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LOS ANGELES -- Sunday’s 2-1 loss to the Colorado Rockies began to take on a spring training feel, with starting pitchers piggy-backing each other's outings, with Triple-A players all over the field in the final innings and nobody seeming too worked up about the result.

When you can afford to play like that in Game 162, you’re usually in pretty good shape.

The meaningful action came in the middle of the game, when the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Chicago Cubs to sew up the National League’s top seed, locking in the Dodgers’ first-round playoff opponent: the Atlanta Braves.

The Dodgers went 2-5 against the Braves this season. They got swept in a three-game series in Atlanta and split a four-game series at home, but both of those series came during the Dodgers’ dark days, when they were beset with injuries, and only die-hard Dodger fans had ever heard of Yasiel Puig.

One of the things the Dodgers will begin to find out Thursday, when they open the National League Division Series at Turner Field, will be whether their sluggish September will impact their hopes of playing deep into October.

The season ended with a whimper, with the Dodgers scoring two runs the past two games against the team with the worst ERA in the National League.

That reflected a longer-term slowdown. The Dodgers were the hottest team in baseball until they got swept in a three-game series in Cincinnati. After Sept. 5, the Dodgers went 9-14 to end their season. In many of those games, manager Don Mattingly rested more than one of his everyday position players, cognizant of a big division lead and the fragility of his team’s health.

Hyun-Jin Ryu allowed two runs Sunday, somehow working around eight hits, in four innings and finished his rookie season with an even 3.00 ERA. He will pitch Game 3 of the Dodgers’ first-round playoff series at Dodger Stadium next Sunday.

Much of Sunday was about auditions and brush-up work. Ricky Nolasco, who figures to be the Dodgers' Game 4 starter, if they need one, pitched a scoreless inning. So did Chris Capuano, who is bidding to latch onto a job as a reliever coming off a groin injury.

It was a good season for the Dodgers' box office. Sunday was the 29th sellout, the team announced, the most at Dodger Stadium since 1983. They drew 3,743,527 fans on the season, best in baseball.

SAN FRANCISCO -- For a while, people were asking whether Ricky Nolasco should be the No. 3 or No. 4 starter in the playoffs. Now, a better question is whether he should be given the ball for any postseason starts.

That's how badly things have been going for Nolasco as the season winds down. For a month-and-a-half after the Dodgers acquired him from the Miami Marlins, he looked like the acquisition of the year.

After Wednesday's 6-4 loss to the San Francisco Giants, Nolasco (13-11) is 1-2 with a 12.75 ERA in his last three starts and he has given up 24 hits while pitching only 12 innings combined.

Wednesday was Nolasco's last start of the regular season. Dodgers manager Don Mattingly indicated the pitcher's stalled momentum won't impact how he feels about him as he sketches out his playoff rotation.

"Your guys are your guys," Mattingly said. "We're not all the sudden going to go do something different. Our guys are our guys. It's like saying a guy is struggling the last week, are you going to quit playing him?"

In his first 12 games with the Dodgers, Nolasco was 8-1 with a 2.07 ERA and he had held opponents to a .213 batting average.

On Wednesday, Nolasco put the Dodgers in a 3-0 hole in the second inning after Tony Abreu cranked a three-run triple to deep right field off the glove of Yasiel Puig, who lunged near the wall. Nolasco's best hope of holding onto the No. 4 spot is the Dodgers' lack of options. The next pitcher on the depth chart, Edinson Volquez, has pitched better lately, with a 3.50 ERA in his last three starts, but he is 9-12 with a 5.77 ERA for the season.

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SAN FRANCISCO -- Barring some unforeseen circumstances -- or perhaps a misguided decision by the Los Angeles Dodgers to go with Ricky Nolasco -- Hyun-Jin Ryu will pitch Game 3 of the Dodgers' first-round playoff series.

If the Dodgers need that game to advance, or even if they need it to stave off elimination, it would appear they'll have the right guy on the mound. Ryu has certainly not looked overtaken by big moments.

Ryu pitched seven strong innings, giving up only four hits and a run in the Dodgers' 2-1 win over the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park on Tuesday. It was certainly not a playoff atmosphere -- the Giants have been playing out the string since August -- but it was a game the Dodgers had to have if they want to maintain hope of opening the playoffs at home. The Atlanta Braves and St. Louis Cardinals both won.

Ryu is 14-7 with a 2.97 ERA. Were it not for Miami phenom Jose Fernandez and the Dodgers' own Yasiel Puig, Ryu would have been a walkaway Rookie of the Year winner.

"I've surpassed my initial expectations," Ryu said through an interpreter. "Not that I thought it was going to be easy, but it's been much better than I thought. That's a good thing."

He had lost four of his previous five starts coming into Tuesday, but all four of those losses were quality starts. In a spotlight game in his native Korea, he pitched brilliantly in a Dodgers' win over the Cincinnati Reds and Korean superstar Shin-Soo Choo back in July. He gave up one earned run in his major league debut.

The Dodgers have gone 11-4 in his past 15 starts. Since the All-Star break, Ryu has walked nine batters in 11 starts while striking out 57. He can even hit a little, though his base running isn't exactly graceful.

"We couldn't have asked, really, for anything more," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said.

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PHOENIX -- It was an unusual division title-winning season. It started with a gradual descent followed by a massive, unrelenting climb before culminating in a short, late-season dip. But in the end, the Los Angeles Dodgers found themselves right where they expected to be all along.

They're the National League West champions, and they have designs on grander goals than that.

The Dodgers became the first team in baseball to clinch a playoff spot with their wild 7-6 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field on Thursday afternoon.

After closer Kenley Jansen got Aaron Hill to fly out to left field, the Dodgers streamed onto the field. Jansen and catcher A.J. Ellis were locked in a bear hug when Clayton Kershaw leaped onto Jansen's back. Players began putting on gray T-shirts that read, "We own the West."

The team formed a scrum, which gravitated to the second-base area before the Dodgers took their celebration inside to the clubhouse.

Ellis, in a deep hitting slump entering the game, hit the go-ahead home run in the eighth inning.

Hanley Ramirez is making a pretty good argument that he's the Dodgers' MVP, presuming you don't think a starting pitcher enters the discussion. The problem has been keeping him on the field. He largely was the Dodgers' offense Thursday, hammering a pair of home runs and driving in four.

Ramirez has hit 20 home runs while playing in just 81 games, his season hampered by thumb, hamstring and, lately, back issues. He was pulled in the ninth inning after appearing to pull up after running hard to first base trying to leg out an infield single.

It looked as if the Dodgers might walk into the playoffs when Ramirez hit his first home run, a three-run shot, into the left-field stands in the third inning. After the Dodgers had bumbled about for two weeks trying to get this division clinched, it seemed to ease the pressure in the dugout.

But Ricky Nolasco came unhinged in the third inning, giving up six runs on seven rapid-fire hits. With the Dodgers' bullpen a bit ragged after Stephen Fife's short start the night before, Don Mattingly left Nolasco out there and he managed to get through two more scoreless innings to give the Dodgers hope of a rally.

Yasiel Puig continued his beginner's-mistake-a-day tour getting a bad read on Jerry Hairston Jr.'s bloop to right field before Ramirez's home run. What would have gone for a base hit became a fielder's choice when Gerardo Parra easily threw Puig out at second. Afterward, Hairston was captured on camera yelling and gesturing in Puig's direction. Adrian Gonzalez later was seen in the dugout with his arm around Puig talking to him.

That's OK. The Dodgers have exactly two weeks to work out any issues before they play another game that matters.

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 -- Los Angeles Dodgers manager Don Mattingly has a lot to worry about lately.

Ricky Nolasco? He’s at the bottom of the list.

Nolasco had his worst outing since he was traded to the Dodgers in early July, lasting 1 ⅓ innings Saturday night before he was lifted in the 19-3 victory by the San Francisco Giants, the most runs ever scored in the 51-year history of Dodger Stadium.

Nolasco, who had surrendered a combined five earned runs in his previous five starts, was pegged for five against the Giants.

“If he was a younger kid or something, I’d be worried about him a little more,” Mattingly said of Nolasco. "But he’s been around long enough to suck one of these up and know next time out’s a totally different thing.”

Before allowing the first seven San Francisco batters to reach base safely, Nolasco said he felt great warming up.

“That’s the funny thing about this game,” he said.

He managed to limit the Giants to three runs in the first inning, but the wheels came off again in the second. With one out, five more batters reach base consecutively before Mattingly had seen enough. Five relievers combined to finish out the game, combining for 12 earned runs along the way.

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Dodgers pitcher Ricky Nolasco calls in and talks about staying focused and making this playoff push. Nolasco says it's exciting to play for the team he grew up watching. Nolasco explains the story when he found out he was traded to the Dodgers.

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LOS ANGELES -- After they got swept in Cincinnati over the weekend, a couple of Los Angeles Dodgers players said it might have been a good time to hit a little losing streak. Don’t peak too soon. Learn to deal with a spot of trouble. That kind of thing.

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly didn’t bicker with those comments after he read them.

“It humbles you enough to know that you have to be ready to play every day,” Mattingly said Monday.

It didn’t look like humility that earned the Dodgers an 8-1 win over the second-place Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday night, though. It looked more like confidence and raw strength.

The Dodgers hit six home runs, the most they've had in a game in seven seasons, with Juan Uribe going deep three times -- once more than he did all of last season -- to set the stage for a clinching celebration on their home field. The Dodgers increased their NL West lead to 12 games and reduced their magic number for clinching a postseason berth to eight. They have six games left on this homestand, two against Arizona and four against the San Francisco Giants.

It would have been hard to predict this kind of explosion, particularly since the Dodgers played three of their quietest games in months in Cincinnati.

These weren’t cheapies, either. Andre Ethier and Uribe launched back-to-back home runs leading off the second inning. Adrian Gonzalez sliced a two-run shot to left in the third. Uribe hit his second with two outs in the same inning. In the fifth, Hanley Ramirez hit a low drive that seemed to gain altitude as it flew, slamming into the center-field bleachers. Three batters later, Uribe hit another one.

He had a chance to hit his fourth in the eighth inning but swung at reliever Heath Bell’s first pitch and chopped it to Eric Chavez at third base. This was Uribe’s night, though. He beat the throw for another RBI hit.

Shawn Green, who happened to be at Dodger Stadium for a promotional event and was interviewed on the video board before the game, is the only Dodger to hit four home runs in one game. He accomplished the feat -- done 16 times in MLB history -- on May 23, 2002.

Oh, and by the way, Ricky Nolasco pitched well again. He went 6⅔ innings and allowed just three hits and one unearned run, while striking out six. Nolasco is 8-1 with a 2.07 ERA since he became a Dodger on July 6.

After the Dodgers got swept in Cincinnati, ace Clayton Kershaw took the long view.

“Overall, it’s probably a good time to lose some games, if we’re going to end up losing,” Kershaw said.

That may not go down easily for Dodgers fans, who got used to seeing their team take two of three games in a bad series for the previous 2 ½ months and sweep when they played well. But unless we see this team’s struggles bleed into another week or two, he’s got a perfectly valid point.

You don’t want to peak too soon. Get it out of the way now.

Besides, they were playing a Cincinnati team with a little more to play for, coming off a series in Colorado which manager Don Mattingly used as a relief station, resting players in shifts.

With a good week, the Dodgers can still clinch the NL West and then decide whether they want to fight for home field advantage or use the remaining couple of weeks to freshen up.
So, yeah, a 2-4 week is a major dud the way these guys have been going, but with the state of the standings, it still comes across as no biggie.

SCORING

It’s no mystery why the Dodgers hit the skids. They couldn’t score enough runs. It was as if they played the same game in Cincinnati three straight days, got a little burst of offense, put up a bunch of zeroes and waited for something bad to happen at the end.

And it did. The “bad” in this case was having to face Aroldis Chapman.

Even though the Dodgers played half their games last week at a hitting heaven, Coors Field, they batted a ho-hum .274, hit just four home runs and had a disappointing .685 OPS. They struck out more than four times as often as they walked.

They did run into some good pitchers, though, including Jhoulys Chacin, who they beat, and Homer Bailey and Mat Latos, who they did not. If there is anything to worry about from last week, it’s that Reds pitchers pretty much had their way with Dodgers hitters and that could bode ill should the teams meet again in the playoffs.

Then again, regular-season trends tend to go away in October.

Grade: C-

DEFENSE

Unless things start to go seriously sideways in the next few weeks, Edinson Volquez will not start a playoff game for the Dodgers. So, take a deep breath.

In his first chance at showing them what he could do, he showed them exactly what he had been doing for San Diego, giving up a bunch of hits and runs. What messed up the Dodgers pitching was that, after Volquez made his poor start in Colorado, Chris Capuano -- already filling in for injured Hyun-Jin Ryu -- had to leave his start with a strained groin in the second inning.

Suddenly, the bullpen was drained and the wear and tear eventually showed, as the Reds won games decided by the bullpens.

Last week, the Dodgers collectively had a 4.91 ERA. Not good by any team’s standards. Awful by the Dodgers’. Zack Greinke, Ricky Nolasco and Clayton Kershaw were fine, but not dominant, and the rest of the rotation and, even more acutely, the bullpen showed some signs of fray. They still have time to get things ship shape again.

Grade: C-

DECISION-MAKING

Michael Young (.353) had a nice week, his first with the Dodgers. Two of the other recent acquistions, Volquez (7.20 ERA) and Carlos Marmol (5.27 ERA) did not. Brian Wilson had three perfect appearances and one bad one at a crucial time.

The Dodgers have plenty of time to evaluate players’ performances and line things up for the playoff roster, but you can see the makings of one now. Volquez probably needs to pitch brilliantly against Arizona Tuesday night to have any prayer of staying with the Dodgers beyond September and he probably needs to pitch well just to merit another start.

The other three guys seem like pretty good bets to stay with the Dodgers longer.

Manager Don Mattingly took a chance resting so many players in Colorado. For one thing, it sort of stalled the Dodgers’ collective motor, setting them up to look lackluster in Cincinnati.

But it’s pretty clear what was happening. The Dodgers took advantage of the luxury of a major lead to take a step back, hopeful they can take a leap forward between now and clinching day. After that, they’ll probably rest a few more players and then try to rev up for a deep playoff run. Seems like a reasonable strategy.

Grade: B

CHEMISTRY TEST

Here’s what Mattingly told reporters after the sweep in Cincinnati: "I wasn't that excited about our focus during the first two games.”

It might be a good time for leadership from within the clubhouse, snapping everyone back to attention, because things don’t figure to get any easier. The Dodgers didn’t get back to Los Angeles until Monday morning, probably about 14 hours before their three-game series with the second-place Arizona Diamondbacks begins. We’ve already mentioned the taxed bullpen.

For two months and a week, nobody had to worry about chemistry because the Dodgers were winning 80 percent of their games. Now we get a look at the Dodgers’ grinding skills. Do they still remember how?

Grade: C

STATE OF CONTENTION

The Diamondbacks had every opportunity to finally apply a little pressure, but they didn’t. They just kind of sat there, going 3-4 against Toronto and San Francisco, hardly unbeatable opponents. So, Arizona only gained a half-game in the standings and they lost an entire week.

The Dodgers player Arizona in seven of their next 10 games. Those games haven’t felt like they would be make-or-break for a while now, but Arizona could have at least made them interesting if they had played better.

The Dodgers' magic number to clinch the West is 10 games, meaning the earliest it could happen is Friday.

Now, it seems like it’s just a matter of time before the Dodgers close this out. For them, of course, sooner is better than later. If they don't play well this week, they will undoubtedly be clinching on the road, because after Sunday, they embark on a 10-game road trip.

Grade: A-

DENVER -- If you didn’t know Ricky Nolasco was this good, you’re not alone. He pitched a lot of good innings and won a lot of games with the Miami Marlins for eight years without people ever really making much of a fuss over him.

“I’ve been hiding in Miami, but I’m not going to complain,” Nolasco said. “I like flying under the radar.”

Soon, everyone’s radar will be too keenly attuned to fly under. It’s hard to be invisible in the playoffs. With a postseason berth getting closer and closer by the day, the Los Angeles Dodgers have turned this stretch of their season into an evaluation period, a chance to sift through their roster to determine roles, some of them crucial, for October.

The Dodgers are lucky enough to have a solid month to ferret out answers. The league announced the playoff schedule Tuesday, and the Dodgers wouldn’t begin postseason play until Oct. 3.

Plenty of time to field the roster best suited for marching through the rigors of the playoffs.

After Tuesday’s 7-4 win over the Colorado Rockies and another loss by the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Dodgers now have a 13½-game lead in the NL West. Their magic number is 12. The earliest they could clinch would be Tuesday, but it’s more likely they’ll be celebrating with the San Francisco Giants in town -– how much would Dodgers fans love that? -– in one of the games between Sept. 12 and 15.

In the meantime, some questions have emerged.

Could Nolasco, who has been largely dominant his past three starts, overtake Hyun-Jin Ryu for the No. 3 spot in the Dodgers’ rotation, a crucial distinction in a best-of-five first-round playoff series?

Which of the young relievers, and which of the reclaimed veterans, will merit that final bullpen spot? Could Michael Young or Jerry Hairston Jr., two battle-tested veterans, be in danger of not securing one of the bench spots on a 25-man roster?

They refuse to admit they’re thinking that far ahead. Nolasco has never pitched in the playoffs, and it’s impossible to believe he hasn’t started thinking about it -– particularly that he’s now on his hometown team –- but that’s what he says.

“Once we finish the season, we’ll start thinking about that,” he said.

Young made his Dodgers debut Tuesday, and it wasn’t particularly scintillating, though he had a single to fuel a key ninth-inning rally. Young hit into a rally-killing double play in the first inning and struck out twice to go 1-for-5.

These are important times for the new guys –- and other Dodgers on the bubble -- to cement themselves in the team’s October plans.

The Dodgers will get a look at another recent acquisition, reclamation project Edinson Volquez, who is starting Wednesday’s game in an audition for a possible postseason role. All of general manager Ned Colletti’s pickups have been solid or better. Carlos Marmol hasn’t allowed a run since July.

But Colletti’s biggest score, by far, has been Nolasco. Acquired from the Marlins on July 6 for three minor league pitchers, Nolasco is 7-1 with a 2.27 ERA for the Dodgers.

Tuesday’s wasn’t his most artful start, but it was more than adequate. Nolasco has looked better than what the Dodgers bargained for, a solid No. 4 starter.

He cruised through the first four innings, allowing just two base runners, but the Rockies got a better handle on him the third through the lineup. Charlie Blackmon hooked a double into the right-field corner and the pitcher, Jhoulys Chacin, shot a single to right to drive in one run.

Nolasco’s previous outings were both eight-inning shutouts.

Manager Don Mattingly conceded before the game that, aware of the Dodgers’ massive lead, he is beginning to rest the team’s regulars. Hanley Ramirez, Juan Uribe and A.J. Ellis were all off; he said Yasiel Puig, bothered by a nagging calf injury, would have tried to play if Tuesday were a playoff game.

But the watered-down lineup proved scrappy. That's how it has been lately. It doesn't matter who they throw out there. Nick Punto went 4-for-5, Skip Schumaker scored a run, Tim Federowicz went 2-for-3 with an RBI. The biggest hit was Carl Crawford’s two-out, two-run single into the left-field corner.

The Dodgers lately have been able to beat the inferior teams even when fielding their least-competitive lineups.

So, yeah, a lot of the next few weeks will be spent watching games, finding clues to how players will perform under October pressure. But let’s not forget, the bulk of the evaluation has taken place over the past five months.

“If we don’t know them by now, then it’s our fault,” Mattingly said.

LOS ANGELES – Even as the rest of the team has simmered down in the past week, Dodgers starting pitching has continued to cook. For a while, it was driven by an apparent synergy between Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke, but now Ricky Nolasco has joined the mix.

Nolasco pitched his second consecutive eight-inning shutout in the Dodgers’ 4-0 win over the Chicago Cubs Wednesday afternoon at Dodger Stadium, striking out a season-high 11 batters.

Kershaw, Greinke and Nolasco together have gone 13-2 this month. Both of those losses belong to Kershaw, who has a 1.01 ERA this month. You don’t need to go much deeper than that to understand why the Dodgers are in the process of polishing off one of the best months in franchise history. They are 21-6 in August.

Since the Dodgers landed Nolasco from the Miami Marlins on July 6, he is 6-1 with a 2.20 ERA.

It looked like bad news for the Cubs in the first inning, when Nolasco used a nasty curveball to help him get a couple of strikeouts. Nolasco’s success often is predicated on the effectiveness of his breaking pitches.

Nolasco was coming off his best start of the season. He shut out the Boston Red Sox over eight innings in the Dodgers’ 2-0 win Friday night.

As is often the case, there was more drama with Yasiel Puig. The rookie was taken out of the game following the fourth inning and replaced by utility man Skip Schumaker. The Dodgers said the move was made at the “manager’s discretion.”

Puig went into second base standing up in the first inning rather than trying to break up a double play, a decision that may have cost the Dodgers a run after Hanley Ramirez homered. He also made two catches in right field in the fourth, snatching the ball in a nonchalant manner.

Andre Ethier hit a solo home run off Edwin Jackson in the fourth inning and then Jackson’s errant throw helped them score a couple of more in the fifth. Jackson had a play at third on Nolasco’s bunt, but skipped the throw past Cody Ransom and into foul ground.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The funny thing about Wednesday’s thrilling comeback -- in which Andre Ethier tied it in the ninth with a pinch-hit, two-run home run and Yasiel Puig and Adrian Gonzalez won it in the 12th with a couple of doubles -- is how far-from-extraordinary it felt.

You can tell that the Dodgers now expect to win every game, no matter how improbable the circumstances. When the stadium is nearly full that late in a game, you know the fans have caught on.

And beating Matt Harvey and Cliff Lee in one week qualifies as improbable all by itself.

But there was a twist this week. The Dodgers stayed hot, winning five of the six games they played, but they didn’t gain any ground. The Arizona Diamondbacks showed some signs of trying to make this thing a race after all.

SCORING

Hanley Ramirez was just easing his way back into competition after missing more than a week with a jammed shoulder, Puig (.200, .472 OPS) had a rough week and Gonzalez and Carl Crawford had one extra-base between them.

So, what happens? Which unlikely hero will emerge to somehow take up the slack. The names change, but the story seems to stay the same.

This time, it was Juan Uribe, who batted .500 and had a 1.352 OPS for the week. Ethier, of course, did more than his share just with that strange home run (pinch-hit home runs are rare and he never goes to the opposite field).

Oh yeah, and Nick Punto, had some nice moments early, though his playing time figures to shrink dramatically with Ramirez back and manager Don Mattingly likely to ride his everyday players for most of the pennant race.

Grade: B-

DEFENSE

The heart of this team became apparent in the past week if it wasn’t before. It’s about pitching, particularly the Dodgers’ top three starters and their suddenly dominant bullpen. Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke and Hyun-Jin Ryu pitched 22 innings between them and allowed just 11 hits and one run.

At times, the Dodgers are surviving -- rather than thriving with -- the back of the rotation, with Chris Capuano a bit wobbly -- but Ricky Nolasco has generally held his own.

The dominance of the Dodgers’ big three has eased the load on the bullpen, which is a key development, but when the relievers pitch, they continue to get the job done. L.A. relievers pitched 16 innings and only allowed one run.

Even reclamation project Carlos Marmol (two scoreless innings) and youngster Chris Withrow (ditto) have chipped in, which could make the activation of veteran Brian Wilson a somewhat difficult roster move.

Grade: A

DECISION-MAKING

Earlier this season, there seemed to be at least a tiny bit of friction pitting manager Don Mattingly and Hanley Ramirez on one side and the team’s medical staff on the other. In Pittsburgh, Mattingly put his foot down and decided Ramirez was just going to play every day though the trainers recommended he spot him a day off here and there. After all, the shortstop had been begging to get back on the field for a few days.

The Dodgers’ lineup flows better when Ramirez is batting cleanup and Puig is in the No. 2 hole, with rare left-right balance that can make it challenging to manage against the Dodgers.

It was otherwise a quiet week for Mattingly, who -- when everyone’s healthy -- can just sit back and watch the engine purr. There will be some challenges in the next couple of weeks with Wilson coming back and Matt Kemp not too far behind.

At long last, we may get to see how the Dodgers manage the four-outfielder conundrum.

Grade: A-

CHEMISTRY QUIZ

We’ve decided to retire the “Grit-Meter.” It just doesn’t seem as relevant now that the Dodgers’ talent has fully blossomed. They’ll need to summon it when they get tested -- and it’s hard to believe they won’t between now and the playoffs -- but right now it doesn’t seem like a central theme.

If you ask most players about teams that function well, they’ll tell you they have fun together in the clubhouse. When it’s quiet and uptight before games, it seems to carry over into the games.

The Dodgers are having fun, with Uribe and Punto, for some reason, the most frequent target of pranks and punch lines.

Brandon Belt was right, of course. You can’t buy team chemistry. But if you wait long enough, sometimes it falls in your lap free of charge.

Grade: A-

STATE OF CONTENTION

At this point, any week that goes by without the Dodgers losing ground is a huge gain. It’s the Diamondbacks who need to force the action, but that’s hard to do when the team ahead of you loses only one game.

The troubling part for Arizona is that 10 of the Dodgers’ next 13 games are against the Miami Marlins, Chicago Cubs and San Diego Padres. Arizona has to get through four games with the better-than-solid Cincinnati Reds this week before they hit divisional play.

Of course, there are other races for lesser prizes. The Dodgers trail the Atlanta Braves by 3 1/2 games for home-field advantage throughout the NL playoffs. Atlanta’s not showing any signs of giving it up, but if the Dodgers keep playing like this, they might just track them down anyway.

Grade: A-

LOS ANGELES – If you’re going to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers these days, you’d better put them away early. Let them linger and you’re likely to have yourself a little problem.

The New York Mets found out the hard way when, after furious activity on the bases in the first three innings, they could manage just two runs and the Dodgers rallied to beat them 4-2 at Dodger Stadium to extend L.A.'s winning streak to six games.

Everything seems to be going the Dodgers’ way lately, and why wouldn't it, considering they've won 38 of their past 46 games?

Now, they're even getting the breaks. Adrian Gonzalez singled in Carl Crawford from second base in the sixth inning. Juan Lagares’ throw looked like it might beat Mark Ellis to third, but it hit him and bounced into L.A.’s dugout, allowing Ellis to score and Gonzalez to reach third on Lagares’ error. Just like that, an evening of frustration against young Jenrry Mejia ended. Yasiel Puig hit a sacrifice fly and the Dodgers led 3-2.

Ricky Nolasco looked like he might be knocked out of the game in the first few innings, but he managed to keep the wheels from flying off. He got double-play balls in each of the first two innings to end threats. In the second, the first four batters singled off Nolasco, but he was fortunate enough to run into Mejia next and struck out the opposing pitcher, who couldn’t get a bunt down.

The Dodgers also got a break in a generous strike three call from plate umpire Chad Fairchild. The Ronald Belisario fastball -– which was in the vicinity of the outer half of the strike zone -– was on 3-and-2 and would have forced home the tying run.

Paco Rodriguez came into the game and threw a pitch that Daniel Murphy sent screaming into right field, but Puig was stationed nearby and made the catch –- arm extended on the run –- near the warning track to take care of the bases-loaded rally.

Things took an absurd turn in the seventh inning. Right after Eric Young Jr. flipped over the side wall in left field trying to catch a Nick Punto foul popup -- and somehow came out of it just fine -- Punto hit a home run. That is not a common occurrence. It was Punto’s second home run this season. He has been playing in the major leagues since 2001 and he has only once, in 2004, hit more than two in a season.

Shortly afterward, the Dodgers put actor Danny DeVito on DodgerVision and he turned around to display his No. 7 Punto jersey.

Kenley Jansen picked up a four-out save, striking out three of the four batters he faced. Jansen has converted his past 11 save chances.

The Los Angeles Dodgers had their liveliest crowds of the season on this last homestand, but they seem to save their best baseball for when most of the people in the building are against them.

The Dodgers flew through the night to the Midwest and then played one of their most explosive games in a week in a 6-4 win over the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on Thursday. It was the Dodgers' 11th straight win on the road, a new Los Angeles record. The last Dodgers team to run off that many in hostile ground was the 1955 team.

The Dodgers, who had scored four runs in their previous three games, had 12 hits and came back from a couple of early deficits.

The Dodgers got to their Chicago hotel at 7:30 a.m. and had to be at the field by 3:30 p.m.
All four of Chicago's runs came on solo home runs. Ricky Nolasco -- the only Dodger operating on a good night's sleep after he flew in early -- gave up three of them in his five innings of work, including two to Chicago's version of Puig, left fielder Junior Lake. Lake, a 23-year-old Dominican, is batting .323 with four home runs in 15 games. Anthony Rizzo also went deep twice.

Puig himself hit a solo home run in the ninth on a hanging breaking ball to give the Dodgers an extra run and closer Kenley Jansen breezed through the ninth for his 15th save.

Veteran utility player Jerry Hairston Jr. pinch hit and dribbled a key two-run single up the middle. The Dodgers are 11-2 since the All-Star break and moved back to 3½ games ahead of the Arizona Diamondbacks, who lost in Texas.

The Dodgers are 28-7 since June 22 and haven't lost consecutive games since just before that streak.

Nolasco is 2-1, but the Dodgers are 4-1 in his starts, though he has struggled to pitch deep into games. The team was quiet around the trade deadline, but they made their big move more than three weeks early, with the acquisition of Nolasco from the Miami Marlins for three minor-league pitchers.