ESPN

LOS ANGELES -- The book closed Saturday on another stellar regular season for Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander Zack Greinke.

He was the tough-luck loser in a 1-0 defeat at the hands of the visiting Colorado Rockies, but Greinke still finished with a 15-4 record and 2.63 ERA for the NL West champions.

What lies ahead is his second career trip into the postseason. Greinke said he’s satisfied with how he’s pitching.

“It could be worse, that’s for sure,” he said.

Greinke said the only thing that separated this regular season from his AL Cy Young year of 2009 was his consistency. He went 16-8 that year with a 2.16 ERA for a Kansas City Royals team that finished last in the AL Central with a 65-97 record.

“I was more consistent that year and didn’t have any spots where I pitched bad,” he said. “Like this year, there was about a month where it was ugly.”

Greinke then gestured to his left, to the locker stall belonging to left-hander Clayton Kershaw, who is likely to win the NL Cy Young after leading the majors with a 1.83 ERA and the NL with 232 strikeouts.

“Kersh had no bad stretches,” Greinke said. “That’s what you’ve got to do to have a good year like that.”

Despite the late-season injuries that have popped up among his positional players, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said he feels confident heading into Thursday’s opener of the NL Division Series -- at the St. Louis Cardinals or Atlanta Braves -- knowing he has the 1-2 punch that can wreak havoc in a playoff series.

“When those guys take the ball, you feel like you’re going to win,” Mattingly said. “It’s pretty much quality start after quality start.”

DENVER -- Just as the Los Angeles Dodgers envisioned when they agreed to pay Zack Greinke all that money back in December, he is leading the league in one category and Clayton Kershaw is leading it in another. The only oddity is that Greinke leads the NL in batting average and Kershaw leads it in RBIs.

OK, so they also are all over the pitching leaderboards, but the hitting part has been the pleasant surprise. They knew both pitchers were good athletes who could handle the bat, but they didn’t expect actual production, sometimes even game-changing production.

After his single (and stolen base) in Sunday’s game, Greinke is batting a league-high .347. Kershaw swatted a pair of singles in the Dodgers’ 10-8 win over the Colorado Rockies on Monday, including a key two-RBI hit, and he has 10 RBIs this season, most in the league, while batting .176.

Hitting has become a theme for Dodgers pitchers this year. Even the new guy, Edinson Volquez -- who will start Wednesday’s game, the team announced -- is among 14 NL pitchers with a home run. Hyun-Jin Ryu is hitting a more-than-respectable .200 (with a triple!).

Dodgers pitchers collectively are batting .177. Outfielder Roger Berardina of the Philadelphia Phillies has managed to get 197 at-bats this year while hitting .173.

They spend most of their time consulting pitching coach Rick Honeycutt, but apparently they’ve spent a little time in the cage with Mark McGwire as well.

“Ryu and Greinke rake, so I’m just trying to keep up,” Kershaw said. “Obviously, Greinke’s in another world right now. As long as guys are on base and we’re getting some runs in and moving that lineup over, just keep going. Who knows how long it’ll last.”

Kershaw was feeling pretty good after he gave the Dodgers a 5-3 lead in the fifth inning, but it was an uncharacteristically poor day for him on the mound. He gave it right back the next half-inning. He allowed a career-high 11 hits though he picked up his 14th win.

In his previous start, Kershaw was pulled in the sixth inning and, even in his start before that, when he pitched eight scoreless innings in Miami, manager Don Mattingly thought he was a little antsy and on edge.

Kershaw (14-8) said he hasn’t felt any different lately and he was probably due to be bailed out by the offense for once, given the nearly criminal lack of run support he has gotten all season. He still leads the majors with a 1.89 ERA. And this is Coors Field we’re talking about.

“It’s always good to get some hits, especially if you’re not going to pitch good,” Kershaw said.

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Dodgers continued their roll, but the man most often credited for starting it left the game with an injury.

Yasiel Puig was lifted after he hurt his right knee sliding into third base in the sixth inning of the Dodgers’ 10-8 win over the Colorado Rockies on Monday at Coors Field. He briefly stayed in the game and scored a run, but was replaced by Skip Schumaker when the Dodgers went out to play the field.

The Dodgers described the injury as a mild strain and Puig's status is viewed as day to day. He has tended to return quickly from minor injuries this season.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers won again and they now lead the Arizona Diamondbacks by 12½ games, their largest division lead since September of 1977.

Their magic number for clinching the National League West is now just 14. The race has now become for the best record in the NL and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. They trail the Atlanta Braves by two games for that spot.

The Dodgers won despite allowing 18 hits largely thanks to double plays. Ronald Belisario got a big one from Michael Cuddyer to keep the tying run from scoring in the eighth inning.

Meanwhile, as Matt Kemp continues to languish in his minor league rehab assignment, Andre Ethier is cementing his case for a starting center-field job regardless of Kemp’s health. Ethier launched a two-run home run off reliever Jeff Manship in the sixth inning, finally giving the Dodgers a quasi-comfortable lead in a typical Coors Field event.

Clayton Kershaw had pitched well at Coors Field this season, but like a lot of pitchers, it has never been his favorite place to work. He came into Monday’s start with a 4.98 ERA pitching at mile-high elevation.

That number got a bit worse after one of the shakiest starts of Kershaw’s career. He gave up 11 hits in five innings and allowed five runs. When the Dodgers rallied to take a 5-3 lead in the fifth inning, Kershaw gave the lead right back and it could have been worse if not for some loud outs in the inning. Nolan Arenado had an RBI double and Jordan Pacheco singled home Arenado.

The 11 hits were the most Kershaw had ever allowed.

The Rockies took a 3-0 lead in the first inning, but the Dodgers had action in their half of the inning. Puig interfered with second baseman DJ LeMahieu while trying to field an Adrian Gonzalez grounder and that cost the Dodgers a run. The next inning, LeMahieu leaped to snare a Puig liner that started an inning-ending double play.

 

LOS ANGELES -- The first time Dodgers manager Don Mattingly had to fit four outfielders into three spots, he indicated that Yasiel Puig would be the hardest to take out of his lineup. Puig was batting .369 at the time.

Now, with Matt Kemp likely to return next week and Puig in a two-week slump, Mattingly indicated he could try to spot the rookie outfielder a few more days off here and there. Puig is batting .220 with two home runs and four RBIs in his past 16 games.

"I think, sometimes, he gets a little tired," Mattingly said. "He may not think that, but I just think mentally, sometimes, he gets more down. This is probably the most games he's played in a while, and it's pretty intense.

"Obviously, he gets quite a bit of attention, so everything he does he's had to be questioned about, and he's been really good. Mentally, sometimes I see him looking a little tired."

Mattingly could have some egos to juggle in the final month of the season, with Kemp saying Tuesday he still views himself as the team's every-day center fielder. Andre Ethier has played center since Kemp has been out and Ethier has emerged as one of the Dodgers' steadiest contributors. He is batting .296 with a .388 on-base percentage since he moved to center field.

Here are lineups for Tuesday night's game with the Chicago Cubs:

Chicago
1. Starlin Castro SS
2. Darwin Barney 2B
3. Dioner Navarro C
4. Donnie Murphy 3B
5. Junior Lake CF
6. Cody Ransom 1B
7. Darnell McDonald LF
8. Cole Gillespie RF
9. Travis Wood LHP

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

MIAMI -- There were any number of directions that Andre Ethier could have gone after his benching May 22 for a game in Milwaukee. It seemed to make him the scapegoat for all that had gone wrong for the Los Angeles Dodgers during a miserable first two months of the season.

Not many of those directions seemed positive. Some thought he’d be traded for whatever the Dodgers could get for him at that point. Others worried his notoriously intense temper would explode. At the very least, he might sulk a little bit.

Instead, none of those things happened. He shut up, started putting up and all of a sudden has a nice season going again. Since that benching, Ethier is hitting .279 with five homers and 30 RBIs in 78 games.

He has been especially hot of late, hitting .305 with a .495 slugging percentage since July 22. In the first three games of this series against the Miami Marlins, Ethier is 4-for-10 with two RBIs, two runs and one excellent running catch in the ninth inning of Wednesday’s 4-1 win that preserved Kenley Jansen’s 21st save of the season.

“Sometimes things don’t turn out the way you want,” Ethier said. “That was one where myself and the team weren’t performing up to the standards that were expected.

“Sometimes that gets pointed out, and it was one where you just take it, look at yourself in the mirror and figure out and get back on track.”

Wait, what?

Where’s that temper?

“There’s just so much potential for this team, I really told myself not to worry about any of the outside distractions,” Ethier said.

Three years ago, things might have been very different though, right?

“I’ll be the first one to say so,” Ethier said. “I probably would’ve pushed back.

“But I took a step back and realized what this team is capable of doing and where we were headed at the time,” he said. “It was time to get on board and figure out where to fit in.”

That has meant playing every outfield position, batting anywhere from second through ninth in the lineup, and learning to tune out trade rumors.

Those rumblings have died down now that Ethier has become the Dodgers’ most reliable center fielder while Matt Kemp is still on the shelf. And despite the looming logjam once Kemp returns, Ethier says he isn't concerned about his status on the club going forward.

“We have the pieces now. What’s the point of complaining about anything?” he said. “We’re heading in the right direction. I’m happy with that.”

The Dodgers look to take three of four games from the Marlins with Clayton Kershaw on the mound for Friday’s 9:40 a.m. PT start. Hanley Ramirez is getting the day off. Yasiel Puig is starting and batting cleanup after receiving an IV to treat dehydration following Wednesday's game.

The lineup:

Crawford LF
Punto SS
Gonzalez 1B
Puig RF
Ethier CF
AJ Ellis C
Schumaker 2B
Uribe 3B
Kershaw P

If Bruce Bochy was so concerned about Yasiel Puig’s short service time when picking All-Star reserves, I wonder whether he looked at these raw numbers:

In 30 games, Puig has six more home runs, one more RBI and just 11 fewer runs scored than Marco Scutaro, who is -- somehow -- an All-Star. So, in 42 percent of the games Scutaro has played in, Puig has done about as much to help his team score as Scutaro has while playing 32 more games than the Los Angeles Dodgers rookie.

Oh, and by the way, Puig has a 1.155 OPS. Scutaro’s is .776. His defensive impact is comparable, albeit in a smaller sample size. His baserunning is entirely different but probably equally valuable.

Yet that argument probably says less about Puig’s omission and more about Scutaro’s inclusion. Managers have been stuffing All-Star teams with their own guys for as long as the game has been around, so it’s really not much to get worked up over.

I actually thought Bochy had changed his mind earlier this week when he told reporters, “Part of it is, you understand, as a manager, the fans want to see a certain player.”

I still think Puig will be on the team as, I believe, he should be and, in a way, he’ll make it through the appropriate channels. The fans didn’t pick him. Bochy didn’t choose him, and the players didn’t, either. The fans didn’t have enough time, but the fact that his peers omitted him will tell you how this discussion is viewed within the game.

Phillies closer Jonathan Papelbon called the idea of Puig making the team an “absolute joke.”

So, now Dodgers fans have no one but themselves to blame if Puig isn’t on the team. He’s among five players in the Final Vote competition, with teammate Adrian Gonzalez, Washington’s Ian Desmond, Atlanta’s Freddie Freeman and San Francisco’s Hunter Pence.

If I’m Gonzalez, by the way, I keep my Legoland plans for All-Star week, because there’s no way he’s getting the vote over Puig, the most talked-about player in baseball. I doubt any of the other guys are, either, unless Gonzalez somehow splits Dodgers’ fans affinities and somebody else squeaks in.

Even if Puig somehow doesn’t win the Final Vote, in the next week or so you’ll be seeing a steady stream of players backing out over nagging aches and pains.

The Dodgers will be represented about as well as they should be, considering they floundered through April, May and most of June. If the New York Mets somehow don’t let Matt Harvey pitch, Clayton Kershaw stands an excellent chance of starting the game.

So, until July 16 rolls around and Puig still isn't on the team, I’ll save my righteous indignation.

LOS ANGELES -- Luis Cruz got out a roll of masking tape and measured off a 6-by-4-foot box around two corner locker stalls -- his and phenom Yasiel Puig's.

Puig got down on his hands and knees and wrote on the tape with a Sharpie a tongue-in-cheek message for the media members who have descended on Puig en masse during his meteoric first week.

"No reporters," Puig wrote in Spanish. "No interviews. Cruz doesn't want it."

So far, it seems like the Los Angeles Dodgers' hottest prospect is handling everything the major leagues can throw at him with a smile. Monday, manager Don Mattingly threw him another one, moving him from the leadoff spot, where he batted .464 with four home runs in his first week, to the cleanup spot.

It's a temporary move, Mattingly said, and Puig likely will be moved further down in the lineup by next week, when Hanley Ramirez and Matt Kemp are expected to return.

"He's possibly one of the greatest players who ever lived, so I figure he can handle the 4-hole," Mattingly joked.

Even with Puig's torrid start, the Dodgers went just 4-3 last week and scored either one or two runs in five of their seven games, so it's clear that he can't do it alone. That's why Monday's news on Kemp and Ramirez was encouraging.

Both players had MRIs, and Mattingly said the tests showed no new damage to either player's hamstring. Kemp has been on the disabled list for a week and Ramirez hasn't started since June 5. Kemp likely will begin a minor league rehab assignment Thursday or Friday and could rejoin the Dodgers sometime over the weekend.

Ramirez said he has been told he won't be headed back to the DL. He said his discomfort has come from some fluid buildup behind his knee.

"The hamstring is good," Ramirez said.

Here are lineups for Monday night's game with the first-place Arizona Diamondbacks:

Arizona
1. A.J. Pollock CF
2. Willie Bloomquist 2B
3. Paul Goldschmidt 1B
4. Cody Ross LF
5. Miguel Montero C
6. Martin Prado 3B
7. Gerardo Parra RF
8. Cliff Pennington SS
9. Wade Miley LHP

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

LOS ANGELES – As Clayton Kershaw was walking around the Los Angeles Dodgers’ clubhouse Sunday morning, he picked up a copy of the daily clippings -- a packet of the day’s stories about the team.

As he flipped the pages, he laughed and said, “These things get thicker and thicker. How many Puig stories can they write?”

It would be easy to stop writing about Yasiel Puig … if he stopped re-writing the Dodgers’ record book every time he stepped onto the field.

Even during the Dodgers’ lackluster 8-1 loss to the Atlanta Braves on Sunday, he found a way to offer a silver lining, going 3-for-5 and making another pinpoint, rocket throw from the outfield in the third inning that even had the Dodgers’ longtime scorekeeper smiling and shaking his head.

Puig became the first Dodger to have five multihit games in his first seven games and finished his first week in the majors with a .464 batting average (13-for-28), four home runs and 10 RBIs.

It’s a storybook start to the career of the 22-year-old Cuban, who defected from his home country less than a year ago and signed a seven-year, $42 million deal with the Dodgers.

Puig’s story, however, is still hard to tell for anyone who doesn’t speak Spanish. Puig doesn’t speak English and the Dodgers, a team with a $220 million payroll, have yet to assign a full-time, professional translator with Puig.

The duties have recently fallen to Alex Torres, the Dodgers assistant clubhouse manager, who is doing an admirable job in between collecting uniforms and organizing equipment. But there’s a lot being lost in translation.

Puig plays and looks every bit like a superstar but is still somewhat hesitant to sound like one. He doesn’t look reporters asking him questions in the eye, instead choosing to stare, smile, frown and shake his head at Torres, who is being put in the thankless role of being the intermediary between Puig and the media horde trying to tell his story.

The language barrier has seemingly been the only obstacle Puig has encountered in his first week with the Dodgers. “Puigmania” is already at a fever pitch at games; fans stand every time he comes to bat, and his No. 66 jersey is quickly becoming the hottest-selling item at the team store.

“It’s gone well,” Puig said through Torres. “I never thought this would happen.”

Watching Puig play now and seeing where the Dodgers are in the standings (27-35 and 7 1/2 games behind the Arizona Diamondbacks for first place in the NL West), it’s natural to wonder why it took so long for him to get called up.

It’s an easy question to ask in hindsight, but there were serious maturity issues with Puig in the minors, and there still might be once he gets his first taste of adversity in the bigs.

The Dodgers were also paying their outfielders Matt Kemp, Carl Crawford and Andre Ethier a combined $45 million this season. It was going to be a lot easier for the Dodgers to bring Puig up without controversy and pressure if one of those players got hurt. As it was in this injury-riddled season for the Dodgers, two of those players (Kemp and Crawford) are now sidelined.

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly seems pleased with the timing of the call-up.

“You’ve seen a lot of young guys come up and struggle, and it ends up kicking them back a year and a half,” Mattingly said. “It hurts their development. I think that’s the main thing. Certain guys handle it and certain guys don’t. There’s a lot more that don’t than do.

“Some of things we saw in spring training were more he needs playing time-type mistakes, and you really don’t want him to make them here.”

As good as Puig has been, Mattingly believes he needed to be brought along slowly and likely wouldn’t be on the tear he’s on if he began the season with the team two months ago.

“You don’t give babies steak,” Mattingly said. “When they’re babies, you’re not feeding them steak; they’re drinking formula. The mistakes that they make you want them to make them in an area that’s not filled with 60,000 people and on ‘SportsCenter’ every night.”

Puig’s locker is positioned in the corner of the Dodgers clubhouse between Luis Cruz and Adrian Gonzalez, who have helped his transition into the majors as well as moderate the language barrier with his non-Spanish speaking teammates. They saw the talent he had in spring training, but even his teammates are amazed at what he’s been able to accomplish in his first week.

“He’s unbelievable,” Cruz said. “He’s got a lot of talent and a lot of tools. He’s got the attitude that he’s hungry to be someone. He plays hard, and he’s a good guy.”

Mattingly was at a loss when trying to find a comparison to Puig, not just as a player but also in the impact he has made since being called up from the minors. He thought back to Manny Ramirez’s trade to the Dodgers and David Cone’s trade to the New York Yankees, but he couldn’t come up with a player this young and this raw playing this well so soon.

“You don’t see this very often. Not like this,” Mattingly said. “He brings energy, and you can feel it. It’s hard to deny that. He definitely brings an energy. I don’t think we can put everything on him, but it’s been pretty exciting to watch.”

Mattingly knows the Dodgers will need more than just Puig playing well if this season is going to be anything more than just an injury-riddled disappointment by the time October rolls around. That’s why the normally affable Dodgers manager looked somewhat exasperated after hearing his umpteenth Puig question of the week.

“We could talk about Puig everyday if we want,” Mattingly said. “We could cut him up and talk about everything he does wrong and everything he does right, but I’m getting tired of it already.”

LOS ANGELES -- Yasiel Puig is a five-tool player. Unfortunately for the Los Angeles Dodgers, there are still some things he simply cannot do.

Paramount among them is pitch and heal injuries with his bare hands.

As great as Puig has been, and he has been a revelation since being called up, the Dodgers would probably rather take an ace with healing hands at this point.

The Dodgers limped through an 8-1 loss to the Atlanta Braves on Sunday afternoon that was so hard to watch that Tommy Lasorda slept through most of it in the owner’s box.

Right-hander Mike Magill, who was called up from Triple-A Albuquerque, started in place of Ted Lilly, who was placed on the 15-day disabled list before the game. Magill pitched 3⅔ innings, giving up for four hits and seven runs (three earned) and walking six. Magill became the first Dodgers pitcher in a decade to walk six batters in each of his first two starts.

Second baseman Skip Schumaker extended his career-best hitting streak to 15 games with an infield single off Braves pitcher Mike Manor, scoring Nick Punto to gave the Dodgers a 1-0 lead in the first inning.

Puig was once again incredible in just his seventh game in the majors. He made another rocket throw that almost makes it impossible to argue that he doesn’t already have the best arm in the outfield. And he had another multi-hit game, becoming the first Dodger to have five multi-hit games in his first seven games.

Alas, there is only so much the 22-year-old Cuban can do. Not that he is trying to cover the entire field, although he did move to center field during the game for the first time.

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly sounded more like a trainer before the game while talking about injuries to Matt Kemp, Hanley Ramirez, Andre Ethier, Ted Lilly, Chris Capuano, A.J. Ellis and Mark Ellis.

It’s seemingly a never-ending list that has Mattingly shuffling his lineups before, during and after games this season.

“It’s frustrating when your middle guys are out,” Mattingly said. “We’re missing Matt now. We haven’t had Hanley pretty much the whole year. You get him back for a day.

“The consistency has been Adrian [Gonzalez]. He’s been coming in day in and day out. That’s really been about it.”

LOS ANGELES -- Dodgers chairman Mark Walter was so new in the baseball game, the first time he heard the name Yasiel Puig, he wasn’t sure if someone was pulling a fast one on him.

“We’d just bought the team, so you don’t know whether the scouts have superlatives for lots of people that they see,” Walter said.

Veteran baseball men, top player development guys and scouts were comparing Puig to all-time greats like Roberto Clemente and calling him a once-in-a-lifetime player.

Walter listened to them all, intrigued but skeptical.

Could he really be that good? Or did these guys just see the team’s new owners as loose with their money after they’d paid a record $2.15 billion to buy the Dodgers?

He listened, and then he did what you’d expect from a brilliant financial mind: He assessed the risk/reward from a completely different perspective.

“When you’re told he’s somebody who can be another Matt Kemp, those players are $20 million a year,” Walter said. “Six years for that player is $120 million, so it’s only got to be a 1-in-3 shot [the $42 million over six years the Dodgers signed Puig for] is worth it.

“It’s a lot less if he really is ready for it.”

One week into Puig’s big league career, it looks like the Dodgers’ new owners have got themselves a steal. You could say the same for the record price they paid for the franchise now, after they inked a 25-year television deal with Time Warner Cable that’s actually closer to $9 billion than the $8 billion that was previously reported.

That record $213 million payroll isn’t looking as great just yet. The Dodgers dropped another game Saturday night against the Atlanta Braves to fall to 27-34 on the season and 7-10 in one-run games.

But Puig’s mere presence these days makes you feel like it’s way too soon to write these Dodgers off. Even standing in the on-deck circle, as he was when Mark Ellis struck out to end the game with the tying run in scoring position, Puig is intimidating. If he gets up, something’s going to happen.

If the ball is hit to him in right field, something’s going to happen.

If the moment is big, he’ll probably be involved in it.

No matter what, you have to watch.

“It’s a daily thing now. Something’s going to happen, whether it’s at the plate, defensively or running the bases,” said Dodgers utility man Skip Schumaker, who went 3-for-4 to extend his career-best hitting streak to 14 games.

Saturday night Puig flashed the arm in right field that drew all those Clemente comparisons by gunning down the speedy Andrelton Simmons as he tried to go from first to third on a single to right. Simmons was out by a good 3 feet as Puig fired a laser to Luis Cruz at third for his second jaw-dropping outfield assist in six games.

He also had two more singles, one of which came on a scary headfirst dive into first base that had Dodgers manager Don Mattingly hoping he re-examines his own views on risk/reward.

“That was a little dangerous. But you know what, with guys like him, that play with that kind of energy, the game just comes out of them, you know,” Mattingly said. “It’s just coming natural.”

So natural that scouts like Mike Brito, who first saw Puig play as a 17-year-old on the Cuban national team, are feeling pretty good about themselves these days.

“I sleep eight hours a night,” Brito joked.

As for Walter, who was sitting right behind Puig as he stood in the on-deck circle at the end of Saturday night’s game hoping to make a little more magic, well, he’s doing just fine, too.

Last place isn’t what he, or anyone associated with the Dodgers, had in mind with this kind of a roster. But men who understand the markets come to understand one thing very well:

“Over long periods of time, things work out. Unfortunately, there are those short periods of time where they don’t,” Walter said.

But when you take the right risks, something or someone like Puig happens.

LOS ANGELES -- Yasiel Puig made another throw that reminded way too many people of Roberto Clemente, smashed a line drive to right field and made you stop everything you were doing every time he came up to bat.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t also leap over the right-field fence to grab either of the fifth-inning home runs hit by the Atlanta Braves that proved the difference in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 2-1 loss.

Right-hander Stephen Fife gave the Dodgers a solid outing, giving up two runs, nine hits and striking out seven over 6T innings. But his fate was sealed after giving up solo home runs to Dan Uggla and pitcher Kris Medlen in the top of the fifth.

The Dodgers tried to answer in the sixth inning, when Nick Punto led off with a double and went to third on Adrian Gonzalez’s groundout. But Andre Ethier flied out to center and Scott Van Slyke grounded out to third to end the threat.

Second baseman Skip Schumaker extended his career-best hitting streak to 14 games with singles in the second, fourth and ninth innings.

But once again, Puig provided the highlights of the night. This time it came on laser throw from right field that nailed the speedy Andrelton Simmons as he tried to go from first to third base on a single by Jason Heyward.

Puig led off the top of the eighth with what can best be described as one of the best -- and scariest -- infield singles you’ll ever see, as he dove into first base to beat out a soft grounder to shortstop, jammed his shoulder and rolled his wrist sliding into the base. He was OK, but the collective gasp from the crowd reinforced just how important he’s become to the Dodgers in his first week in the big leagues.

Puig was thrown out at second on the next play, but slid hard and violently enough to force a bad throw that allowed Punto to reach base and later score on a pinch-hit, two-out RBI single by Hanley Ramirez.

The Dodgers threatened again in the bottom of the ninth, advancing Schumaker to second base, but Braves closer Craig Kimbrel struck out Mark Ellis with Puig on deck to end the game.

LOS ANGELES -- Hyun-Jin Ryu got a big smile on his face when someone asked him if he was used to being asked to stop losing streaks.

“Yes,” Ryu said through an interpreter. “There were a few times.”

Ryu’s team in the Korean Baseball Organization, the Hanwha Eagles, finished with a losing record in each of his last four seasons there. It got so bad in 2009 and 2010 that some fans took to calling them the “Hanwha Chickens.”

The Los Angeles Dodgers can only hope Ryu won’t be pitching under similar circumstances here, but so far things haven’t exactly panned out.

On Saturday, Ryu helped the Dodgers take a little step back from the brink, a 7-1 win over the woeful Miami Marlins that snapped L.A.’s eight-game losing streak.

“You could almost feel like it was champagne-time in there,” said Dodgers manager Don Mattingly.

If winning one out of nine is worthy of a celebration, the Dodgers could be in trouble. But if they are looking for signs that they could get rolling in the other direction, Ryu gave them one Saturday.

Perhaps he ignited a little brush fire that could lead to something bigger.

Zack Greinke will be back soon, maybe as early as Wednesday. The Dodgers could then have three starting pitchers, including Clayton Kershaw, as good as any trio in the National League. That appears to be Dodgers fans’ best hope at this point.

There is magic in a dominant trio of starting pitchers. Glavine-Maddux-Smoltz? Seaver-Koosman-Ryan? Hudson-Mulder-Zito? Kind of depends on what generation you’re from. It might take that kind of magic to get the Dodgers to the postseason at this stage.

Not that Mattingly would even entertain such ideas Saturday, after the ringer his team has been through in the first six weeks: an endless string of injuries, underperforming veterans and the like. But perhaps he could start to envision the outlines of a way out.

“You start to see what it could be,” Mattingly said. “This is what it’s supposed to look like.”

When Ryu walked off the mound in the seventh inning, Dodger Stadium was as loud as it had been in weeks, as if 42,000 people were yelling, “Thank you.” The Dodgers hadn’t won here since April 30. Ryu was on the mound that day, too.

Ryu would qualify for the NL Rookie of the Year award, though he pitched seven seasons in Korea. “I actually do feel like a rookie,” he said Saturday. But he in no way resembles one. He doesn’t have Kershaw’s velocity or breaking ball or Greinke’s versatility, but he can baffle a lineup with his wiles.

“He’s kind of a master craftsman in a sense,” Mattingly said. “He locates, changes speeds, takes a little more off. When he’s sharp, it’s fun to watch.”

There you have it: the rookie master craftsman. Might be a bit of a contradiction, but the Dodgers aren’t sticklers these days if they can get a win.

LOS ANGELES -- It was a baby step, but a big one, if that makes sense.

The Los Angeles Dodgers beat a team they should beat, the Miami Marlins, on Saturday night. But the way things had been going for these guys, nothing seemed like a tap-in. And in doing so, L.A. snapped an eight-game losing streak with a 7-1 win in front of 42,208 fans at Dodger Stadium.

Slumping players hit. A rotation beset by short outings got a long, almost-dominant start. A defense that has been uneven was reliable and, occasionally, spectacular. It was textbook stuff, a team finally playing up to its capabilities after weeks of sleepwalking.

Now, we find out if it will amount to anything. The Dodgers still are seven games under .500. They are attempting to become the 30th team in baseball history to go through an eight-game losing streak and make the postseason, the fourth to win a World Series.

The effort was far from lacking Saturday. Skip Schumaker and Carl Crawford made spectacular diving stops. The Dodgers' offensive pressure was steady.

And above all else, Andre Ethier broke out. Ethier went into Saturday in one of the worst slumps of his career, batting .209 since April 20. Dodgers manager Don Mattingly thought Ethier was getting frustrated with his early at-bats and struggling to maintain any consistency. Saturday, he had a contained approach and went 4-for-4 with four solidly struck line-drive hits.

Hyun-Jin Ryu set an early tone, mowing down the Marlins through the first three innings, as the Dodgers got steady traction against Kevin Slowey. Ryu has been one of the few pleasant surprises for Mattingly and the Dodgers. He has gotten the ball into the seventh inning in each of his starts. Not even Clayton Kershaw can say that.

Ryu got a loud, standing ovation when he left the mound with two outs in the seventh inning.

The Dodgers had a wild third inning, scoring twice, but getting two players thrown out on the bases. Matt Kemp got a little excited rounding second base -- perhaps unaware that Adrian Gonzalez was being held at third -- and was cut down by Marcell Ozuna; and Schumaker appeared to pick up a bloop hit to left, but Matt Diaz forced Ethier out at third.

The Dodgers didn't fold after that foiled rally, though. They scored again in the fifth, chasing Slowey after 102 pitches with two outs in the inning. Slowey came into Saturday's game with a 1.61 ERA in his first seven starts.

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 -- 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.