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LOS ANGELES -- Matt Kemp wasn’t there the day Yasiel Puig arrived from Chattanooga, Tenn. In fact, had Kemp not gotten hurt, Puig might have spent the season in the minor leagues, or at least had his rocket ship of a rookie season stalled on the launching pad for a while.

Kemp was in the lineup for only 11 of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 42 wins from June 22 to Aug. 7, when their pace was the best 50-game snippet the National League had seen in almost 70 years.

He got there in time to celebrate in the pool and clubhouse during the Dodgers’ NL West-clinching party in Arizona, but just barely. It was his fourth game back after missing two months.

So, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly is perfectly correct to say the Dodgers can not only win without Kemp, they have won without Kemp.

But the timing isn't ideal.

News that Kemp is lost for the postseason came at an awkward moment. The Dodgers were on the field whipping up fan frenzy for their first playoff appearance in four seasons Sunday at the exact moment Kemp, inside the Dodgers' clubhouse, was informing reporters he’d been shut down for the rest of the season.

Not exactly some happy news to go sailing with into October.

But the real reason Sunday’s news left such a mark was that Andre Ethier’s availability for the first round of the playoffs hangs by a thread. Ethier might not have been an impact offensive player this season, but he was a solid contributor to the offense and a reliable glove in center field. As long as other hitters were providing the power around him, Ethier kept the Dodgers’ lineup humming along.

Ethier hasn’t run since the Dodgers shut down his running program last week in San Francisco. If he makes the roster for the Dodgers’ series in Atlanta, it figures to be as a pinch hitter.

So, yeah, Kemp’s injury might have just reduced the Dodgers’ chances of advancing to the National League Championship Series by a few percentage points or so, depending on how healthy some of the other nicked-up Dodgers are.

“It’s not going to be easy. He does big things, but, at the same time, we just have to play as a team,” Hanley Ramirez said. “Everybody knows that Matt Kemp is a great player.”

In 2013, Kemp wasn’t a great player, actually. He was an average player, maybe slightly below average for an outfielder. In Kemp’s most recent stint on the disabled list, for the ankle, the Dodgers went 36-17 without him.

But his threat gave the Dodgers’ offense more length. Pitchers have reason to fear Kemp and, to some extent, Ethier.

Now, they’ll see either Skip Schumaker, who is virtually devoid of power, or someone such as Scott Van Slyke, whom they probably have never heard of. Plus, the Dodgers’ bench gets a little worse whenever Schumaker is inserted in the starting lineup.

The Dodgers, however, are far from doomed. If Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw pitch to their capabilities, you and I could probably take up a couple lineup spots and the Dodgers could survive.

Schumaker started in center field in Games 5, 6 and 7 of the 2011 World Series, and it didn’t seem to hurt the St. Louis Cardinals much. They were world champions. If the Dodgers can get by Atlanta, Ethier should be healthy enough to play in the next round.

At times, Kemp showed glimpses of his MVP-caliber 2011 and April of 2012, when he was, arguably, the best all-around player in the game. He batted .314 with three doubles and a home run in his last 11 games, but there were also troubling signs, even in the good times. In those 11 games, Kemp struck out seven times, three more times than he walked.

He would have been particularly useful against the Braves, who could use two left-handed starting pitchers against the Dodgers in Mike Minor and Paul Maholm. The other team the Dodgers could have played, the St. Louis Cardinals, have no left-handed starters.

Before Sunday’s game, Mattingly -- a onetime batting champion and longtime hitting coach -- talked about what he saw in Kemp’s swing over the past two weeks.

“It still looks, to me, like a spring training, because you’ll see bad days then good days, good days then bad days,” Mattingly said. “To me, that’s what the early season is. You see guys who one day look like they’re getting there and the next day are out of sorts again. We haven’t seen that locked-in look like what Matt had at the end of ’11 and beginning of ’12.

“But he definitely looked more like the beginning of ’12 than the beginning of this season.”

So, the Dodgers might have seen Kemp’s comeback forestalled. And, who knows, had his ankle held up, he might have been the one leading them to World Series glory. It just seems a tad ill-informed to suggest he was the only one capable of doing it.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Between now and the middle of next week, the Los Angeles Dodgers will be pondering the unkindest cut of all.

Jerry Hairston Jr. is a 12-year veteran who has won a World Series ring and competed in two postseasons. He has been part of the fabric of the Dodgers' clubhouse for the past two seasons. He's a gregarious, popular player who has, at times, helped bring along some of the team's young players.

But can the Dodgers afford to carry an aging, injury-prone utility player who, while playing sparingly, has batted .215 this season and .152 since Aug. 1?

"To be honest with you, I don't think about it," Hairston said. "The good thing about it is I don't make those decisions."

It's not as though the Dodgers don't know what their core is. They have four everyday options to play the outfield and, assuming Andre Ethier is healthy enough, they'll all be in the mix for heavy playing time in the playoffs. They have their five everyday infielders, including the catcher. They'll bring four starting pitchers with them and they haven't decided if they'll keep a fifth should they require a long man or emergency replacement.

They figure to bring seven relievers. Nick Punto and Skip Schumaker have played significant roles and look like locks. Tim Federowicz is the No. 2 catcher, so he's on.

Michael Young has batted .385 since the Dodgers acquired him from the Philadelphia Phillies on Aug. 31 and, since they got him in part because of his postseason experience, he seems like a safe bet.

But what about Dee Gordon, whose speed makes him a tempting weapon, but whose lack of polish in other areas could make him an iffy proposition? Or, Scott Van Slyke, who can provide power off the bench, but is also somewhat uni-dimensional?

Between Edinson Volquez, Carlos Marmol and Chris Capuano -- all veteran pitchers -- one, at most, figures to make the cut. What about Brandon League, who has pitched poorly all season but is signed for two more years at $7.5 million per season?

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PHOENIX -- You could sense the Los Angeles Dodgers' determination as they desperately tried to crawl that final inch, but their search for the National League West title remains exactly that -- a crawl.

They fought back from a 4-0 deficit to get to within one run, but after some bad breaks, they lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks, 9-4, at Chase Field on Wednesday night. Their magic number remained stuck on two. They only have one more chance, Thursday afternoon, to finish it off in the tidiest manner, against the team they're trying to eliminate.

For now, the champagne stayed neatly tucked away in the visiting clubhouse, the plastic sheeting stored nearby.

The Dodgers, hot as lava from late June through early September, have lost 10 of their past 14 games with the prize so close.

Wednesday they had a turn of misfortune at a bad time. Michael Young appeared to get his hand on home plate ahead of Miguel Montero's tag in the sixth inning, but umpire Jim Joyce, running toward the plate from his first-base position, called him out.

Adrian Gonzalez, who had hit the double that sent Young home, was so upset, he was ejected by second-base umpire Andy Fletcher. Gonzalez is a laid-back sort and it was only the third ejection of his career. It proved costly because, after that, the Dodgers' only power bats were Matt Kemp and Yasiel Puig.

Arizona scored five eighth-inning runs off Ronald Belisario and Peter Moylan to keep the Dodgers stuck an inch from the finish line.

The game was televised by ESPN and the first four innings gave viewers in other cities a pretty good summation of everything Puig. He was as exciting as ever, both when he got picked off second base following his leadoff double and when his powerful arm intimidated Montero from trying to score in the third inning.

The Dodgers' biggest worry with Puig is that he'll get angry or upset and lose focus at a critical moment. After he had been picked off, he seemed in a bit of a fog when Adam Eaton grounded a hit to right field. Puig took his time and Eaton hustled his way to second for a double. It wouldn't have mattered where he was in the end, because Paul Goldschmidt -- who else? -- homered to give Arizona a 2-0 lead.

Puig hit a 442-foot home run to spark the Dodgers' offense to life in the fourth inning. It always seems to be the good and the bad with Puig, in this case in roughly equal measure.

The Dodgers had to fight to get out of the hole the Diamondbacks dug them against spot starter Stephen Fife, who was lifted in the third inning having given up four runs and six hits. The Dodgers gave Fife the start to afford ace Clayton Kershaw extra rest in anticipation of a deep run in the playoffs.

LOS ANGELES -- September can make for some weird moments, when players who have scarcely been heard from jump up and affect a season at a critical moment. Who knows, maybe they'll even affect a postseason game at a critical moment.

The Los Angeles Dodgers got a little dose of that Tuesday night, when Scott Van Slyke hammered a walk-off home run to give them a 5-3 11th-inning win over the Arizona Diamondbacks. It trimmed their magic number for clinching the National League West to just six games, meaning they could be celebrating a division title as early as Saturday.

As nice as Van Slyke's shot was, two other young players who shuttled back and forth between Triple-A and the major leagues all summer could prove useful in a few weeks.

Shortstop Dee Gordon, who has had virtually no impact on this Dodgers season, could give them a dangerous pinch runner for the late innings of close games. Reliever Chris Withrow and his 98 mph fastball might come in handy, too.

Manager Don Mattingly still refuses to talk much about postseason roster possibilities until the Dodgers clinch, but he said both Gordon and Van Slyke will get long looks for a bench spot.

"One guy hits a home run, another steals a base," Mattingly said. "We'll kind of deal with those questions and throw them around upstairs and downstairs if we can get there."

Gordon could give the Dodgers another Dave Roberts nine years after Roberts stole that key base to spark the Boston Red Sox's World Series run. Gordon pinch ran for Adrian Gonzalez in the 10th inning Tuesday night, stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch.

He stayed stuck there when Juan Uribe struck out on a 3-and-2 pitch from Josh Collmenter, but you could see how Gordon's presence on the bases distracted the Arizona reliever. The last thing a pitcher needs in a pressure-packed playoff setting is somebody that fast in his peripheral vision.

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PHILADELPHIA -- The Los Angeles Dodgers recalled outfielder Scott Van Slyke from Triple-A Albuquerque and optioned shortstop Dee Gordon to Albuquerque before Friday's game against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Van Slyke has batted .242 with six homers and 15 RBIs in 36 games this season. It is his fourth call-up of the season.

Gordon has batted .208 in 25 games this season with Los Angeles.

Instead of accepting an outright assignment to the minor leagues, infielder Luis Cruz decided to become a free agent, effective immediately, the Los Angeles Dodgers announced Tuesday.

The Dodgers today reinstated outfielder/first baseman Scott Van Slyke from the 15-day disabled list and designated Cruz for assignment last Friday.

Cruz batted .127 with two doubles, a homer and six RBIs in 45 games with the Dodgers this season. Cruz, 29, appeared in 78 games with the Dodgers last season and batted .297 with 20 doubles, six homers and 40 RBIs after being called up to the majors on July 2.

LOS ANGELES -- It's not as if no one could see this one coming.

Luis Cruz's roster spot was getting more and more tenuous as the Dodgers got healthier and healthier. On Friday, he finally lost it. The Dodgers designated the popular infielder for assignment to make room for Scott Van Slyke to come off the disabled list.

Cruz was out of options, so he must now clear waivers and accept the assignment to Triple-A Albuquerque to remain in the Dodgers' organization.

In 2012, Cruz, a native of Mexico nicknamed "Cochito," was among the Dodgers' most pleasant surprises, taking advantage of injuries to seize the third-base job. He batted .297 with 20 doubles in 78 games.

It was a different story this season. Cruz began the season in a deep batting slump and never emerged. He was batting .127 with just three extra-base hits in 45 games.

"I'd like to see him in the big leagues more than anywhere," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. "If he doesn't end up in the big leagues, then you hope he'll end up in Albuquerque where he has a chance to get some swings and then you never know what happens at that point. He could get a chance to come back again and play."

Cruz was not in the clubhouse during the period in which the media is allowed.

Here are lineups for Friday's game, with the Dodgers trying for a seventh straight win:

Philadelphia
1. Michael Young 3B
2. Chase Utley 2B
3. Jimmy Rollins SS
4. Domonic Brown LF
5. Delmon Young RF
6. John Mayberry Jr. 1B
7. Ben Revere CF
8. Carlos Ruiz C
9. John Lannan LHP

Dodgers
1. Mark Ellis 2B
2. Yasiel Puig RF
3. Adrian Gonzalez 1B
4. Hanley Ramirez SS
5. Matt Kemp CF
6. Andre Ethier LF
7. Jerry Hairston Jr. 3B
8. Tim Federowicz C
9. Chris Capuano LHP

LOS ANGELES -- Monday night, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly watched his closer, Brandon League, blow his fourth save in 17 chances, frittering away a two-run lead against the first-place Arizona Diamondbacks and squandering a strong performance by Clayton Kershaw.

Tuesday, he made a change. Mattingly said Kenley Jansen will assume the closer's duties and League will be shifted back to eighth-inning duties, his role most of his career.

"We've been trying to stabilize the back of the bullpen from the very beginning," Mattingly said. "It's an unsettling feeling late in games. We haven't given ourselves that many opportunities to win those games, so when you do and then you can't close it, it hurts the whole team."

League has a 6.00 ERA and 1.458 WHIP. Jansen has a 2.53 ERA and 1.000 WHIP. League has a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 1.86. Jansen's is 7.33.

Mattingly had been using Jansen to attack the other team's best hitters, but that doesn't work if the seventh- and ninth-inning relievers can't hold the line. The chore of ending tight games successfully has been short-circuited because League and Ronald Belisario are struggling in tandem.

Monday, Jansen retired Willie Bloomquist, Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Ross, but League imploded starting with the bottom of Arizona's lineup.

"I don't know that it works better this way," Mattingly admitted. "I wish I could say we've got the sixth through ninth covered, you get there and it's over. But a lot of teams have bullpen problems."

The Dodgers also brought up some potential reinforcements from Triple-A Albuquerque: outfielder Alex Castellanos and right-handed reliever Chris Withrow. They put Scott Van Slyke, who was dealing with left shoulder bursitis from some awkward outfield dives, on the 15-day disabled list and optioned shortstop Justin Sellers back to Triple-A.

Withrow, 24, was a first-round draft pick in 2007 and was 4-0 with a 1.93 ERA in 22 appearances this season. He throws a mid-90s fastball. Castellanos, 26, was batting .270 with nine home runs, eight steals and 28 RBIs.

Here are lineups for Tuesday night's game:

Arizona
1. Gerardo Parra CF
2. Willie Bloomquist 2B
3. Paul Goldschmidt 1B
4. Miguel Montero C
5. Cody Ross RF
6. Jason Kubel LF
7. Martin Prado 3B
8. Didi Gregorius SS
9. Ian Kennedy RHP

Dodgers
1. Skip Schumaker LF
2. Nick Punto 2B
3. Adrian Gonzalez 1B
4. Yasiel Puig RF
5. Andre Ethier CF
6. Juan Uribe 3B
7. Tim Federowicz C
8. Luis Cruz SS
9. Zack Greinke RHP

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Dodgers finally have a little swagger, not to mention enough high-end talent to compete.

Two new arrivals -- Zack Greinke's stuff and Yasiel Puig's electricity -- propelled the Dodgers to a 5-0 win over the Atlanta Braves on Thursday night. In the eighth inning, when Puig sent an opposite-field shot sailing over the right-field fence for a grand slam, Dodger Stadium seemed as alive as it had all season.

Hanley Ramirez shoved Puig out of the dugout for a curtain call and Luis Cruz doused him in ice water as he stood on the field conducting an interview after the game.

Puig's home run was his third in just his fourth major league game, but Greinke's relative dominance will be greeted at least as warmly by the Dodgers, who must have been wondering whether their wildly expensive new pitcher had come back too soon from a broken collarbone.

Greinke (3-1) pitched well for five innings in his return from the injury, but in his previous three starts he had an 8.77 ERA and just six strikeouts combined. Thursday, Greinke held a powerful lineup to no runs and only four hits, striking out seven in seven innings.

The Dodgers' middle infielders, good friends Nick Punto and Skip Schumaker, used a little trickery to get a key out in the eighth inning to set up that dramatic eighth. They deked Jordan Schafer into sliding headfirst into second base on Andrelton Simmons' fly ball to center and, after Schafer scrambled to get back to first, the umpires ruled that he had failed to retouch second base on his way back, upholding the Dodgers' appeal.

Greinke had already crossed the 100-pitch mark when he got himself in a dangerous jam in the seventh. Back-to-back hits from Freddie Freeman and Brian McCann gave Atlanta runners on first and third with nobody out. Manager Don Mattingly -- probably in part because of his leaky bullpen -- stuck with Greinke, who rewarded his faith. Greinke struck out Dan Uggla, got Ramiro Pena to line to left (Scott Van Slyke making a brilliant throw home to keep Freeman at third) and B.J. Upton to fly to right.

The Dodgers ran into a crafty veteran pitcher trying to pitch his way out of a slump, Tim Hudson, and didn't get much traction. Their only run through the first seven innings came on Schumaker's RBI groundout to second in the second inning.

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Dodgers already knew Yasiel Puig was human. He just hadn't proven it until Wednesday.

Puig, who had jolted Dodger Stadium to life with two electrifying performances in his first two major league games, landed back on earth Wednesday. Puig was 0-for-4 with a couple of strikeouts, and the Dodgers' offense went back into the doldrums with a 6-2 loss to the San Diego Padres.

It's fair to say Puig isn't going to drive in five runs or end the game with a massive throw every night, so the Dodgers probably will need to find other ways to start their engine while he's here.

The Dodgers didn’t have their first baserunner off Jason Marquis until the fifth inning and they managed just four hits for the game.

They felt pretty good about their chances of picking up the sweep behind ace Clayton Kershaw, but Kershaw wasn't particularly crisp and the Dodgers rarely score for him. He struggled putting hitters away and needed 120 pitches to get through six innings. Kershaw gave up three runs and seven hits and struck out nine. One of the runs was unearned due to a Hanley Ramirez throwing error in the second inning.

The Dodgers have trouble scoring in general, but particularly when Kershaw pitches. His 2.68 runs of support was fourth-worst in the National League coming into the game.

The Dodgers still haven't staged a dramatic late rally all season. They are 0-27 when entering the ninth inning trailing.

The Dodgers scored their first run after Skip Schumaker hit a two-out double and Adrian Gonzalez ripped a single off second baseman Jedd Gyorko's glove. Their only other run came on a towering home run by Scott Van Slyke, who has been a bright spot. He has hit six home runs in only 19 games for the Dodgers.

The Dodgers' bullpen hasn't exactly been stellar. Young lefty Paco Rodriguez needed 40 pitches to get two outs, walking three batters and allowing three late runs.

LOS ANGELES -- Somebody asked Don Mattingly whether Yasiel Puig can maintain this .625 hitting beyond the first two games.

"I didn't think he could do it all spring training," Mattingly said. "I'm not going to say there's anything he can't do."

While Puig's impact has been the most dramatic, he's not the only young player helping the Dodgers in this modest uptick in their play. Catcher Tim Federowicz and outfielder Scott Van Slyke have taken advantage of opportunities created by injuries to veteran players and contributed.

Federowicz has two home runs and a double in three games this month. Van Slyke is second on the Dodgers with five home runs despite having played in only 18 games.

Just a few months ago, Van Slyke looked like a man without a future. He had been hoping to make the club as a fourth outfielder, but instead learned he had been taken off the 40-man roster when the Dodgers traded for veteran utility man Skip Schumaker. The Dodgers apparently soured on the 26-year old after he batted .167 in 27 games for them last year. He had a conversation with his father, Andy, a three-time All-Star outfielder in the 1980s that helped put things in perspective.

"He told me the first two years into his playing career, he still felt a little anxious," Van Slyke said. "It wasn't until his career accelerated that he began to feel less nervous. It takes time to feel comfortable in the big leagues."

Mattingly says he has noticed Van Slyke and Federowicz playing with more confidence this time up, particularly Federowicz. No argument from the players.

"I'm up there thinking through my at-bat a little bit instead of having the game speed up on me," Federowicz said. "I'm actually hitting the ball the way I do."

Here are lineups for Wednesday's game with the San Diego Padres:

San Diego
1. Chris Denorfia CF
2. Everth Cabrera SS
3. Chase Headley 3B
4. Carlos Quentin LF
5. Jedd Gyorko 2B
6. Kyle Blanks RF
7. Jesus Guzman 1B
8. Yasmani Grandal C
9. Jason Marquis RHP

Dodgers
1. Yasiel Puig RF
2. Skip Schumaker 2B
3. Adrian Gonzalez 1B
4. Hanley Ramirez SS
5. Andre Ethier CF
6. Scott Van Slyke LF
7. Juan Uribe 3B
8. Tim Federowicz C
9. Clayton Kershaw LHP

LOS ANGELES -- For all the excitement over Yasiel Puig's major league debut Monday night, it's worth pointing out that he's not here to get better. It hasn't come to that yet. The Los Angeles Dodgers aren't in a youth movement, looking toward the future.

He's here to help the Dodgers win and, at least for one night, it certainly looked like he can.

Puig, backpedaling to catch a deep line drive, made a flat-footed throw from the warning track to Adrian Gonzalez on a fly to double up Chris Denorfia for the final out of the Dodgers' 2-1 win over the San Diego Padres Monday night.

Puig batted .313 at Double-A Chattanooga and he didn’t cool off after traveling 2,000 miles west on Sunday. In his first at-bat, he reached for an Eric Stults changeup and hit a soft line drive into center field for his first major league hit. The Padres obliged and third-base coach Tim Wallach tossed the ball into the Dodgers’ dugout so Puig could have his keepsake.

Puig was 2-for-4 and displayed some of his speed running the bases and arm strength from right field, though his impact on the outcome proved minimal until that final play.

The Dodgers offense continued to slump -- can you call it that after nearly five weeks? -- with solo home runs from Gonzalez and Scott Van Slyke the only action against Stults. But the Dodgers got a strong effort from Stephen Fife making an emergency start for Chris Capuano who -- like so many other Dodgers before him this year -- was sent off for an MRI.

Capuano has been dealing with some tightness in his left forearm. The Dodgers put Carl Crawford -- one of two regulars hitting better than .300 -- on the 15-day disabled list before the game because of tightness in his left hamstring.

The Dodgers could add two impact offensive players in two days if Hanley Ramirez returns before Tuesday’s game. That seems like a distinct possibility after Ramirez played six innings of shortstop and went 1-for-3 with a double in his fourth rehab game for Single-A Rancho Cucamonga Monday.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Every time it looks as if the Los Angeles Dodgers are getting unstuck, they hit another snag.

They managed to cool off the Los Angeles Angels by snapping their eight-game winning streak with a couple of energetic wins at Dodger Stadium earlier this week. Then, they got on the freeway and hit heavy traffic.

They lost two tough, one-run games at Angel Stadium -- Thursday's by a 3-2 score -- and they're right back where they started, eight games under .500 and mired in last place in the NL West.

Had the Dodgers managed to win one of these two games in Anaheim, they would have won their first season series against the Angels since 2006. Because of realignment, the Dodgers and Angels don't play again this season.

The Dodgers got a second straight nice outing from veteran Ted Lilly, who got into the sixth inning and gave up three runs and five hits. It was a bit of bad luck that helped the Angels push the go-ahead run across. Chris Nelson hit a slow roller that reliever Ronald Belisario deflected to second baseman Mark Ellis, who had no play at first. Howie Kendrick scored from third on the infield hit to give the Angels a 3-2 lead.

Against lefty Jason Vargas, who had been on a roll, and without Matt Kemp, the Dodgers fielded a hodge-podge lineup. Ramon Hernandez, batting .111 coming in, was the designated hitter. Scott Van Slyke, Jerry Hairston Jr. and newly arrived catcher Tim Federowicz all played.

The Dodgers scraped across a couple of runs early, with Carl Crawford scoring after leading off the game with a triple and Hernandez hitting his second home run with the Dodgers. After that, it was quiet. Vargas won his sixth straight decision.

LOS ANGELES -- One of the questions that set off Don Mattingly's now-famous rant about wanting to see more fight centered around a comparison of this season's team to last year's.

In Game 48 of the 2012 season, the Los Angeles Dodgers had a lineup featuring such luminaries as Tony Gwynn Jr., Elian Herrera, Bobby Abreu, Jerry Hairston Jr. and Dee Gordon. After that game, their record was 32-16, or 11 1/2 games better than the twice-as-expensive 2013 version.

Last year's team, at least for a while, must have been among the grittiest in the history of grit.

We saw a rare reprisal of that theme in an otherwise big-money flop of a season: Monday night's 8-7 win over the no-longer-streaking Los Angeles Angels. Mattingly's lineup had two guys who weren't on the roster on Opening Day and two more who were supposed to be on the bench.

The Angels, who only recently turned on their power, had five starters -- Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, Mark Trumbo, Josh Hamilton and Howie Kendrick -- with more home runs than the Dodgers' team leader, Adrian Gonzalez.

And guess what? Grit!

The Dodgers fought their way out of a 6-1 hole, relentlessly pestering C.J. Wilson and a couple of Angels relievers. The most amazing thing about this modest uptick in their play -- 3-2 since Mattingly's comments -- is that it has come with virtually no contributions from their marquee player, Matt Kemp, who is struggling so mightily Mattingly hinted he might soon drop him in the order.

Kemp struck out four times Monday -- a rare feat -- and has 13 strikeouts in his past 23 plate appearances. Adrian Gonzalez has been the engine: He's 9-for-11 with seven RBIs since Saturday, but Monday was one of those team wins, the kind the Dodgers somehow pulled out, one after the next, last season.

Nick Punto, Scott Van Slyke, Hairston, Luis Cruz and -- of all people -- Juan Uribe played major roles.

"We haven't had many rallies like that, behind by a lot, too. It's a good sign," said pitcher Zack Greinke.

The Dodgers have lost in a lot of ways this season, which is not surprising since they’re six games under .500 in mid-May.

Most frequently, it has been insufficient offense. Sometimes, it has been bad pitches by relievers. Occasionally, the starting pitcher has flamed out early.

Friday night, it was fielding that let them down. Luis Cruz and Carl Crawford made costly errors, Dee Gordon misplayed another grounder and the Dodgers lost 8-5 to the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field. Only four teams in the majors have made more errors than the Dodgers' 30.

When Cruz dropped a line drive in the sixth inning, it meant lefty Paco Rodriguez had to face the most dangerous slugger in the National League this season, Justin Upton, with the bases loaded and one out. To the surprise of few, Upton slugged a massive grand slam, his 14th home run this season.

For the first time this season, Hyun-Jin Ryu didn't make it through the sixth inning, putting a bit of strain on the Dodgers' overworked bullpen. He held the Braves to two runs and five hits, but five walks took their toll, his pitch count hitting 100 after five innings.

Cruz's roster spot appears to be in imminent danger. Mark Ellis could be returning from the disabled list in a matter of days and Cruz is batting .097.

No Dodgers hitter is within eight of Upton's lead league in homers, but the team did see a little slugging from its bench, at long last. Scott Van Slyke, who had been pounding the Pacific Coast League before his promotion last week, hit a pair of home runs and made a sliding catch near the right-field line.