought Ethier was healthy enough to pinch hit, so he gave him an at-bat in San Diego. Ethier hasn’t been seen since. Going into Sunday’s game, Mattingly thought Kemp would be ready to go by Thursday. Four hours later, the Dodgers team doctor shut down Kemp for the remainder of 2013.

So, we have to assume that some of the aches and pains the Dodgers hitters have been dealing with are a bit more severe than the team has indicated. In that case, Mattingly was perfectly justified in fielding some watered-down lineups after the Dodgers clinched.

Grade: B

CHEMISTRY TEST

Kershaw is a good example of how players’ attitudes can affect the team’s performance. The Dodgers have provided Kershaw with awful run support all season, which means that his charmed season -- becoming just the second L.A. Dodger to finish with a sub-2.00 ERA -- only netted him 16 wins.

Now, whenever anyone glances casually at Kershaw’s baseball card, they’ll skim right over 2013 rather than recognize his brilliance this season.

All season, Kershaw has held his tongue when he was given an opportunity to criticize Dodgers hitters. Many a pitcher has admitted to frustration under similar circumstances.

People tend to focus on the big personalities -- players like Puig, Brian Wilson and Juan Uribe -- when talking about team chemistry, but a player such as Kershaw or Mark Ellis can contribute just as much by staying quiet sometimes.

Grade: A-

STATE OF CONTENTION

The Dodgers are in the playoffs and they don’t have to bother with a wild-card game.
That’s about as good as you can hope for right about now.

Grade: A

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-

The Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks play the third game of a four-game series in Phoenix tonight (10 ET on ESPN/WatchESPN). Arizona needs only one win in the next two days to win the season series for the third straight year.

Here are a few storylines you might hear about during the broadcast.

1. The Dodgers magic number to clinch first place in the NL West is two, meaning they can clinch with a win tonight.

This would be LA’s third division title in the last six years. However, in each of the last two instances (2008, 2009) the Dodgers were eliminated in the NLCS by the Philadelphia Phillies.

2. The Dodgers have overcome a number of injuries this season. In fact, they’ve used the DL 25 times, more than any other team in the Senior Circuit.

Matt Kemp made his first start off the DL Tuesday night and posted his first four-hit, three-RBI game since Sept. 26, 2012. This was also the fifth such game of his career (four have come against NL West opponents).

3. Paul Goldschmidt has belted five home runs and 18 RBIs off Dodgers pitching this season. His RBIs are tied with Colorado's Michael Cuddyer and San Francisco's Hunter Pence for the most among all players against Los Angeles this season.

In addition, Goldschmidt is riding a seven-game hitting streak that has seen him hit .566 (15-for-27) with nine RBIs.

4. The Diamondbacks have won their share of dramatic games this season. Arizona has 16 extra-inning wins, most by an NL team since the 1999 Atlanta Braves (17) and their 13 walk-off wins are a club record.

Misc. Notes
• Yasiel Puig is hitting .554 on the first pitch of an at-bat this season, the highest average in the majors (minimum 50 plate appearances).

• Arizona’s Didi Gregorius has had a solid rookie season. Among NL rookies, only Yasiel Puig (.401 to .328) has posted a higher OBP (minimum 300 at-bats).

• Opponents are hitting .071 (4-for-56) with runners in scoring position this season against Dodgers reliever Kenley Jansen.

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.

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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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-

In most seasons, for most teams, a 4-3 record in a week that started 2,400 miles from home and concluded against one of the best teams in baseball would be considered successful. For the 2013 Dodgers, you’d have to consider it a mild disappointment.

After doing what you would have expected them to do in Miami, they came home and lost a series to the Boston Red Sox. Before that, they hadn’t lost a series since mid-June.

They ran into very tough Boston starting pitching and the offense in the past week or so has shown some signs of tapering off.

Not that it was a bad week if you’re a Dodger fans. Vin Scully announced he’s returning next season for his 65^th year in the broadcast booth. Scully said the excitement of the team’s dramatic season was one of the reasons he decided to come back.

SCORING

For a while, one of the most impressive aspects of the Dodgers’ surge was their ability to beat quality, sometimes even dominant, starting pitchers. Cliff Lee. Matt Harvey. Shelby Miller. It didn’t matter. The Dodgers somehow got the better of some difficult matchups.

Last week, they settled into a more-pedestrian pattern. They scored off the pitchers you would expect them to score on and looked human against the others. Jose Fernandez, Jake Peavy and Jon Lester all essentially shut them down.

The Dodgers averaged three runs per game, which is closer to their April and May pace than what they’ve shown since. Still, given the pitchers they were facing, it’s all entirely forgivable.

It’s appropriate that Boston was in town on the one-year anniversary of the big trade. Two of the key cogs from that trade have been, once again, keeping the Dodgers offense moving forward. Carl Crawford batted .333 with three walks and a couple of stolen bases. Adrian Gonzalez hit .296 , homered and drove in four runs.

Otherwise, it was a ho-hum week, with phenom Yasiel Puig (.167) struggling as badly as anyone.

Grade: C

DEFENSE

The Dodgers are seeing exactly the kind of dynamic in their pitching staff that can make a team difficult to handle in October. Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke are becoming the best 1-2 combination of starters in the National League.

But it’s not just about them. Ricky Nolasco missed facing his former team when the Dodgers were in Miami, but he made sure the Boston series wasn’t a total loss by giving up just two hits, striking out six, in Friday’s 2-0 win.

The bullpen wasn’t quite as stout as it had been in previous weeks, with J.P. Howell, Brandon League and Chris Withrow all getting hit at times, but in the key spots, it generally held firm. Kenley Jansen has taken all the drama out of the last inning. He had three saves and allowed just one runner to reach base. Carlos Marmol pitched well, cementing his place in the bullpen.

If you were going to comb through this Dodgers team for a flaw, you would say occasionally sloppy defense could be their downfall. They have made 90 errors this season, worse than all but three teams in the NL. Then again, this trend -- like so many others -- seems to be going in a positive direction.

After making a couple of punishing errors in a loss to the Philadelphia Phillies, Hanley Ramirez played a clean week of defense. He might be the Dodgers’ most-improved fielder.

Grade: A-

DECISION-MAKING

There’s another trade deadline on the way. The non-waiver period has already passed, but if teams acquire a player before Saturday, that player would be eligible for the post-season roster.

But, even if general manager Ned Colletti found a team willing to move a major piece, what area does he really need to improve? Brian Wilson and Marmol look like they might be the veteran relievers the Dodgers were looking for before the July 31 deadline.

They could try to land another starting pitcher, but considering they’ll only need four once the playoffs begin, even that would be surprising, especially with Nolasco pitching well.

The Dodgers also will get a little help on the fringes when rosters expand on Sept. 1.

Was Don Mattingly too lenient on Yasiel Puig when he benched him for only part of one game in Miami, a game in which Puig hit the decisive home run after entering as a defensive replacement? Was he too harsh fining him after Puig got stuck in traffic and showed up late?

Those questions will be debated as the Puig saga unfolds, but it seems Mattingly at least started to take a stand. That should be viewed favorably within the clubhouse.

Grade: B-

CHEMISTRY QUIZ

We saw the first in-house signs of backlash toward Puig last week, with Mattingly fining him and veteran players beginning to express some disappointment with Puig repeating his on-field mistakes. For now, it seems containable, more a headache for Mattingly than a crisis.

The Dodgers’ clubhouse was already trending toward goofy before Wilson arrived. Now, guys seem to be having even more fun before games. Wilson and Uribe have revived their tradition from the San Francisco Giants days of playing dominos before games, with Uribe’s voice often filling the clubhouse with calls of “Wil-son!”

They’re still winning. What's not to like?

Grade: B-

STATE OF CONTENTION

If Dodgers fans are prone to worry, they might think of a team like the 2011 Atlanta Braves, who, on Aug. 23, were in prime position for a deep playoff run, 10 ½ games ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals in the wild-card standings.

From there, Atlanta went 11-21 and failed to make the playoffs, with the Cardinals making one of the most improbable World Series runs in the sport’s history.

Then again, those types of collapses become famous, because they’re so rare. The Dodgers began the week with a 7 ½-game lead and they ended it with a 9 1/2-game lead, so how bad can things be?

Grade: A-

LOS ANGELES -- During the Los Angeles Dodgers' historic summer run, they haven't cared much about the opponent they have faced.

Whether it's in the division or out of the division, interleague or not, the Dodgers have simply steamrolled the competition, going 46-10 since June 22, racking up 12 more wins than any other team in the majors during that span.

Friday night's 2-0 win against the Boston Red Sox to give the Dodgers a 10 1/2-game lead atop the National League West seemed different.

That's because, about a year ago, the Dodgers pulled off a blockbuster trade that brought Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett and Nick Punto to the team. Every player coming to Los Angeles in that deal was painted as an overpriced mistake and reviled in Boston.

The trade was the best thing to happen to them both personally and professionally but doesn't take away the bad memories of their time in Boston.

The Dodgers might not say it publicly, but Friday's win (as well as all this weekend's games against Boston) was for Gonzalez, Crawford, Punto and Beckett, even though Beckett is currently sidelined.

Crawford went 2-for-3 against his former team, including a run and two stolen bases. Hanley Ramirez, a former Red Sox player himself, hit a two-run homer in the fourth inning, which was all the scoring the Dodgers needed. Ricky Nolasco pitched eight innings of two-hit ball with six strikeouts, and Kenley Jansen came in and successfully converted his 15th consecutive save opportunity.

"That was a great win," Crawford said in an on-field television interview after the game. "Now we want to get the other two."

MIAMI -- Maybe you think Yasiel Puig is the most dynamic player in baseball. Perhaps you think he's an immature young player headed for a dive.

But if you're a baseball fan, there's a pretty good chance you're paying attention. Puig's neon-lights summer took another wild turn with Tuesday's 6-4 Los Angeles Dodgers win over the Miami Marlins.

Puig, fined before the game for showing up late and left out of the starting lineup, hit a majestic home run in the eighth inning to break a 4-all tie and send the Dodgers on their way to snapping a two-game losing streak.

Puig has proved to be a nice draw here, about 250 miles from where he grew up in Cuba, even when he wasn't pitted against fellow Cuban phenom Jose Fernandez. On Tuesday, the Marlins drew 25,690 fans -- about 7,000 more than their per-game average this season -- and, when Puig finally ran out to right field during a sixth-inning double switch, the fans cheered loudly.

His blast on the first pitch of the eighth inning, off reliever Dan Jennings, soared nearly to the level of the bank of lights above left field and clanged loudly off the top of the wall.

The Marlins have looked a little scrappier than their 47-75 record coming into this series would have suggested. The Dodgers have looked a little sleepier than their 72-51 record coming into the series would have suggested.

Most of Tuesday was a frustrating grind for the Dodgers, who minimized the damage their 16 hits could do by leaving 12 runners on base.

On Monday they ran into the Fernandez buzz saw. On Tuesday they could have easily knocked Jacob Turner from the game in the first few innings, but Skip Schumaker hit into rally-killing double plays in his first two at-bats.

The Dodgers nonetheless built a 4-1 lead with three straight two-out singles in the fourth, but Chris Capuano gave back two the following half-inning. And reliever Brandon League just can't settle into a role in which he seems comfortable.

The demoted closer -- signed to a three-year, $22.5 million deal last October -- had gotten on a nice roll, with a 2.13 ERA and .167 opponents' batting average in his previous 12 games going into Tuesday. But once again, he struggled to protect a slim lead. Pitching the sixth inning, League allowed a pair of sharply hit singles and a walk to allow Miami to tie it 4-all.

The Dodgers eventually gained some traction against Miami's leaky bullpen and shaky defense, adding a key extra run for closer Kenley Jansen, who shut the door for his 20th save. Jansen has saved his past 13 opportunities. Hanley Ramirez, who had gone hitless in the first two games while listening to relentless booing at his former home stadium, had a leadoff double and scored in the ninth.

LOS ANGELES –- A couple of weeks ago, Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti was spending a lot of his time on the telephone searching for relief help before the trade deadline. Frustrated by teams asking for his best prospects, he decided to step away from what he viewed as an overheated market.

Relief pitchers did switch teams -- Scott Downs, Francisco Rodriguez, Marc Rzepczynski and Jose Veras among them -- but they were generally second-tier setup men, and, in one case -- Jesse Crain -- the pitcher wasn’t even healthy enough to pitch.

What seemed like a gamble at the time -– the Dodgers' only hedge against their questionable bullpen was to sign Brian Wilson, a pitcher coming off reconstructive elbow surgery -– has looked anything but ill-conceived.

If these past few weeks are any indication, the Dodgers had all the arms they’ll need. They might even have too many. Somebody’s going to have to go when Wilson finishes his rehab outing sometime in the next week or so.

The Dodgers don’t even have to play that well to win these days. They made four errors and won Sunday because Clayton Kershaw was pitching and their offense was clicking. Ricky Nolasco teetered on getting knocked out of Monday’s game in the second inning –- and the Dodgers were baffled by young Jenrry Mejia –- but they got breaks and rallied to win 4-2.

The constant has been the bullpen, which hasn’t allowed a run in five days. Ronald Belisario, Paco Rodriguez and Kenley Jansen got the final eight outs of Monday’s game, meaning the bullpen has now pitched 16 straight scoreless innings.

“At the beginning, we struggled. It takes a little time to get everybody right,” Belisario said. “We started winning. We started pitching good.”

Jansen has been virtually impossible to hit lately, stabilizing the back of games. Since July 3, he has converted all 11 of his save chances, and opponents are hitting .109 against him since that time.

“Everybody’s kind of getting together at the right time,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. “We definitely feel good about it. Guys have been getting their outs. I think we went into the season feeling pretty good about it.”

Who needs Hanley Ramirez when you have Nick Punto and Skip Schumaker, right?

OK, so consider that a rhetorical question.

Yet the fact the Dodgers managed to go 6-1 last week with the man who carried them for large stretches of July out with a shoulder injury, tells us something. It tells us the Dodgers are on the kind of roll that can only be produced collectively. It’s not about Yasiel Puig. Or Ramirez. Or Clayton Kershaw.

It’s about everybody.

Punto and Schumaker combined to bat .533 with eight RBIs last week. In other words, they gave them the production they would have expected from a player like Ramirez, who has the Dodgers’ third-highest WAR (3.7) despite missing 59 games with injuries this season.

The Dodgers won’t say this publicly, of course, but the fact they’re showing so much patience getting Ramirez back on the field probably has something to do with the fact they’re increasingly confident of making the playoffs. They’re more likely to play deep into October if Ramirez is playing at 95 percent health than at 70 percent.

SCORING

Don Mattingly has only seen Kershaw frustrated by his low run support (third-worst in the majors) one time this year. He couldn’t recall the exact game, but it was some time in April or May.

“He didn’t say anything and he might say it really wasn’t, but it just seemed like he was having a bad day,” Mattingly said.

It happens to a pitcher on somebody’s staff every year. Mattingly remembers that Ron Guidry was always the guy who got low run support when he pitched for the New York Yankees. The fact it’s Kershaw isn’t sitting well with the Dodgers.

“We need to change it, that’s for sure,” Mattingly said.

And, just like that, the Dodgers did -- or, at least, started to. They jumped on the Tampa Bay Rays for eight runs in Sunday’s sweep-capping victory, allowing Kershaw -- for just the second time this year -- to coast.

The Dodgers are more about pitching than hitting, but unless Kershaw is on the mound, they do a more-than-adequate job of supporting their pitchers. Hyun-Jin Ryu and Zack Greinke have both gotten plenty of support.

The Dodgers scored 42 runs in seven games, though 13 of those were in one game in St. Louis, after Carl Crawford lined a ball off Shelby Miller’s right elbow, knocking him out of the game after two pitches.

Adrian Gonzalez had a solid week, but nobody had more moments than Punto and Schumaker, who commute to Dodger Stadium from Orange County on a daily basis.

Grade: B-

DEFENSE

Dodgers starters lead the major leagues in ERA. No surprise there, considering they have two Cy Young winners and their No. 5 starter, Chris Capuano, is good enough to have pitched nine seasons in the major leagues.

But what has allowed Dodgers pitching to take off has been one of the hottest bullpens in the majors. Paco Rodriguez and Kenley Jansen have been impossible to score against and the other Dodgers relievers are handling their roles.

The improvement in relief could be key for the Dodgers’ chances in October. The bullpen all season has stood out as the area of most serious concern.

From the sixth inning of Wednesday’s game in St. Louis, the Dodgers’ bullpen pitched nothing but shutout innings. Going into Sunday, opponents were batting .100 off the relievers in that span.

From July 23 to Thursday, Jensen retired 27 straight batters. Were he a starter -- and had he done it in one night -- he would have had a perfect game. Rodriguez got a rare two-inning save in St. Louis. J.P. Howell got some big outs. Even Brandon League looks like he’s rebuilding his delivery. Carlos Marmol isn't a lost cause.

The Dodgers will be considered October threats because of their starting pitching, but their relievers could make them the complete package.

The Dodgers played awful defense early in Friday’s game and somehow came back to win it, rallying for seven runs in the final three innings. Dee Gordon continues to be a work in progress (putting it kindly) when he plays shortstop. If you're a fretful type and root for the Dodgers, fielding will be your only major worry these days.

Grade: A-

DECISION-MAKING

One of the more puzzling Don Mattingly decisions was to use Ramirez as a pinch hitter Friday night with the Dodgers trailing 6-1 and with Schumaker on second. Ramirez looked bad striking out to end the inning, but more important, it set back his clock should the Dodgers elect to put him on the disabled list.

Now, any move would be retroactive only to Friday.

You have to also give Mattingly some of the credit for how well the bullpen performed. He put them in the right spots to succeed. In fact, it seems Mattingly’s feel for his bullpen and its roles is one of the more positive evolving story lines.

Brian Wilson made the Dodgers’ decision to sign him look smart, at least so far. In all three of his minor-league rehabhttp://proxy.espn.go.com/blogadmin/los-angelesdodger-report/wp-admin/upload.php outings, he has pitched perfect innings.

Grade: B+

GRIT-METER

Punto and Schumaker were prominent, so the grit-meter was a bit higher than usual. Those guys must argue about who's more scrappy on their 45-mile commute. But let’s face it, when you’re this hot, grit's kind of a secondary concern. They'd rather have them hit.

STATE OF CONTENTION

While not completely falling out of things, the Diamondbacks haven’t kept pace, allowing the Dodgers to add two more games of distance between themselves and the second-place team. It also doesn’t help that outfielder Cody Ross, one of Arizona’s hottest hitters, had to be carted off the field and taken to a hospital after dislocating his hip in Sunday’s game.

The rest of the division has faded into a blob of irrelevance.

Barring a strange change of direction, the Dodgers soon will be jockeying for home-field advantage in the playoffs, rather than scrambling to get there. And, we're teetering on giving them an 'A,' but ...

Grade: A-

LOS ANGELES -- You could run through a lot of names for National League Rookie of the Year before you landed on Paco Rodriguez, but the Dodgers have leaned heavily on their young reliever.

Rodriguez, who was the first player from the 2012 draft to reach the major leagues last season, has emerged as the team's primary setup man. When closer Kenley Jansen was given the day off Monday in St. Louis, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly turned to Rodriguez for the save.

He got it, by pitching two innings and not allowing a base runner.

Rodriguez has been so reliable -- he has a 1.60 ERA since May 1 and opponents are batting .123 off him -- that Mattingly has found it difficult to avoid going to him, particularly when a team's best left-handed hitters are due up. Rodriguez has appeared in 56 games, something of a concern given that he was pitching on a college schedule -- four games a week -- a little over a year ago.

Rodriguez pitched in just 21 minor-league games before joining the Dodgers last August. Two weeks ago, pitching coach Rick Honeycutt asked Rodriguez to cut back on his throwing routine before games.

"It's crazy. I've gotten to a point where I have coaches talking to me. I've asked players what they do when their body is wearing down, because sometimes you wake up the next day and you're dragging," Rodriguez said. "So, I've been talking to the guys to find out what their routines are when that starts to happen."

The two-inning save Monday was the Dodgers' first in more than four years. Mattingly said he and Honeycutt have been concerned for weeks about limiting the workloads of Rodriguez, 22, and Jansen, who has pitched in 57 games.

"It's a little bit of a double-edged sword for us, because you want to control their usage and stay on top of it, but if you have a chance to win a game, it's not like you're going to sit there like, 'Oh well, I'm not going to use him,' " Mattingly said.

Rodriguez is excited about his first trip with the Dodgers to his hometown of Miami later this month. His mother was able to secure 100 tickets from a family friend.

* Hanley Ramirez's jammed right shoulder wasn't well enough for him to return to the lineup Friday, but Mattingly said he may be available to pinch hit and could return during this three-game series.

Here are lineups for Friday night's game:

Tampa Bay
1. Sean Rodriguez LF
2. Ryan Roberts 2B
3. Evan Longoria 3B
4. Wil Myers CF
5. Ben Zobrist RF
6. Yunel Escobar SS
7. James Loney 1B
8. Jose Molina C
9. David Price LHP

Dodgers
1. Mark Ellis 2B
2. Nick Punto SS
3. Adrian Gonzalez 1B
4. Yasiel Puig CF
5. Jerry Hairston Jr. LF
6. Juan Uribe 3B
7. Tim Federowicz C
8. Skip Schumaker RF
9. Chris Capuano LHP

Brian Wilson can see it from afar.

The former All-Star closer just joined the Los Angeles Dodgers organization 10 days ago -- and his closest work place to a Dodger Stadium mound was in Rancho Cucamonga -- but he has watched enough games on TV to see what’s happening.

"You can see the atmosphere has kind of changed. You watch all the teams throughout the year and kind of see a certain carryover, having a loose atmosphere, playing fun," Wilson said. "You can see they’re having a great time."

You would think a guy like Wilson, with his dramatic and ever-changing hairstyles and braided beard, might make things even more fun in the Dodgers clubhouse.

But as Wilson spoke to reporters after his first rehab outing Wednesday night, I couldn't help marveling at what a luxury he is. The Dodgers really didn't have all that urgent a need when they took a $1 million gamble to see if Wilson could give them quality relief work for the final six weeks of the season and, they hope, beyond.

During this 41-game stretch, in which the Dodgers have won 33 games, their relievers are 10-1 with a 2.88 ERA in 115 2/3 innings. Before that, they were 12-17 with a 4.67 ERA.

So, if Wilson is good, they have one more experienced setup man to get the ball to red-hot closer Kenley Jansen. If Jansen falters, Wilson might even step in. If he's not good or his arm doesn't hold up, they watch a million bills from their $216 million payroll go up in smoke. Oh well.

Of course, all teams have limitations of one sort or another. The Dodgers are practically without bounds financially, but former owner Frank McCourt left the Dodgers' minor-league system bare. Thus, the Dodgers elected to pass on any potential trades for relievers, holding onto their few premium prospects.

The Tampa Bay Rays, who visit Dodger Stadium for the first time ever this weekend, have arrived at a similar place through different means. The Rays, who are the American League version of the Dodgers -- 25-8 since June 28 -- are cash-poor, but prospect-rich.

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The thing about a major-league season is it just keeps going.

That nearly inexhaustible stretch of games was good news when the Los Angeles Dodgers were languishing in last place, limping along with injuries and underachievement. It gave them time to straighten themselves out and scramble back into the race.

It’s not as good now that they’ve built a relatively comfy lead atop the NL West and are dealing with their biggest challenge since they dramatically changed course June 22.

They’re hurt again. When the Dodgers left Chicago, Hanley Ramirez’s right arm was in a sling, Matt Kemp was in a walking boot and Yasiel Puig still was dealing with a sore left wrist. That’s a lot of potential firepower nursing an assortment of injuries, large and small.

The Dodgers were able to get out of Wrigley Field with a four-game sweep despite an offense that wasn’t exactly firing on all cylinders by the end. The Dodgers won Sunday despite managing two hits. That’s hard to do.

Overall, the Dodgers went 5-1 and extended their franchise-record road winning streak to 14 games; they’re 31-7 in their last 38 games and tacked three games onto their division lead. How bad can things be?

SCORING

It wasn’t an awful week for the Dodgers’ offense, more like slightly sub-mediocre, but it could have been worse if Puig hadn’t returned to his June form. He was the only Dodgers batter creating significant noise. He even did it in novel ways, introducing the base on balls to his game.

Puig batted .412 with a home run, a couple of doubles and four walks to carry the lion’s share of the run production. Overall, the Dodgers scored 19 runs in six games while running into a fairly ordinary slate of opposing pitchers.

In May, this would have been the norm. The way the Dodgers had been scalding the ball in July, though, it felt like a letdown.

They probably won’t be able to get by at 60 percent scoring capacity in St. Louis, their next destination. The Cardinals can hit. Then again, the Dodgers can pitch and the Cardinals will have to get past their best arms.

If Puig and Ramirez aren’t on the field, it’s hard to imagine the Dodgers scoring enough to take the series. Then again, you could go broke betting against them lately.

Grade: A-

DEFENSE

In a way, every time a team is tested, it’s an opportunity for somebody. The Dodgers learned something valuable during this week of close games. They found out their young closer might be ready for the trials of September and October, provided they don’t blow out his arm before then.

Kenley Jansen was dominant this week, prompting Dodgers manager Don Mattingly to compare the action on Jansen’s pitches -- and his ability to dominate without bothering to use secondary pitches -- to Mariano Rivera.

Jansen breezed, retiring all 12 batters he faced, 10 of them by strikeout. It’s not as if Jansen is the hardest-throwing reliever in baseball. He was blowing away Cubs batters with 91- and 92-mph fastballs. His fastball has a natural cutting action that makes it difficult for hitters to track, so it plays up.

Overall, it was the week the Dodgers’ pitching asserted its primacy. Dodgers pitchers allowed an average of 1.8 runs per game. The Cubs were simply overmatched. Clayton Kershaw, once again, was dominant, but somehow he started the only game the Dodgers lost. That’s kind of his season, so far, in a nutshell.

Grade: A

DECISION-MAKING

The Brian Wilson signing is risky in exactly the way the Dodgers can afford to be risky. They out-bid other teams to land Wilson, the former San Francisco Giants closer who had Tommy John surgery 16 months ago, by agreeing to pay him $1 million for a couple of months.

If it doesn’t work out, the only thing it will cost them is dollars. The Dodgers decided to lay off an overheated market for relievers, preserving the few high-level prospects they still have in their system.

The only trade the Dodgers made was for light-hitting catcher Drew Butera. Hard to get too worked up about a guy who was immediately optioned to Triple-A, but you never know. Maybe he’ll come in handy in September and he’ll give Tim Federowicz a little competition for the backup spot.

It seemed like a lot of Dodgers fans wanted to see more fire out of manager Don Mattingly earlier this season. This week, at the height of the Dodgers’ season, they finally saw it. Mattingly was ejected from games Wednesday and Friday for arguing with umpires.

Otherwise, there wasn’t a lot to scrutinize about his moves. Because of all the save situations, he relied heavily on Jansen. You just hope that doesn’t lead to repercussions down the road. Jansen pitched in four of the six games.

Grade: B

GRIT-METER

When the Dodgers got to Chicago, they seemed to almost kick their game into neutral and it didn’t matter. They didn’t play particularly well, but they still managed to sweep.

That might be the best sign yet of how far they’ve come. They’re playing so well now that they can stand back while teams like the Cubs beat themselves. The New York Yankees used to pile up regular-season wins that way, rolling through the soft spots in their schedule.

You also wonder if the Dodgers are beginning to intimidate other teams. Teams know how hot they’ve been and they’re having a hard time finishing games. It’s probably fair to put aside questions about the Dodgers’ grit and fight by now.

Grade: B+

STATE OF CONTENTION

You can’t take anything for granted. Pennant races can turn on a dime.

But things are certainly setting up well for the Dodgers, who have watched the rest of their division fall apart just as they’ve hit their stride. Soon, their schedule will lighten up. They built their lead from 2 1/2 games to 5 1/2 games over the Arizona Diamondbacks and the rest of the teams in the NL West look like non-factors.

Other goals -– like homefield advantage throughout the playoffs –- are starting to come into focus. And, even if Arizona gets red hot somehow, the Dodgers are now in the middle of the wild-card picture, too.

There are a lot of things to like about where this team has put itself.

Grade: A-