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LOS ANGELES -- One year ago today, Guggenheim Baseball Management completed its purchase of the Los Angeles Dodgers, ending the dreary Frank McCourt era and suggesting better things were in the offing.

In 12 months, the new owners delivered on their promises, spending lavishly to improve the major league team, updating glorious but faded Dodger Stadium and plucking experienced scouts from other teams’ payrolls to help rebuild a minor league system McCourt had let fester.

The work isn’t done, but it’s off to a flying start. In the coming months, according to team president Stan Kasten, the Dodgers hope to polish off a humming -- and free -- wireless service in their stadium and to continue trying to coax MLB into awarding them an All-Star Game at some date after the 2016 game in Cincinnati.

Practically the only thing the Dodgers haven’t done -- and, it sounds like, they don’t plan on doing any time soon -- is to show everybody how delighted they are with the leadership they’re getting in the dugout.

While they say they are happy with manager Don Mattingly’s performance, he continues to work in the final year of his deal with a 2014 option.

Just down the freeway, Mike Scioscia -- whose Los Angeles Angels are off to a far drearier start than the Dodgers are -- is locked up for another five years. The Dodgers' arch rivals, the San Francisco Giants, just extended manager Bruce Bochy through 2016.

So, why won’t a team that gave a pitcher who is currently injured, Zack Greinke, a six-year commitment lock up its manager and end all doubt about its primary baseball voice for coming seasons?

According to Kasten, it’s the wrong way of looking at it.

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LOS ANGELES -- If you found yourself frustrated -- or, perhaps, just bored -- watching Josh Beckett slowly, sloooooooooooooowly, put the Los Angeles Dodgers in an early hole Wednesday night, you were not alone.

Hours after he had left the game (and we do mean hours), Beckett admitted his month-long cold spell to start the season has begun to wear on him. It's May now, he's still winless and Wednesday night was his worst start yet -- a clunker that set the Dodgers on course for a 7-3 loss to the Colorado Rockies and took nearly four hours to complete.

Beckett (0-4, 5.24 ERA) once didn't really care about the size of the umpire's strike zone. He could throw a 95-mph fastball or some nasty breaking ball for a strike and get back to the dugout fast enough to keep his team warm. Now, when the umpire isn't giving him the corners to work with, he seems to spend hours trying to figure out ways to get hitters out. So far, he has come up with a lot of wrong answers.

As hard as it is to watch, imagine what it must be like to play behind.

"You can't leave your guys out there standing like I did in the first inning for like 40-45 minutes," Beckett said.

Beckett worked hard to refine his changeup this spring and he has thrown that pitch more than ever before in his career, about 18 percent of the time this season. But that alone hasn't made up for a fastball that has dipped about 4 mph over the past several seasons and a curveball that is only sporadically effective.

"Apparently, [hitters] have made an adjustment to me. It's a pretty good one, so I have to do something," Beckett said. "I can't just keep running out there and pitching like [crap]."

It's not as if the Dodgers should be panicking about their starting pitching, though they've churned through nine starters in a month. Clayton Kershaw and Hyun-Jin Ryu are working at the top of their games. Zack Greinke should be back in another month or so. Matt Magill looked like a major-league caliber arm while making his debut.

But as they set sail into a seemingly endless schedule, it would be reassuring to see Beckett settle into something like a comfortable groove. Though he got batted around most of last season in Boston, many people thought he would thrive in the National League. He looked solid late last year for the Dodgers but has failed to get through six innings in four of his six starts this year.

"It starts to creep on you, it's one outing and then it's another outing and then it's getting to be a little bit of a hole as you think about trying to climb out of that," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. "It's not going to be one start and you're back to .500. You have to pitch good for a while."

Beckett has half of that equation down. He pitched for quite a while Wednesday night even if he didn't get through many innings. The good part is a work in progress.

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Dodgers are having trouble getting on a roll and the culprit, surprisingly, has been herky-jerky starting pitching.

Clayton Kershaw dominated Sunday. Ted Lilly stunk up the place Monday. Hyun-Jin Ryu dealt Tuesday. Josh Beckett looked like he didn't want to throw the ball Wednesday evening, setting a discordant tone in the Dodgers' 7-3 loss to the Colorado Rockies.

Beckett seemed frozen in amber for the early innings, launching the game on a glacial pace and putting Dodgers' defenders on their heels. The team showed some fight, but never really recovered.

The first three innings were drawn out over nearly two hours, much of that time Beckett simply staring in at catcher A.J. Ellis' mitt. He spotted Colorado a 3-0 lead when he allowed the first four batters of the game to reach base (one of them on a routine grounder that clanked off Hanley Ramirez’s glove for an error).

Beckett lasted only four innings, allowing five runs on five hits and three walks.

One month into the season, Beckett (0-4, 5.24 ERA) still is looking for his first win. He has had some good starts, notably that April 14 masterpiece in Arizona, but he has also failed to get through six innings in four of his six starts. The Dodgers are 1-5 when he pitches.

His short outing put some more weight on the Dodgers’ bullpen, which had to soak up six innings in a 12-2 loss Monday and had to mop up for Beckett two days later.

Ramirez was a little slow at times, too, such as when he stood at home plate admiring his opposite-field "home run" in the bottom of the first inning. It wasn’t a home run. The ball landed on the warning track and Ramirez had to kick it into gear to pull into second base standing up.

One encouraging trend has been the rapid return of Ramirez’s hitting. After missing nearly six weeks recovering from thumb surgery, Ramirez has two doubles and a home run and is 5-for-9 in two starts. In the team's other 25 games, all other Dodgers shortstops combined have two extra-base hits.

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Dodgers have taken this decision about as far as they can go.

It has been five days since Mark Ellis left a game because of a strained right quadriceps and he continues to feel something when he runs. Now that Carl Crawford is also nursing an injury -- a tight right hamstring -- Dodgers manager Don Mattingly says he is increasingly uncomfortable carrying two injured players on the 25-man roster.

It appears Ellis will go on the 15-day disabled list Friday when the Dodgers activate pitcher Clayton Kershaw from the bereavement list to pitch that night in San Francisco. Kershaw has been in Dallas to be with his family after the death of his father.

Crawford was out of the lineup for a second straight day Wednesday, but Mattingly said his injury doesn't appear serious enough to merit a stint on the DL. Ellis (.342) and Crawford (.308) were two of the hotter Dodgers hitters before the injuries.

To try to spark some action at the top of his lineup, Mattingly inserted Hanley Ramirez in the No. 2 spot. Ninety percent of Ramirez's at-bats last season came in the Nos. 3 through 5 spots in the lineup. Mattingly said he doesn't anticipate leaving Ramirez in the second spot permanently.

Star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki was back in Colorado's lineup after missing two games following a hand injury from an awkward headfirst slide into home plate in Sunday's game.

Here are the rest of Wednesday's lineups:

Colorado
1. Eric Young RF
2. Dexter Fowler CF
3. Carlos Gonzalez LF
4. Troy Tulowitzki SS
5. Michael Cuddyer 1B
6. Wilin Rosario C
7. Nolan Arenado 3B
8. Josh Rutledge 2B
9. Juan Nicasio RHP

Dodgers
1. Nick Punto 2B
2. Hanley Ramirez SS
3. Adrian Gonzalez 1B
4. Matt Kemp CF
5. Andre Ethier RF
6. A.J. Ellis C
7. Skip Schumaker LF
8. Juan Uribe 3B
9. Josh Beckett RHP

LOS ANGELES -- After the Los Angeles Dodgers' 6-2 win over the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night, Dodgers employees ushered pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu back onto the field, where he traded memorabilia and posed for photo ops with global YouTube sensation Psy, known in the two mens' native South Korea as Park Jae-Sang.

Afterward, Psy -- his hair lacquered down, dark sunglasses over his eyes -- burst into the Dodgers' clubhouse with "Gangnam Style" blaring, prompting an uproar from Dodgers players. It was a bit of a circus. Imagine if the Dodgers had lost.

"I'm just really thankful that the game turned out the way it did. It would have been a really different situation if it had gone the other way," Ryu said through an interpreter afterward.

Everybody was in the mood for a little bouncy Korean pop music because of Ryu. He zapped the hangover from Monday's miserable 12-2 loss and buzzed through a tired and befuddled Rockies lineup, piling up 12 strikeouts.

Some people thought Ryu would struggle with the transition to a tougher league and a different culture. If anything, he's taking it to major league hitters, not the other way around.

Ryu touched 93 mph a couple of times early in the game, setting a tone that allowed him to use changeups and curveballs to greater effect later. The Dodgers have been impressed -- not so much with his raw stuff, but with his craftiness.

He often works backward. He can use breaking balls to get back in counts. He's hard to predict. For a 26 year old who was basically the Randy Johnson of the Korean Baseball Organization, he has shown surprising finesse.

"Especially if you get a younger guy who doesn't understand how the guy yo-yo's you a little bit, it's going to be trouble for you," manager Don Mattingly, seeing it from a hitter's perspective, said.

Ryu signed with the Dodgers just four months ago. He has made six major league starts, going 3-1 with a 3.41 ERA and 46 strikeouts in them. He might not feel entirely acclimated yet, but he's showing no signs of culture shock.

"I realize I'm in America every time I start. Every time I take the mound, I see how big these parks are and how many people come out," Ryu said. "But everything's been going well, and I'm really happy."

LOS ANGELES -- A night after playing their worst game of the season, the Los Angeles Dodgers finally looked like the total package.

Korean pop star Psy danced in the aisle next to the Dodgers' dugout (in front of a bored-looking Tommy Lasorda) in the fourth inning. All the while, his countryman, Hyun-Jin Ryu, was tying the Colorado Rockies in knots. Ryu struck out 12 batters in six innings of the Dodgers' 6-2 win in front of 47,602 fans at Dodger Stadium.

It certainly appears Ryu is making a comfortable transition from the Korean Baseball Organization. He is 3-1 with a 3.35 ERA after six starts, and he has just one fewer strikeout than ace Clayton Kershaw's 47 (with two fewer walks).

Ryu's dozen strikeouts were the most by a Dodgers rookie since another pitcher, Hideo Nomo, was making the leap from Japan. Nomo struck out 13 New York Mets on Aug. 20, 1995.

Meanwhile, Hanley Ramirez returned to the Dodgers' lineup -- on the night the Dodgers gave away his "I See You" bobbleheads -- and had a home run and double.

The Dodgers' offense has a deeper look with Ramirez back in the fold. It swarmed all over Colorado pitcher Jorge De La Rosa, improving to 8-0 against the left-hander by scoring six runs in the first three innings. Two scrappy utility guys, Jerry Hairston Jr. and Nick Punto, set the table at the top of the order, and the larger guys behind them cleared it.

Matt Kemp finally cut down his swing and had an RBI single in the first inning. Ramirez hit a towering solo home run to left in the third inning and lined a double to center in the fourth.

Ramirez had played in just two minor league rehab games after missing about five weeks recovering from surgery to his right thumb. He did look a bit awkward at times making throws from shortstop while wearing a flexible splint on his right hand.

LOS ANGELES -- When Ted Lilly started feeling some tightness in his back the day after his April 24 start in New York, he kept it to himself. The first time he mentioned it to Los ANgeles Dodgers manager Don Mattingly or the team's training staff was when the pain came back during Monday night's start.

That didn't sit well with Mattingly the next day.

Lilly lasted just three innings in the Dodgers' 12-2 loss to the Colorado Rockies. His short outing left the Dodgers' bullpen depleted enough that the team had to use utility man Skip Schumaker to pitch the ninth inning, then call up long reliever Javy Guerra from Triple-A Albuquerque the next day.

"If we would have known about that, we could have made plans to have a guy here who was extended and not had to take a chance of having it, in a sense, affect tonight's game," Mattingly said. "Let us make some plans and give us a chance to win. That part's a little frustrating."

Lilly, 37, was examined Tuesday and could still be headed for the 15-day disabled list. Even if he's not, the Dodgers might go with rookie Matt Magill to pitch Saturday's game in San Francisco. To make room on the roster for Guerra, the Dodgers optioned Josh Wall to Albuquerque. Wall gave up seven earned runs in two innings after Lilly left the game, his ERA ballooning to 18.00.

Here are lineups for Tuesday's game:

Colorado
1. Dexter Fowler CF
2. Josh Rutledge 2B
3. Carlos Gonzalez LF
4. Michael Cuddyer RF
5. Jordan Pacheco 1B
6. Nolan Arenado 3B
7. Yorvit Torrealba C
8. Jonathan Herrera SS
9. Jorge De La Rosa LHP

Dodgers
1. Jerry Hairston Jr. LF
2. Nick Punto 2B
3. Matt Kemp CF
4. Adrian Gonzalez 1B
5. Hanley Ramirez SS
6. Andre Ethier RF
7. A.J. Ellis C
8. Juan Uribe 3B
9. Hyun-Jin Ryu LHP

LOS ANGELES -- Ted Lilly made his major-league debut with the Montreal Expos, which is another way of saying he's been at this a while.

The Dodgers are accustomed to carefully monitoring the 37-year-old pitcher's health on a start-by-start basis, so in a way this is nothing new. Lilly had felt a bit of tightness in his back after his previous start in New York last week and it returned in the first inning of Monday night's 12-2 loss to the Colorado Rockies, in which Lilly got hit around for three innings.

He'll be examined Tuesday and is questionable for his start this weekend in San Francisco. If he can't go, he'll likely be replaced in the Dodgers' rotation by rookie Matt Magill.

Lilly admitted he's concerned about making his next start.

"Well, I mean I think I have a few things to be concerned about, that being one of them and then just ineffectiveness, too," Lilly said. "A lot of guys in the clubhouse here aren't feeling as good as they'd like to, but you still expect to get the results you're looking for."

Lilly threw 71 pitches in three innings, allowing five runs on eight hits, including a couple of first-inning home runs. The Dodgers have used nine starting pitchers in the season's first month.

"We've got to find out if Teddy's healthy tomorrow and kind of make decisions from there," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said.

LOS ANGELES -- Maybe the Colorado Rockies are due to come tumbling painfully back to earth. And maybe the Los Angeles Dodgers aren't doomed to stay in this one-step-forward, one-step-back waltz with mediocrity all season.

But for one game in late April, the gap between the division's first place team and its fourth place team wasn't hard to spot.

The Dodgers had their worst pitching performance since last June in a 12-2 loss to the Rockies at Dodger Stadium on Monday night. Colorado stacked up 19 hits, or 13 more than the Dodgers could manage.

The snapshot of the Dodgers' night was utility man Skip Schumaker pitching the ninth inning (a scoreless one). He became the first Dodgers position player to pitch in a game since Mark Loretta in July 2009.

A tiny throng of fans left in the stadium chanted, "Let's go Skip!"

Ted Lilly, making his second start since coming off the disabled list, needed 71 pitches to get through three innings ... and he barely made it that far. The first four batters he faced had sharp hits, two of them home runs. Things got even messier, believe it or not, in the third, when Lilly walked in a run among other forgettable deeds.

Lilly, 37, had pitched well for five innings in the first start upon his return, last week in New York. He entered the season awkwardly, put on the 15-day disabled list against his wishes. Now, the Dodgers could be tempted to use rookie Matt Magill in Lilly's place next rotation turn. Magill pitched into the seventh inning in his major league debut Saturday.

Reliever Josh Wall couldn't live up to the standard that Lilly had set earlier. The Rockies scored seven times off Wall in two innings. Rockies pitcher Tyler Chatwood was 3-for-3 with two RBIs on three sharp singles in his first three plate appearances.

A Dodgers trainer visited both pitchers at some point in their outings, but neither pitcher left the mound due to injury.

As bad as things were, they could have been worse. Matt Kemp had a 92 mph fastball headed straight for his head in the fourth inning. He ducked out of the way and it appeared to carom off his shoulder and glance off his nose.

The few thousand fans that remained in the seventh inning were rewarded with a couple of little treats: Jerry Hairston Jr. homered to snap the shutout and Hanley Ramirez made his return to the field, taking a called third strike. Ramirez had thumb surgery March 22 and was activated from the DL on Monday afternoon.

LOS ANGELES -- One of the Dodgers' best pitching performances Monday night came from Skip Schumaker.

The utility guy.

With the Dodgers' pitching staff roiled by injuries and some heavy workloads by the bullpen, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly turned to Schumaker to pitch the ninth inning of the Dodgers' 12-2 loss to the Colorado Rockies on Monday.

Schumaker became the first Dodgers position player to pitch in a game since Mark Loretta did it in 2009. Schumaker played in that game, for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Schumaker hit the upper 80s with his fastball and actually threw harder than the Dodgers' starter, Ted Lilly. He allowed two hits and a walk, but got through the inning without allowing a run. That's more than could be said for Lilly, who allowed five runs on eight hits in three innings.

The few hundred fans left at Dodger Stadium chanted, "Let's go Skip!"

In fact, Schumaker's been called on to pitch before. In August of 2011, while with the Cards, he came in to pitch the ninth inning of an 11-0 game -- against the Dodgers. He gave up a two-run homer to Aaron Miles but did strike out two.

LOS ANGELES -- Los Angeles Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said he believes NBA player Jason Collins' decision to announce that he is gay will have similar ramifications to Jackie Robinson breaking baseball's color barrier with the Dodgers 66 years ago.

Mattingly also said he thinks an openly gay player could be accepted in a major league clubhouse, saying, "I don't know why not."

"I think it'd be OK. It's the first time it's happened. It's just kind of uncharted waters," Mattingly said. "A lot like Jackie, he would make it easier for anyone else who would step forward."

Mattingly accompanied his players to a special screening of the movie "42," based on Robinson's story, this spring in Arizona.

UPDATE (6:25 p.m.): The Dodgers activated Hanley Ramirez from the 15-day disabled list and placed Clayton Kershaw on the bereavement list for an undisclosed personal matter. Ramirez was not in the starting lineup.

LOS ANGELES -- After two rehab games in Class A Rancho Cucamonga, Hanley Ramirez returned to Los Angeles and joined his teammates in the Dodgers' clubhouse Monday.

He was not expected to join them on the field at game time, however. Ramirez could be taken off the 15-day disabled list on Tuesday (his bobblehead night), or he could still play in more minor league games, manager Don Mattingly said. Ramirez made his wishes fairly clear before Monday's series opener vs. the Colorado Rockies.

"I just want to be in there," Ramirez said. "I don't want to wait any longer. I'm a gamer. I just want to be in there and I think I can play."

Ramirez went 3-for-6 without an error in his two games playing shortstop in Rancho Cucamonga. He said throwing with a newly fitted splint is a bit awkward, but workable.

"It's not 100 percent, but I can defend myself on the field," Ramirez said.

The Dodgers have not made up their minds on whether to put Mark Ellis on the DL. He left Friday night's game with a strained right quadriceps and has been making steady progress since.

Also, pitcher Clayton Kershaw, who struck out 12 Milwaukee Brewers in eight shutout innings Sunday, was not with the Dodgers Monday. He was attending to an undisclosed personal matter, Mattingly said. The manager said he doesn't anticipate Kershaw missing his next scheduled start on Friday night in San Francisco.

Here are lineups for Monday:

Colorado
1. Dexter Fowler CF
2. Jordan Pacheco 1B
3. Carlos Gonzalez LF
4. Wilin Rosario C
5. Michael Cuddyer RF
6. Nolan Arenado 3B
7. Josh Rutledge 2B
8. Jonathan Herrera SS
9. Tyler Chatwood RHP

Dodgers
1. Carl Crawford LF
2. A.J. Ellis C
3. Adrian Gonzalez 1B
4. Matt Kemp CF
5. Andre Ethier RF
6. Skip Schumaker 2B
7. Luis Cruz 3B
8. Justin Sellers SS
9. Ted Lilly LHP

LOS ANGELES -- Clayton Kershaw called himself “awful,” and said, “the team won in spite of me,” the last time he pitched.

Three starts into spring training and three weeks before Opening Day, he was seething with frustration after the San Diego Padres got some hits and scored some runs off him, saying, “I’m definitely looking to have a good start one of these days.”

So, while Kershaw’s two-game “slump” might have been the high point of some pitchers’ major league careers -- he got through the fifth inning and held the opponent to three runs or fewer both times -- you can assume Kershaw wasn’t basking in his awesomeness coming into Sunday.

“Every time he struggles, he’s going to be particularly focused that next outing,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said.

The Milwaukee Brewers happened to stumble into Kershaw after two mediocre outings and they found his focus laser-like. Kershaw struck out 12 Brewers Sunday, hitters flailing at an assortment of mid-90s fastballs, breaking balls and changeups. It was a more complete arsenal than Kershaw had shown in recent weeks. He adjusts his approach to the team he is facing -- in this case, a lineup stacked with right-handed batters -- and is thus more likely to be on top of his fastball.

“It’s good to see Kershaw back to himself,” Carl Crawford said.

Kershaw, who picked up his first win since April 6, left Dodger Stadium shortly after Sunday's start without speaking to reporters. A team spokesman said he had a personal matter to attend to. His numbers did a good job speaking for him. Since the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles 55 years ago, according to ESPN Stats & Info, only six pitchers have struck out 12 batters without allowing a run or walking anybody in a start. The man Kershaw is relentlessly compared to, Sandy Koufax, did it four times. Nobody else has done it twice.

The next time Kershaw describes himself as “awful,” pity the team he’s about to face.

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Dodgers continue to wait for their best player to emerge from a month-long slump, but their best starting pitcher looks like he's back.

Clayton Kershaw struck out 12 Milwaukee Brewers in eight innings Sunday in a 2-0 Dodgers win. It was Kershaw's first win since April 6.

Matt Kemp, meanwhile, came off a nice road trip to go 2-for-9 in this three-game series while misplaying at least two balls in center field. Kemp, who is batting .261 with one home run after 88 at-bats, seems to be hitting a lot of slow rollers to shortstop.

Kershaw (3-2) was coming off two mediocre starts, but he was nearly as dazzling Sunday as he was on Opening Day. Sunday was the fifth time he has struck out as many as 12 batters, the first since June 9 of last year.

Kershaw had failed to get out of the sixth inning against the San Diego Padres and New York Mets in his two previous starts. The Brewers had action in the first two innings, but after that, they couldn't touch Kershaw.

Jonathan Lucroy hit into an inning-ending double play to wipe out a two-on threat in the first inning, and Jean Segura led off the second with sinking liner that was misplayed into a double by Kemp.

Kershaw retired the next 18 batters before Carlos Gomez lined a double to left-center field leading off the eighth. Kemp seemed to get a late read on the ball, which short-hopped the wall. Kershaw helped erase that threat by snaring Martin Maldonado's sharp grounder and getting Gomez in a rundown.

The Dodgers didn't do much against Milwaukee starter Kyle Lohse, but Carl Crawford continued to put on a show at Dodger Stadium. The speedy leadoff hitter hit two home runs. Crawford is batting .391 in home games.

LOS ANGELES -- A couple of days ago, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said a Monday return for All-Star shortstop Hanley Ramirez would be "a little optimistic." Then, Saturday happened.

Playing in a game at Class-A Rancho Cucamonga, Ramirez went 1-for-3 with a sacrifice fly, fielded eight grounders and turned three double plays, with no issues making throws from shortstop while wearing a splint on his surgically repaired right thumb. After watching film of the performance, Mattingly said Sunday Ramirez could return from the disabled list before Monday's series opener against the first-place Colorado Rockies.

"I think anything's possible with the way he looked last night," Mattingly said.

Rancho Cucamonga is off Monday, so Ramirez would have to travel to Albuquerque to continue his minor league rehabilitation assignment, or travel to Stockton to stay with the Quakes. If Ramirez is activated Monday, he will have beaten the original prognosis by two weeks.

Ramirez played winter ball all the way through the Caribbean Series, then played in the World Baseball Classic before injuring his thumb in the finals on March 19. Mattingly thinks those competitive at-bats have speeded his return, allowing him to regain his timing faster than he otherwise would have.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers continue to wait on second baseman Mark Ellis, who left Friday night's game with a strained right quadriceps. They could place Ellis on the 15-day disabled list while activating Ramirez Monday or Tuesday.

"I don't want to ever miss any time," Ellis said. "At the same time, you never want to handcuff a manager or your team."