LOS ANGELES -- R.A. Dickey, whose stellar streak hit a speed bump in his start against the Yankees, may have been distracted by all the attention he was receiving leading up to his Subway Series outing, Terry Collins suggested Friday.

Dickey allowed five runs in six innings against the Yankees. The knuckleballer looks to get back into a groove Friday night at Dodger Stadium.

"He's a bright guy. He knows what he's got to do," Collins said. "He knows how to handle it. I do believe that the weekend we played the Yankees, there was too much going on for him. I hope that right now he gets back into the routine that he's accustomed to, and that's getting ready to pitch. We try to keep these guys on track as far as their routines go, so that every time they turn around they aren't dragged away doing an interview somewhere -- let them focus on their jobs.

"As we know this is certainly a PR-oriented sport as far as what you have to do in the game, you still have to go out and perform. When that performance is dragged down because you don't have time to get ready, that's an issue for me, yes.

"Of course, we talk on a daily basis about how things are going. And he said he wasn't going to let it be a distraction. He knew he had the book signings and some other stuff, but he set up most of those things so that it never got in the way of what he would do to get ready to pitch. And that's been the case until recently. And now all of a sudden every day he's got stuff he's got to do. As I told him the other day, 'Look, you need to get ready to do your job and the other stuff will take care of itself.'"