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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

LOS ANGELES -- Mark Ellis has 12 defensive runs saved, the most in the major leagues among second basemen not named Dustin Pedroia. He is eighth in something called ultimate zone rating, or UZR.

The gap between Ellis' defense and that of any other Dodgers second baseman is yawning, according to all the advanced statistical metrics.

And all of this means what, exactly, to Ellis?

"My agent tells me about them every once in a while, but honestly, I don't know what half of them mean. Nobody does," Ellis said. "I just go out there, try to put myself in the right spot and try to catch the ball."

That last comment encapsulates Ellis as a baseball player in 19 words. He just tries to put himself in the right spot and he tries to catch the ball.

Ellis is the least-flashy, least-obtrusive, lowest-maintenance everyday player on the Dodgers and, without many people knowing it, he's among the most valuable. On a team of brilliant athletes, $20 million-per-year salaries and puffed-out chests, Ellis falls under none of those categories. He's just a good player in all the ways most people don't bother to track.

Every other Dodger who has played second base this season combines for a minus-13 defensive runs saved, a chasm of 25 runs saved between those players and Ellis. The Dodgers are 68-35 when Ellis starts and 23-31 when he does not, entering Wednesday.

It all points to a player whose value is nowhere near suggested by his .264 batting average, his six home runs or his four stolen bases. It has become increasingly possible to isolate and study a player's value in every dimension of the game, but very few of those numbers show up in a box score on a daily basis.

Ellis routinely gives up at-bats to move runners over. He hangs on at second base in perilous situations and is among the best in the game at turning double plays.

"He’s just kind of day-in, day-out a solid player," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. "You don't have to worry about Mark Ellis being ready to play or doing his work or anything at all."

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The Los Angeles Dodgers were not in any sort of position to anticipate being the first major-league team to clinch a playoff spot just a few months ago.

But a remarkable turnaround propelled them to their first NL West title since 2009.

Nearly unbeatable
The Dodgers are now 58-23 after their 30-42 start.

They've played at a 116-win pace in their last 81 games.

The 116 is notable because 116 is the MLB record for wins in a season, shared by the 1906 Cubs (in the 154-game scheduled and 2001 Mariners (in the 162-game schedule).

Spotlight Performer: Hanley Ramirez
Yasiel Puig and Clayton Kershaw have gotten much of the attention this season, but it was appropriate that Hanley Ramirez had such a big game in the division clincher, with a pair of home runs.

The Dodgers are 49-24 in Ramirez’s 73 starts this season. Ramirez has the highest batting average (.351) and slugging percentage (.656) of anyone with at least 300 plate appearances this season. Our video-review data has him registering a “hard-hit ball” in 30 percent of his at-bats, also the best in the majors.

Ramirez is currently hitting .351 with 20 homers. If he can maintain a .350 batting average, he’d be the first shortstop to hit at least .350 with 20 homers in a season since current ESPN baseball analyst (and former Dodger) Nomar Garciaparra in 2000.

Unsung hero
The Dodgers have also been a much better team when Mark Ellis has been next to Ramirez playing second base. They are 65-35 when Ellis plays. The key isn’t his offensive performance, but his defense.

Ellis has been credited with 11 Defensive Runs Saved in a little over 900 innings at the position. All of the others to play second base for the Dodgers this season have combined for -13 Defensive Runs Saved.

Circle These Wins
What were the most prominent wins of the 2013 season?

Opening Day would be one—when the Dodgers beat the Giants 4-0 behind both the arm and the bat of Clayton Kershaw, who pitched a shutout and hit the go-ahead home run in the eighth inning.

But the Dodgers didn’t really take off until the arrival of Puig. In Puig’s second game on June 4, he became the second player in major-league history with a two-homer, five-RBI game within the first two games of his career. The other was Dino Restelli for the 1949 Pirates.

The most dramatic among many dramatic comebacks during the 42-8 stretch that put the Dodgers in prime position was a 7-6 win over the Rays on August 9, a game won with four runs in the bottom of the ninth against Rays closer Fernando Rodney (who committed the game-ending error).

Another would come five days later against the Mets, when Andre Ethier hit a game-tying homer in the ninth inning and Adrian Gonzalez drove in Puig with a game-winning double in the 12th.

Elias Sports Bureau Stats of the Day
The Elias Sports Bureau noted that this is the earliest the Dodgers have clinched a postseason berth by calendar date since the Brooklyn Dodgers clinched the National League title on September 8, 1955. The Dodgers went on to defeat the Yankees 4-3 in the World Series.

The Dodgers are the fifth team in the Divisional Era (since 1969) to win a division in a season in which they were at least 12 games under .500 at one point.

The others are the 1974 Pirates (14 under), 1973 Mets (13), 1981 Royals (13), and the 1989 Blue Jays (12).

The Dodgers are the third team in major-league history to be in last place on July 1 and win their division, joining the 1973 Mets and 1995 Mariners.

The Dodgers were 47-47 at the All-Star Break, becoming just the sixth team in the Wild Card Era to win a division title after entering the break with a non-winning record. None of the previous five teams went on to make the World Series.

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

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

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

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

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

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

SCORING

Juan Uribe had a nice week on Monday.

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

Overall, Uribe batted .348 with a 1.332 OPS.

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

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

Grade: C

DEFENSE

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

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

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

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

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

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

Grade: C-

DECISION-MAKING

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

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

Grade: B

CHEMISTRY TEST

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

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

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

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

Grade: B

STATE OF CONTENTION

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

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

Grade: A-

LOS ANGELES -- Five-tool players are a hot commodity in the major leagues. Zack Greinke is forming his own category. Call it a four-tool pitcher.

Greinke continued his masterful pitching this season with seven solid innings Sunday against the visiting San Diego Padres, leading the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 2-1 victory and a series sweep.

His contributions didn’t end there, however.

Greinke also continues to see the ball well at the plate and was one of the few Dodgers to hit San Diego starter Tyson Ross. He collected a solid single up the middle and flew out to deep left-center, boosting his batting average to .347.

And if that wasn’t enough, Greinke also stole second with a head-first slide in the fifth inning, becoming the first L.A. pitcher to steal two bases in a season since Orel Hershiser in 1987.

The fourth tool? Greinke hasn't committed a fielding error in more than three years.

Greinke, who has won his past six starts to improve to 14-3, certainly didn’t lead the Dodgers by himself Sunday.
Yasiel Puig blasted his 14th homer of the season to break a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the sixth and Mark Ellis delivered a clutch two-out single in the third to tie the score.

Paco Rodriguez came out of the bullpen with the tying run on third and one out in the eighth and struck out leadoff hitter Will Venable before getting pinch hitter Chris Denorfia to ground out to the mound.

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LOS ANGELES -- Dodgers reliever Brian Wilson entered the clubhouse Sunday morning, looking like he just left a Grateful Dead concert. He wore a purple knit cap atop his jet-black hair, with a few loosely fastened dreadlocks flowing out the sides.

Juan Uribe and Hanley Ramirez burst out in laughter as Wilson strutted across the room, dropping a few barbs along the way. Wilson didn’t let those remarks sink in long before shooting back at Uribe, reminding him of the purple slacks he wore to Saturday’s game.

The Los Angeles Dodgers seem to sport a new look on a daily basis, and lately, that’s included a few new faces. Wilson made his Dodgers debut last week, giving the bullpen another veteran arm with World Series experience, as well as some personality to an already quirky locker room.

On Saturday night it was Michael Young who joined the fold. The veteran infielder was acquired from the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for a minor league pitcher, giving the Dodgers another player with World Series experience, a batting title, a Gold Glove and seven All-Star appearances -- one of which led to the MVP award in the 2006 game.

There were a few furrowed brows when Young’s trade was announced, however.

After all, the Dodgers went 23-6 in August and have been satisfied with the play of Uribe at third base, the position Young has mainly played the past few seasons. The same can be said for second base, where Mark Ellis has been solid when healthy. Nick Punto has also done a stellar job occupying a utility role among the infielders.

The person responsible for integrating another new player into the mix, manager Don Mattingly, didn’t seem too concerned with that task prior to Sunday’s series finale against the visiting San Diego Padres.

“We’re not trying to bring Michael in here to knock Adrian [Gonzalez] off first base,” Mattingly said. “Michael’s here to add to our club, to give us added depth, give us a guy that can do a lot of things.”

Mattingly said he spoke with Young after the trade and “just wanted to make sure this wasn’t something that turned him upside down.”

“We’re not getting a young kid in the prime of his career, and I say that with all due respect,” Mattingly said. “This guy has had a career that he has done a lot of things, but he’s at a point also in his career where you understand where you’re at. We’re going to treat him with respect, make sure I’m honest with him about everything and just see where it goes.”

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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 -- Yasiel Puig has been the fuse. Hanley Ramirez has been the dynamite.

But this entire Los Angeles Dodgers explosion never would have happened -- or might have simply been too late -- if not for the steady demolition work Adrian Gonzalez has been doing all season, to virtually no fanfare.

If you're a Puig fan (and what Dodgers supporter isn't these days?), at least understand where manager Don Mattingly is coming from when he says Gonzalez -- not Puig, Ramirez or Clayton Kershaw -- has been the Dodgers' MVP this season.

People in the right-field bleachers were chanting, "Puig! Puig! Puig!" after he made a nice running catch at the wall during Saturday's 5-0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays, the Dodgers' 36th win in the past 44 games. Maybe somebody should start a Gonzalez chant one of these days. What, too many syllables?

"I try to talk about it enough to let people know," Mattingly said. "He and Mark Ellis are kind of bread and butter, right? They're there for the most part all the time, they do their thing and you don't really notice them because they're not real flashy, but it's kind of been all year long.

"He's that guy you don't really have to worry about."

Gonzalez leads the Dodgers in hits, home runs and RBIs (by a mile). Maybe more crucial than all of those: He leads them in games played. In a season in which other superstar talents have exited and entered the Dodgers' lineup via revolving doors, he stays put. Gonzalez has missed just four of the Dodgers' 116 games.

At times, it seems the culture of baseball encourages stoicism. Gonzalez is one of those guys. He has never been on the disabled list.

"My whole career, I've played through injuries, through nicks and knacks," he said. "That's what I try to do is be out there every day and help the team win."

On Saturday, Gonzalez launched a low-flying missile over the right-field wall for his 16th home run. Nick Punto was on base, so it gave him his 72nd RBI. The next-closest Dodger in that category, Andre Ethier, has 41.

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ST. LOUIS -- As the Los Angeles Dodgers prepared for their game against the St. Louis Cardinals Monday night, the news of 13 players being suspended by Major League Baseball for using performance-enhancing drugs blasted on the television sets in the clubhouse.

While Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Evan Longoria called it a “sad day for MLB,” Dodgers pitcher and union representative Chris Capuano disagreed.

“I think it’s a good day,” Capuano said. “We have such a great testing system in place now. We have a good number of tests. The vast majority of guys in here are incredulous that guys would even try to get around it because we get tested so often and the tests are so sophisticated. I think this is a good day and the guys who are cheating and trying to gain an unfair advantage are being punished today."

Capuano remembers being in players' union meetings, where players would be resistant to change and afraid to speak out about performance-enhancing drugs. But that has changed.

“I think there’s a huge change in the way players view this,” Capuano said. “A lot of guys have been outspoken about wanting to clean up the game and wanting guys that are trying to cheat to get punished. Going forward this sends a message. Everyone wants to get this out of the game. We just want a level playing field. This is another good step in the right direction that sends a good message.

“Being in our union meetings over the last seven years from the whole start of the BALCO thing to today you noticed a change, from the resistance to wanting to agree to drug testing to a complete 180," he said. "It’s one thing to stand up for your fellow teammates and stand up for your fellow players and not throw people under the bus, but I think after a while guys were saying this isn’t right. Guys just want to do the right thing, and for their own careers they want to compete on a level playing field. There’s been a big change.”

Dodgers second baseman Mark Ellis was watching the news on the clubhouse TVs as he dressed for Monday’s game, amazed that it was the only thing anyone wanted to talk about.

“I’m glad that it’s over with,” Ellis said. “It’s bad because that’s what they’re talking about in baseball. There’s a lot of good races going on and it’s on all the TVs here in the clubhouse. That’s the bad part but it’s good that we can finally move on from this. It’ll be good to move on and not talk about it again.”

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly hoped that Monday’s news would help clean up baseball’s problem with PEDs.

“Hopefully it’s a step towards getting better,” Mattingly said. “I’d like to see testing get really, really good where guys can’t get away with anything. They know they can’t get away with anything. It just protects the players from each other who are trying to compete; it protects the fans and the organizations. Hopefully the testing keeps getting better and the penalties keep getting stiffer and deter guys from trying.”

Mattingly, who was Alex Rodriguez’s hitting coach with the New York Yankees, was disappointed to see one of his former players involved in this scandal and suspended through next season.

“I like Alex,” Mattingly said. “It’s disappointing. I hate seeing anybody’s name involved with this. It was disappointing last year when I heard about Melky [Cabrera]. I love Melky as a player. It’s disappointing when you hear anybody’s name involved in this.

"Obviously the penalties aren’t enough because there are still guys doing it. When you start seeing eight-year deals and $15 million and $20 million per year deals, guys want that. The younger you are, you think, ‘Oh, it won’t hurt me. I’ll get away with it.’ It has to get tougher where guys aren’t going to do it anymore.”

Capuano thinks there will be a time when PEDs are no longer in baseball, but that there will always be players searching for that extra edge.

“There are always people that are going to lack the integrity and there are always people that are going to try to seek an advantage," Capuano said. "Every time this happens our testing gets more sophisticated. I just imagine our testing procedures will be getting better and better.”

In 1924, the Brooklyn Robins' longest road trip took them from New York to St. Louis, less than half as far as their descendants, the Los Angeles Dodgers, often have to venture. Then again, they had to get there by train.

Like that 1924 team, led by Hall of Fame manager Wilbert Robinson, these Dodgers are in a hurry to do some damage on the road. The Dodgers equaled the 89-year-old franchise record by winning their 12th straight road game, this one a 6-2 win over the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.

These days, the Dodgers can win while apparently running at 50 percent capacity.

Pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu labored through his 5 1/3 innings, giving up 11 hits, including four doubles. And the offense -- without Hanley Ramirez and Carl Crawford, who got routine days off -- wasn't exactly explosive. It mostly relied on sloppy Chicago fielding and a bout of wildness by its starting pitcher.

It didn't matter. Ryu is 10-3 and the Dodgers have come out of nowhere to take control of the NL West. Their lead in the division was four games pending the outcome of Friday's Arizona game in Boston. The Dodgers have gone 29-7 since June 21.

The Dodgers wore down Chicago's best starting pitcher, Travis Wood, in a 41-pitch third inning. Wood, who normally has good control, walked four straight batters as the Dodgers took a 3-1 lead. A.J. Ellis, who sees more pitchers per at-bat than all but two hitters in the National League, fell behind 0-and-2 but still worked a bases-loaded walk.

The Dodgers made increasing their on-base percentage an emphasis in the spring and, lately, they have been among the most patient teams in the league. The Dodgers' .327 on-base percentage was fourth in the NL (after St. Louis, Atlanta and Cincinnati) going into Friday's game.

Ryu hasn't just pitched well this season. He also has hit, a shocking development given that the other part of his career was in Korea, which has the designated hitter. Ryu, who pitches with his left hand and hits right-handed, had a leadoff single in the fourth inning and, after some awkward base running, scored a run on Adrian Gonzalez's bloop hit. That was Ryu's ninth hit, putting him second among Dodgers pitchers behind Zack Greinke, who is batting .400.

Mark Ellis, of all people, was ejected from the game in the fourth inning for arguing a pitch around the outside corner with plate umpire Alan Porter. TV replays showed Ellis apparently saying, "That's so bad." Porter also tossed manager Don Mattingly, who has been thrown out of two of the Dodgers' past three games for arguing with umpires.

Ellis had doubled over David DeJesus' head earlier in the game, so his hitting streak remains intact at 13 games.

LOS ANGELES -- Clayton Kershaw had an ominous tone in his voice when he talked about the raucous crowds that urged the Los Angeles Dodgers on during this six-game homestand. More than 300,000 people showed up and, for the most part, they were treated to a good time.

"If we start to lose, it's not going to be like that," Kershaw said. "We need to remember that."

Those are the kinds of thoughts that start to creep into your head on a night like Wednesday. Kershaw pitched brilliantly, again, but a couple of shaky moments -- one by the manager, one by the second baseman and right fielder -- cost the Dodgers in a 3-0 loss to the New York Yankees.

The little things are hard to see when a team is as hot as the Dodgers have been. When things start to slow down -- and, though the Dodgers have been pulling out some wins, their bats have gone soft lately -- you can't miss the little things.

The trouble began when manager Don Mattingly lifted Kershaw in a scoreless tie after he had just laid down a sacrifice bunt the previous inning -- and after a manageable 97 pitches -- going into the ninth inning.

There was no video evidence of it, but the Yankees must have been dancing for joy inside. Up to that point, Kershaw had limited New York's activity to five baserunners, widely scattered. Mattingly said he made the decision after talking to Kershaw between innings.

He said he has learned to gauge Kershaw's energy level by reading between the lines of his comments.

"It's either, 'I'm good. I've got this,' or he gives you a different answer," Mattingly said. "He won't ever tell you that he won't go back out, but I could tell that he was out of gas."

Kershaw was in no mood to expand on Mattingly's comment or decision.

"That's fine. We'll leave it at that," he said ... twice.

The Dodgers might have been in position for one of their dramatic rallies -- though this time it would have come against the man they honored before the game, Mariano Rivera -- if not for a miscommunication between Puig and Ellis. They converged on a shallow popup and, just as they brushed into each other, Ellis dropped the ball. That gave New York a three-run lead with Rivera warming up. For a man with 642 lifetime saves, that's like a 4-inch tap-in putt.

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LOS ANGELES -- Jay Z was in the building.

In fact, he was seated in the first row behind home plate, about 20 feet from Scott Boras, the fellow agent from whom he recently stole Robinson Cano and then insulted in one of his songs. That had to be a little awkward.

But it was hardly the only locus of A-list activity at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday night, judging by the faces the Dodgers kept putting up on the big videoboards. Half the NBA seemed to be here, including Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul and James Harden.

The Screen Actors Guild, as usual, was well-represented, with Jack Nicholson, George Lopez and others. Brooklyn native Mel Brooks, who just turned 87, was here, for crying out loud.

And the show went on. The Dodgers got their second walk-off win in as many games when Mark Ellis hit a sinking liner over Derek Jeter's head to beat the New York Yankees 3-2.

The place went mad, with the fans in the top deck bobbing up and down, shaking the 51-year-old stadium. It was the loudest this place had been since ... well, the last time the Dodgers played here. Sunday, Yasiel Puig ignited things with his home run to snap a scoreless tie in the 11th inning.

In other words, things are again as they probably should be in a place that has hosted its share of big events over the years. Dodgers fans endured the drudgery of the tail end of the Frank McCourt years for these kinds of nights.

"We're playing like we should play and this is what you hear about when you're playing on other teams," Ellis said.

The Dodgers drew more than 200,000 fans for their four-game series with the Cincinnati Reds over the weekend. They followed that up with a crowd of 52,447 on a Tuesday night, and while the term "playoff atmosphere," might be a bit of a stretch, the crowd's mood Tuesday seemed to match the team's: joyful.

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At some point, the Los Angeles Dodgers will come down from the clouds and we'll see where this thing is headed, right?

They're probably not going to play at an .821 pace between now and Sept. 29, as they have for the past 28 games. Nor are they likely to play .417 baseball, as they did for the season's first 72 games.

Those trends are virtually impossible to align, and, over these next 62 games, the Dodgers will give us a good indication about which stretch was more telling. You'd be foolish to bet against the optimistic scenario right now.

They've reached the 100-game mark feeling about as good as a team can feel about itself, especially after coming off a perfect road trip capped by Wednesday's 8-3 win in 10 innings over the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.

The Dodgers have won all six games since the All-Star break, all on the road in what were supposed to be challenging settings. They've won 23 of their past 28. Their 10 straight wins on the road are a record for an L.A. Dodgers team.

They seem to think they can win no matter what the circumstances, which is exactly what they're doing. They overcame a five-run deficit in the seventh inning to win Tuesday. They overcame a 3-2 deficit in the ninth to win Wednesday.

So many Dodgers players are seeing the ball well and hitting it with the barrel of their bats. That's what makes for this kind of streak, a domino effect of players in a groove. Andre Ethier went 4-for-6 Wednesday with some big hits. Yasiel Puig snapped his homerless drought and had three hits.

Mark Ellis has been quietly doing as much as anybody. He had the two-run home run that got the Dodgers' rollicking 10th-inning rally going.

The Dodgers have scored 41 runs in their past four games, and that kind of production can obscure a lot of frailties. The fielding isn't particularly good. In fact, that's sugar-coating it. Hanley Ramirez is looking shaky at shortstop again and the Dodgers committed three errors Wednesday.

The back end of the pitching rotation -- at times, a group that includes Hyun-Jin Ryu -- has been suspect. Ricky Nolasco got the Dodgers into the sixth inning, but it was a slow grind at times. He gave up four walks, so -- even though Toronto was hitless through four -- it amounted to little after Brett Lawrie's two-run double in the fifth tied the score.

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When Don Mattingly made all those now-famous comments about mental toughness and what it takes to compete in the major leagues, he was probably envisioning a Los Angeles Dodgers team a lot like this one.

Remember that day, May 22, when Mattingly said things like, "some guys are willing to go another level for that prize. They'll do whatever it takes to beat you"?

The Dodgers went to multiple levels to beat the Toronto Blue Jays 10-9 Tuesday night at Rogers Centre. They overcame a five-run deficit, rallying furiously throughout the game, and won for the fifth straight time and 22^nd time in their past 27 games.

Just as they played like a last-place team for all those weeks, the Dodgers looked every bit a first-place squad Tuesday, cementing their position at the top of the NL West.

Adrian Gonzalez, the forgotten man in this Dodgers resurgence -- as well as the only consistent and healthy hitter all season -- hit a three-run home run off Darren Oliver in the eighth inning to give the Dodgers the lead for good. It wasn't just timely, it was impressive. ESPN Stats & Information calculated the distance of Gonzalez's home run at 430 feet.

Andre Ethier followed with a solo shot and the Dodgers withstood a ninth-inning Toronto charge off closer Kenley Jansen.

If there's one final piece the Dodgers would like to add before the July 31 trade deadline, it's another reliever. Their newest bullpen arm, Carlos Marmol -- the ex-Chicago Cubs closer summoned Tuesday from Double-A Chattanooga -- didn't give them any reason to change their mindset after he gave up three runs and four hits, including a home run to Jose Reyes.

Chris Capuano continues to make a pretty decent argument that the Dodgers could use another starter, too, lasting only 4⅓ innings and giving up five runs. Capuano has started 12 times this season and given up five runs or more in five of them.

No matter what flaws are cropping up, the Dodgers are burying them in a flurry of runs. They have scored 33 runs in their past three games. It's coming from all over the place now. Mark Ellis drove in three runs Tuesday and Jerry Hairston Jr. homered.

It has been precisely one month since the fateful day, June 22, when everything changed.

The Dodgers’ magic carpet ride continued with a road sweep in Washington coming out of the All-Star break that gave them 20 wins in their last 25 games and carried them to the threshold of first place.

There’s really not much you can nitpick when a team beats Stephen Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez and Jordan Zimmermann in three straight on the road. The Dodgers got ace-like starting pitching, perfect relief and, on Sunday, an attacking, deep lineup.

In the Dodgers’ happiest imaginings over the spring and winter, this is the team they envisioned.

SCORING

It was as if Matt Kemp had all this pent-up energy as he waited to join the feast and he dug in wholeheartedly, with three hits, including a home run and a double Sunday. Just his luck, he also injured his ankle and could be lost for at least a few days.

But the Dodgers certainly look capable of giving it a healthy go without the man who was their best player going into April and might one day be again.

In fact, the Dodgers now are perfectly capable of withstanding the loss of Kemp and Yasiel Puig, the Cuban sensation who has come simmering back down to earth in a nasty slump.

Hanley Ramirez, who hit .486 with two home runs in the series, just can’t be stopped right now. It’s more than him, though. Mark Ellis is warming up, Carl Crawford looks like he’s snapping out of his funk.

This is a dangerous team and it could be more dangerous if Kemp can manage to stay on the field and Puig isn’t in some lasting tailspin.

Grade: A-

DEFENSE

Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke did what they’ve been doing lately, pitching the Dodgers into position to win, but the bullpen, collectively, had the most impressive showing. Dodgers relievers, much-maligned for three months, didn’t allow a run over the weekend and have had a blistering July.

Oh, and Kershaw also pitched a scoreless inning in the National League’s All-Star game loss.

General manager Ned Colletti continues to search other teams’ rosters for a veteran reliever before the July 31 trade deadline and Carlos Marmol continues trying to work his way back, but if Brandon League can get his issues ironed out, the Dodgers are showing signs they could have all the arms they need. Young hard throwers Chris Withrow and Jose Dominguez have solidified things considerably.

And, until Ramirez’s fifth-inning error Sunday, the Dodgers -- typically sloppy in the field -- managed to catch and throw the ball without incident.

Grade: A-

DECISION-MAKING

Who knows, the Dodgers’ best decision this season might have been inactivity. Just when it seemed the public pressure would be too much to bear, team president Stan Kasten and general manager Ned Colletti withstood it and declined to fire manager Don Mattingly.

Mattingly still has his detractors. It's just that fewer people are listening to them now that the Dodgers have made up nine games in the standings in 30 days.

Mattingly had a fairly quiet series, which is as it should be. He benched Puig for Sunday’s game, which seemed reasonable given his cold streak and the fact Kemp again gave him four healthy everyday outfield options. Now that Kemp is out for a while, the Dodgers hope Puig can make an adjustment or two and tap back into his power.

Then, maybe Mattingly will have another riddle to solve. So far, the four-outfielder dilemma has been a mirage because they've rarely all been healthy at once.

Grade: B+

GRIT-METER

One thing that can make a team intimidating to opponents is a bullpen filled with high-velocity guys. Teams know that, if they don’t get to the starter, they’re going to have nothing but uncomfortable at-bats as they try to rally.

With Withrow and Dominguez added to the mix, the Dodgers have five relievers who can either work in or touch 95 mph. That’s grit.

Grade: B+

STATE OF CONTENTION

With the probable exception of the San Diego Padres, anybody really could win the NL West. The Dodgers’ move has simply tightened things up even further, with the San Francisco Giants in fourth place, but just 5 ½ games out of first place.

What the Dodgers have going for them, of course, is momentum. As long as that lasts, it looks like it would be foolish to bet against them reaching the postseason. They’ve also made the wild-card standings relevant again now that they sit just one spot out of a spot, 4 ½ games behind the Cincinnati Reds, who come to L.A. next week.

Grade: B+