West League: Dodgers, Astros expand cushion

The Dodgers and Houston Astros now are running well ahead of the West League after a spectacular two weeks for both clubs. But the Astros were slowed down last week by the Texas Rangers, while the Dodgers haven't been slowed down by anybody.

Scott Van Slyke is one of several utility players for the Dodgers who are hitting with authority (TonyTheTiger/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license).

By BILL PETERSON

Big Leagues in Los Angeles

It was anticipated that the Dodgers would at least strongly contend for the West League championship. That expectation was not attached to the Houston Astros.

Right now, though, those are the two teams on top of the league, and they are more on top of the league now than they were two weeks ago. Through April 26, the Astros held a one-half game lead over the Dodgers, but four other clubs were within four games of the league lead. Now, the Dodgers lead the Astros by one game and no one else is less than four games out of the league lead.

The Astros don't seem to have a lot, but everything was going just right. They had a 10-game winning streak in the West League (and overall) from April 24-May 3, winning five of those by one run. The club that finally slowed them down was the Texas Rangers, who swept them three straight last week in Houston.

The Dodgers don't have everything going just right. How can we say everything is going just right when they have Yasiel Puig, Kenley Jansen, Carl Crawford and Hyun-jin Ryu on the disabled list?

But the Dodgers have four or five guys right now who are hitting everything coming their way. Adrian Gonzalez (1.152 OPS) and Joc Pederson (1.043) are leading the charge. But Justin Turner (1.032) and Alex Guerrero (1.155) both have been fantastic and productive in their utility roles. Andre Ethier, something of a forgotten man at the start of the year, is running a .943 OPS. And Scott Van Slyke, who has always damaged left-handers, now is doing it to right-handers, against whom he has a 1.035 OPS and two homers in 36 at-bats this year.

The Dodgers are going so well now that the San Francisco Giants have heated up and still lost ground. The Giants are 7-3 in the West League during the last two weeks, but they lost a game to the Dodgers, who were 7-1.

Games of April 27

Seattle 3, at Texas 1.

Colorado 5, at Arizona 4.

DODGERS 8, San Francisco 3.

Houston 9, at San Diego 4.

Games of April 28

at Oakland 6, ANGELS 2.

Seattle 2, at Texas 1.

at Arizona 12, Colorado 5.

San Francisco 2, at DODGERS 1.

Houston 14, at San Diego 3.

Games of April 29

ANGELS 6, at Oakland 3.

Seattle 5, at Texas 2.

at Arizona 9, Colorado 1.

at DODGERS 7, San Francisco 3.

Houston 7, at San Diego 2.

Games of April 30

at Houston 3, Seattle 2.

ANGELS 6, at Oakland 5.

Games of May 1

at Houston 4, Seattle 3.

Oakland 7, at Texas 5.

at DODGERS 8, Arizona 0.

at San Diego 14, Colorado 3.

at San Francisco 3, ANGELS 2.

Games of May 2

at Houston 11, Seattle 4.

at Texas 8, Oakland 7, 10 innings.

at DODGERS 6, Arizona 4.

at San Diego 4, Colorado 2.

at San Francisco 5, ANGELS 4.

Games of May 3

Houston 7, at Seattle 6.

Oakland 7, at Texas 1.

at DODGERS 1, Arizona 0, 13 innings.

at San Diego 8, Colorado 6.

at San Francisco 5, ANGELS 0.

Games of May 4

Seattle 3, at ANGELS 2.

Texas 2, at Houston 1.

San Diego 3, at San Francisco 0.

Games of May 5

at ANGELS 5, Seattle 4.

Texas 7, at Houston 1.

at San Francisco 6, San Diego 0.

Games of May 6

at ANGELS 4, Seattle 3.

Texas 11, at Houston 3.

Arizona 13, Colorado 7.

Arizona 5, at Colorado 1.

San Diego 9, at San Francisco 1.

Games of May 7

Houston 3, at ANGELS 2.

at Arizona 11, San Diego 0.

Games of May 8

at ANGELS 2, Houston 0.

at Seattle 4, Oakland 3, 11 innings.

San Diego 6, at Arizona 5.

DODGERS 2, Colorado 1, 6 innings.

Games of May 9

Houston 6, at ANGELS 5.

at Seattle 7, Oakland 2.

San Diego 6, at Arizona 4.

Games of May 10

at Angels 3, Houston 0.

at Seattle 4, Oakland 3.

at Arizona 2, San Diego 1.

DODGERS 9, Colorado 5.

Games of May 11

No games.

Games of May 12

San Francisco 8, at Houston 1.

at ANGELS 5, Colorado 2.

at Seattle 11, San Diego 4.

No reason for Dodgers to deal on deadline

The Dodgers already have plenty enough to win this year. In order for them to have enough for winning every year, they must refrain from dealing prospect talent that gives them a chance to win every year in exchange for a pitcher who would be marginally valuable right now. It sounds like the Dodgers will play this right.

The Dodgers have moved shortstop prospect Corey Seager up to the Chattanooga Lookouts in the Southern League (Feelin' Kinda Blue/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license).

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

Reports indicate that the Dodgers are going to cool it on today's trading deadline and refrain from making a deal for a pitcher, or anything else. Good.

The Dodgers have enough players to win already. It would make absolutely no sense at this point for them to trade anything of value for a two-month rental on a pitcher like Boston Red Sox left-hander Jon Lester, good as he is, or any amount of Red Sox right-hander John Lackey.

The Dodgers began the season with a $230 million player payroll. These players haven't all been golden. But they have been good enough to take a three-game lead on the San Francisco Giants in the National League West, and they still haven't really begun hitting.

The deadline arrives with the season going right for the Dodgers. They've won five straight with their 3-2, 10-inning win at Dodger Stadium Wednesday night against the Atlanta Braves. Matt Kemp is hitting .400 since the All-Star break with three homers in the last two days, and he's playing with fury we haven't seen since 2012. And the Giants have been flailing, though they snapped their six-game losing streak with a 7-5 win Wednesday against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Fans always want to win every year, which is more than legitimate, but they generally want to win every year one year at a time, and you're not going to win every year that way. The management's job is to win every year. That means a good front office will hang onto prospects rather than maximize the opportunity to win this year.

But the Dodgers wouldn't maximize anything by adding a pitcher at the deadline, anyway. They've already got the best threesome going in Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke and Hyun-jin Ryu. Josh Beckett has been more than solid as a No. 4. Do they need a No. 5? Of course not.

Everyone remembers those Atlanta Braves clubs that always had a solid pitching rotation one through four, sometimes one through five, won 14 consecutive divisions and came out of it with precisely one World Championship. They were great clubs that almost never went all the way because that attribute of four or five strong starting pitchers is no advantage during the postseason.

During the regular season, when you're playing 20 games in 21 days, having four or five good starting pitchers will get you 100 wins. But during the postseason, when you're playing three games every four days or, maybe, five games every seven games, that No. 5 starter never appears. He becomes all but useless. The manager will use his one through three as often as possible. The No. 4 will get one start in a seven-game series.

If the Dodgers could add a pitcher who would be one of their best two or three starters, perhaps a deal would be worth making. But nobody on the market qualifies, including Lester, despite his 10-7, 2.52 performance this year for the Red Sox. If the Dodgers were to add Lester and make him their No. 4, then run their starters straight-up one through four during the postseason, then Kershaw, Greinke and Ryu all become less valuable because they wouldn't work as often. It would be rather too much of a good thing, and the cost would be a prospect, a good one, probably Corey Seagar or Joc Pederson for a pitcher who probably is gone after the postseason, anyway.

Lackey doesn't present quite the same problem. He's 11-7 with a 3.60 ERA. If he's on the Dodgers as their No. 4, then we can suppose the Dodgers wouldn't run out their starters, one through four, in turn, during the postseason. Lackey would take probably one start in a seven-game series. But, then, what's the point of having Lackey for the postseason?

The Dodgers ownership struck boldly to acquire players on taking over in 2012, but the club president, Stan Kasten, said back then that the goal was to develop players. They've got a couple in their system now who project to become big producers for many years. Trading either of them, for virtually any price, would be foolish.

Pederson is a 22-year-old outfielder OPSing 1.035 in the Pacific Coast League, where the average hitter is 26.6 years old and OPSing .766. Seager is 20 years old and recently promoted to the Southern League, where he is playing shortstop every day. In eight games there, he is OPSing .745. The league's average hitter is 24.5 years old and OPSing .712. For most of the season, he played in the California League, OPSing 1.044. The average hitter in that league is 22.8 years old and OPSing .767.

It's remarkable that anyone would advocate trading either player for a pitcher who would be marginally valuable, if that, for the Dodgers in the postseason.

The Dodgers already have an excellent chance to win this year. The goal for this organization is to win every year. They should keep the prospects. It sounds like they will.

Editor's note: All advanced statistics in this piece are from or are extrapolated from Baseball-Reference.com, unless otherwise indicated.

Surprise! Matty tabs Kershaw for Game 4

Los Angeles Dodgers manager Don Mattingly is making a bid to close out the Atlanta Braves before the home folks in Game 4 of the National League Division Series Monday night, shifting to Clayton Kershaw as his pitcher. But if the Dodgers can get it done, they shouldn't celebrate too much.

The Dodgers are setting the table for a big night at Dodger Stadium Monday, calling on Clayton Kershaw as their starting pitcher in Game 4 (Keith Allison/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license).

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

A sports writer's memory is filled with remarkable events. As the Los Angeles Dodgers close in on winning their National League Division Series (NLDS) against the Atlanta Braves, a memory from 1995 presents itself.

The Cincinnati Reds had just defeated the Dodgers in the NLDS, marking the first year of expanded playoffs. Reds players celebrated, whooping, popping bottles and pouring stuff all over each other, really letting loose in their clubhouse.

The Reds owner, the late Marge Schott, often is vilified for certain badly aimed remarks. But as she surveyed the scene around the Riverfront Stadium while players and fans savored the victory, a moment of brilliance flashed before her and she asked, "What did I win?"

Answer: Nothing. The Reds went on to lose the National League Division Series (NLDS) to the Atlanta Braves in four games.

The Dodgers might end up celebrating Monday night at Dodger Stadium, where they hold a 2-1 lead in their NLDS with the Braves heading into Game 4. Dodgers manager Don Mattingly is trying to make sure of it, making a last-second announcement Monday afternoon that his man on the hill will be the best there is, left-hander Clayton Kershaw. All along, the plan has been right-hander Ricky Nolasco for Game 4. But Nolasco has allowed 17 runs in his last three starts, and Kershaw fanned 12 Braves in a 6-1 Game 1 victory.

The move comes with some risk, though not much. Kershaw hasn't pitched with three days of rest all season. There is no guarantee that it will work. But this guy is such a tough nut and such an old soul, and this moment has enough largeness to bring it out of him. And even if it fails, the Dodgers will bring back Zack Greinke in Atlanta for Game 5. Is Greinke large enough for that moment? The Dodgers will hope they don't have to find out.

Dodger Stadium is the "Magic Castle" again this season. There seems to be some controversy as to when that name was coined. No one disputes that it belongs to the great Dodgers broadcaster, Vin Scully. But some accounts say it goes back to 1973, when that great crop led by Davey Lopes, Ron Cey and Steve Garvey first became contenders, and others pin it to 1988, when the Dodgers last won the World Series.

It's not exactly World Series or bust this year for the Dodgers, but they also can't possibly be satisfied with winning an NLDS against an opponent that half-armed itself. It's true that the Dodgers already have made remarkable progress this year under new ownership that has dedicated itself to bringing back the Magic Castle. But winning this NLDS wouldn't take them any further.

This team is feeling it right now. Sunday night, they hammered out 14 hits in a 13-6 win against the Braves to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-three series. The Dodgers put 18 runners on base and left only five, going seven-for-15 with runners in scoring position. Their starting pitcher, Hyun-jin Ryu, produced a terrible night, and their batters took it out on the Atlanta starter, Julio Teheran.

Hanley Ramirez, the first shot in the new ownership's player procurement salvo last summer, has six hits in the series, tied for the most ever by a player in the NLDS. But everyone around Ramirez is hitting, too, or at least reaching base. And this moment is right for the Dodgers.

The Braves will attempt to stay alive behind right-hander Freddy Garcia, who has started three games for the Braves since they acquired him from the Baltimore Orioles on Aug. 23, and all three have been quality. But two of those lineups were the Miami Marlins and the Milwaukee Brewers. The other was the Washington Nationals. None of those lineups can fire like the Dodgers.

In a worst case scenario for the Dodgers, they lose Game 4 and go to Atlanta with Greinke in Game 5. Which is to say that the Dodgers simultaneously face a can't lose situation and a no-win situation. The Dodgers surely can't lose the series at this point. If they do, the Dodgers and their fans will be more than disappointed. And even if they win, it shouldn't be that big of a deal. They will not have won anything.

That's life at the top. It's where the Dodgers want to be.

Can Angels contend? No

It's tough to say some baseball team can forget about going to the playoffs so early in June. But the Angels are so far down after botching last week's home stand that they have no remaining realistic chance of climbing into the 2013 playoff hunt.

There's still a lot of baseball to be played this year at Angel Stadium, but none of it will include a playoff race (Brandon Fick/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Share Alike license).


By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

One hates to put a tombstone over a baseball team so near to Memorial Day, but it's hard to be hopeful for the Angels after the home stand they botched lately against three clubs they should have defeated.

Now, we're coming to roughly the last 100 games of the season across big league baseball, and it's hard to miss what the Angels have become. Far from joining the contending class, the Angels are 27-36, firmly joined to the American League's mediocracy of nobodies. For the Angels to jump back into the playoff race ... forget it. They would now have to win right around 63 percent of their remaining games, which would put them right at 90-72, and they still would likely finish a couple games behind the second wild card.

Unless the mediocracy rises en masse against the aristocracy, which is the seven clubs now competing for five AL playoff spots, there is no chance for any team in the mediocracy to last into October. The gap is simply too large.

Just to refresh ourselves about the players, the AL aristocracy is the cream, and the mediocracy is not even the dream.

Within the cream, we find the three division leaders -- the Boston Red Sox in the AL East, the Detroit Tigers in the AL Central and the Texas Rangers in the AL West. The Red Sox are the surprise here, leading the AL with 336 runs through June 9 after all but throwing in the towel on 2013 with their fire sale trade to the Dodgers last August. The Red Sox have thrived because of unexpected hitting from unexpected sources like Mike Carp and Jose Iglesias, along with, if we want to count him as such, designated hitter David Ortiz, who only lasted for half of last year. Of course, Detroit and Texas as division leaders surprise no one.

The wild card contenders are mostly the clubs chasing Boston in the AL East. Tops among them are the New York Yankees, who, like the Red Sox, were supposed to regress this year. The Red Sox were supposed to suffer from depletions and the Yankees were supposed to suffer from injuries. Instead, they are right where we are used to seeing them, first and second, in some order, in the AL East. The scrum in that division also includes the Baltimore Orioles and the Tampa Bay Rays. Over in the AL West, the Oakland Athletics are in wild card position. All of these clubs either are in playoff position, or they're within 2 1/2 games of it. Over in the AL Central, no one.

The AL Central is this year's lonely boulevard of broken dreams. General managers from Cleveland to Kansas City figured they might be just a player or two away from beating on their weak brethren to sneak into a wild card position this year. And it is true that their AL Central brethren are weak. But so are they. Every team in the AL Central, except Detroit, is below .500.

Which puts the Royals and Indians, along with the Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins, into the same blender with the Angels, the Seattle Mariners and the Toronto Blue Jays as the AL mediocrities.

For a moment there, it appeared that the Angels would become something -- if not a contender, then, at least, a treacherous wannabe. They won eight games in a row during one stretch of May, lifting themselves from 15-27 to 23-27, cutting 3 1/2 games off their deficit to the Rangers and reducing it, eventually to 8 1/2 games. Many playoff teams have started worse, and the Angels apparently had at least stabilized.

But the winning streak turned out to be an illusion, an outcome of poor competition. The vanquished along the way were the White Sox, the Mariners and the Royals, who all were in last place, or next to it. The last six of those wins came on the road, so there was something to it. But the road took a familiar turn at the end of May in, of all places, Los Angeles, where the Angels faced another last place team, the Dodgers.

In the first game, the Angels quickly availed themselves of the Dodgers' disoriented interior defense, which is frequently offered to the guests at Dodger Stadium. Winners of eight in a row already, the Angels scored two runs in the first on a strikeout. But the good times ended soon. The Angels blew a 6-1 lead in the middle innings on their way to an 8-7 loss. Next night, the Angels were quieted by Dodgers left hander Hyun-jin Ryu in another loss.

Back in Anaheim for the last two games of this year's Freeway Series, the Angels apparently righted themselves with two straight wins against the Dodgers. They were 25-29, just about to right their season. The worst team in the American League, the Houston Astros, was on its way in for a four-game series.

The AL West contenders this year received a gift, the Astros in their division. In the last two full seasons, the Astros won 56 and 55 games, barely more than one-third of their games. This year, through Sunday, the Astros were 22-42, winning barely more than one-third of their games. The 20 Astros games added to the schedules for the AL West clubs stood to be easier to win than the games they replaced against other AL clubs. The Astros were a gift to the Rangers, the Oakland Athletics and the Angels.

The Rangers and Athletics have availed themselves of that gift. The Rangers are 5-1 against the Astros and the Athletics are 9-0.

The Angels have not availed themselves of that gift. They are 3-7 this year against the Astros after the Houstonians swept four from the Halos at the Big A from May 31 through June 3. Right off of that disaster, the Angels split two at home against the rebuilding Chicago Cubs. The Angels then went back on the road and lost two of three at Boston heading to a three-game series starting tonight in Baltimore.

A year ago at this point, the Angels were 33-30, second place in the AL West, 3 1/2 games behind Texas in the division and three games down to the second wild card. Right now, they are a full seven games worse than that, not only in terms of their record, but their deficit in both playoff races.

Might as well call it off now. From this point last year, the Angels were 56-43. If they do that again, they will finish barely better than .500. To do better than that, they would have to be better than they were last year.

And they're not.

Ryu rolls: Dodgers 9, Milwaukee 2

The Dodgers picked up the rubber game of their three-game series in Milwaukee, 9-2, Wednesday, largely because the Brewers couldn't pick up ground balls. The Dodgers actually did pick up ground balls and starting pitcher Hyun-jin Ryu picked up half of the outs he induced on balls that hit the ground.

Dodgers right hander Hyun-jin Ryu improved to 4-2 with a 3.30 ERA Wednesday as the Dodgers won, 9-2, in Milwaukee (Keith Allison/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike Generic 2.0 license).


By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

The game: May 22, Dodgers at Milwaukee, National League. The Dodgers entered the game 18-26, fifth place NL West, seven games behind Arizona. Milwaukee entered the game 18-26, fifth place NL Central, 10 1/2 games behind St. Louis.

The pitchers: Dodgers, Hyun-jin Ryu, left hander (4-2, 3.42). Milwaukee, Wily Peralta, right hander (3-4, 5.94).

The result: Dodgers 9, Milwaukee 2.

Summary: If it's any consolation to the Dodgers, they're not the worst last-place team in this league. Their victory gave them two out of three in Milwaukee, which isn't the worst last-place team in this league, either. Fortunately for the Dodgers and Milwaukee, there's still Miami.

The pitching: Dodgers starter Hyun-jin Ryu struggled with his control and velocity in the first two innings, during which he usually fell behind hitters, regardless of what he threw, and allowed three singles to go along with a walk. But he dialed up opportune ground balls, such as an inning-ending double play from Jonathan Lucroy with runners on first and second in the first inning, then an inning-ending grounder from Jeff Bianchi with a runner on third in the second inning. It had to help Ryu that his own hitters came through for him in the early innings, especially with a five-run second inning that gave him a 6-0 lead. A night earlier, we saw Dodgers consistently fail to hit with runners in scoring position through the early innings, and this was little help to Zack Greinke, who pitched under stress all night from his hitters failing and couldn't make it through the fifth inning. Ground balls produced 11 of the 22 outs that Ryu pitched ... Brandon League actually pitched the ninth without anyone scoring, but he came in with a 9-2 lead, so, uh, good for him ... He did get the Brewers to hit three ground balls, though ...

The Brewers had little hope with Wily Peralta, although the right hander was consistently 95-96 MPH with his fastballs. In the second inning, after Carl Crawford and Mark Ellis bashed first-pitch singles and Adrian Gonzalez reached on a fielding error, Peralta declined to test the strike zone and issued back-to-back, bases-loaded walks to Scott Van Slyke and Nick Punto, capping a five-run inning. Peralta allowed seven runs before he could get six outs. It figured that even the Dodgers could hold that lead ... The Brewers are on the bottom of the National League with a 4.53 staff ERA ....

The hitting: The Dodgers finished the day with 12 hits -- 10 of them were singles. They bunched five of them together with two walks and an error to score five runs in the second inning. They actually hit a bit with runners in scoring position (six-for-15) this time, but it was hardly a landmark performance against the National League's worst pitching staff ... Matt Kemp singled with a runner on third in the first inning Wednesday, going one-for-two with RISP for the game. This season, he now is .177 (eight for 45) with RISP. Eight singles ... Andre Ethier, who sat Wednesday, is eight-for-41 (.195) and a homer with RISP ... Ethier's replacement Wednesday, Scott Van Slyke, was two-for-four with a double and two RBI ... Dodgers pitcher Hyun-jin Ryu wore a zero for four collar Wednesday, dampening what has been a pretty good season at the plate between himself, Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke as starting pitchers batting ninth. Between them, the three now are .245 (13-for-53) with a homer and five RBI ... As the day began, the three were a combined .253. Six American League teams were getting lower batting averages from their designated hitters -- Cleveland (.247), Oakland (.246), Detroit (.237), Chicago (.226), Houston (.207), Tampa Bay (.187) and Baltimore (.160) ... In fact, the AL average across the league for designated hitters was only .251 ... Even crazier, the NL was getting a .284 average from its designated hitters in inter-league games ...

The base running: One of the upsides to playing against the Brewers is that you get to run against their catcher, Jonathan Lucroy. Wednesday, the Dodgers were two-for-two stealing against Lucroy, and the Dodgers didn't even play Dee Gordon in this one. Carl Crawford and Matt Kemp swiped those bases. For the season now, Lucroy is only two-for-20 throwing out base stealers, 10 percent. The league average is 30 percent ... By contrast, Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis, who sat Wednesday, has been the NL's best at killing base thieves, 11-for-24 (45.8 percent). His replacement Wednesday, Ramon Hernandez, failed against the only Brewer who tried stealing against him. It was no one other than Lucroy. But Hernandez still is two-for-four this season ... We all know, of course, that the pitchers are vital as to whether their teams do or don't control the opposition's running game ...

The fielding: Nick Punto made an error for the Dodgers at shortstop Wednesday, and there's no apologizing for that, but he's one guy on this team about whom there is no question about his effort and alertness, so ... Remembering Tuesday, Punto couldn't handle hard short hop from Jeff Bianchi and everyone was safe, including Milwaukee's Carlos Gomez at third. Right away, though, Punto blocked a wandering Gomez off third base, took a pickoff throw from Matt Guerrier and made the tag for the out ... Good baseball play. The man redeems himself ... However, Brewers infielders Rickie Weeks and Jean Segura were beyond redemption Wednesday. Between them, their fielding misplays in the second inning cost the Brewers four runs and took them out of the game. With the bases loaded and one out, Dodgers leading only 1-0, Carl Crawford hit a routine ground ball to the left of Weeks, playing second base. It appeared that Weeks had a double play on his mind, but he didn't pick it up first. Instead, the ball bounced right past him, allowing two runs to score. The official scorer in Milwaukee, a soft touch, ruled it a base hit. The next hitter, Mark Ellis, singled, loading the bases. Then, Adrian Gonzalez hit a ball slightly to shortstop Segura's right. Segura, too, had a double play cooking, but he booted it, allowing another runner to score and keeping the bases loaded. Brewers pitcher Wily Peralta, apparently succumbing to the uselessness of getting ground balls, walked two more hitters to force home two more runs, capping a five-run inning .. In the sixth, Segura and Brewers center fielder Carlos Gomez let a simple popup fall between them ...

Strategic moves: We all want Dee Gordon to succeed, because his speed is a nice dimension for the Dodgers' offense. Sadly, his mental errors are destructive. Dodgers manager Don Mattingly sat Gordon Wednesday after the shortstop made the worst squeeze bunt imaginable on Tuesday. Gordon bunted the ball right back to the pitcher, who had an easy play at the plate on Andre Ethier coming in from third ... There's talking among the Dodgers brass about bringing up outfield prospects Joc Pederson and Yasiel Puig from Class AA Chattanooga. Probably not a good idea. They can't develop without playing, and it's not obvious where they would play for the Dodgers. The Dodgers certainly aren't going to sit Carl Crawford, the best of their outfielders right now, and that leaves only Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier to be seated. Implausible ...

What now: The Dodgers improved to 19-26, still fifth in the NL West, but they gained a game on first-place Arizona, which lost to Colorado, so they are six games down. Milwaukee is 18-27, fifth in the NL Central and 11 down to St. Louis, pending the Cardinals' result at San Diego later in the day ... The Dodgers return to Los Angeles to play the Cardinals in a weekend series that begins Friday. Opening up that series, the Dodgers have scheduled left hander Chris Capuano (1-2, 4.84) against St. Louis right hander Lance Lynn (6-1, 3.27). Capuano is coming off two straight quality starts, during which he allowed a combined two runs in 13 2/3 innings against Miami and Atlanta ... The Cardinals lead the NL Central and have the best record in the National League, 29-16 entering Wednesday's games ... The Dodgers are done with Milwaukee for the year, winning four of six from the Brew Crew. Milwaukee won six of seven meetings between the two clubs in 2012 ... Teams playing against the Brewers this year apparently get better against them with familiarity. The Brewers are 8-8 in the first game of a series, 8-8 in the second game, 3-10 in the third game and 0-2 in the fourth game.

Crawford crashes in left: Atlanta 8, Dodgers 5

More than anything else, poor fielding cost the Dodgers in an 8-5 loss Friday night to open a three-game road series against the Atlanta Braves, who lead the National League East. Dodgers left fielder Carl Crawford made two deadly misplays that were mostly responsible for Atlanta scoring six runs, combined, in the sixth and seventh innings.

It was a bad night in with the glove for Dodgers left fielder Carl Crawford (Keith Allison/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike Generic 2.0 license).

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

The game: May 17, Dodgers at Atlanta, National League. The Dodgers entered 17-22, fifth place NL West, six games behind San Francisco. Atlanta entered 22-18, first place NL East, one-half game ahead of Washington.

The pitchers: Dodgers, Hyun-jin Ryu, left hander (4-2, 3.40). Atlanta, Paul Maholm, left hander (4-4, 3.94).

The result: Atlanta 8, Dodgers 5 (Baseball-reference.com box score).

Summary: The Dodgers handed the Atlanta Braves two game-breaking opportunities through poor pitching and poor fielding. The Braves broke the game with them, scoring six times between the sixth and seventh innings, keyed by Justin Upton's sixth-inning grand slam that put them ahead for good.

The pitching: Dodgers starter Hyun-jin Ryu consistently missed with his first pitch fastball, going ball one on the first pitch with 11 hitters using that selection. All four times when Ryu started a hitter with the changeup, that one missed, too. So, Ryu constantly worked from behind, which is why he already had thrown 100 pitches (44 balls) through five innings. Yet, three of those innings were all but trouble free. Ryu walked five and gave up two runs in his five-inning start. It could have been a lot worse, but he left five runners on base, combined, in the first and third innings ... Dodgers reliever Matt Guerrier, who replaced Ryu in the sixth, was the best Dodgers pitcher of the night. He faced three hitters and they all should have made outs, but two of them didn't and they ended up scoring (see below, about fielding) ... Ronald Belisario came in for the seventh and gave up two runs, but, he, too, was let down by the Dodgers defense ...

Atlanta left hander Paul Maholm almost doesn't have enough stuff to hit, topping out in the 86-88 MPH range. But he has that in many flavors, and he mixed them together adroitly against a Dodger lineup that entered the game batting .303 against left handers. Maholm didn't exactly have the Dodgers eating out of his hand, but they had to scratch for most of their runs. They scored a run in the second when Dee Gordon beat out the back end of a double play, added two unearned runs courtesy of an error by Atlanta second baseman Dan Uggla in the fourth, then the Dodgers scored in the sixth and the eighth on solo homers by Scott Van Slyke. So, the Dodgers touched Maholm for eight hits and a walk in his six innings, but the Dodgers didn't explode offensively ... Braves closer Craig Kimbrel, a right hander, appeared for the first time since May 9 and struck out two in his ninth-inning stint, completely overmatching left-handed hitting Carl Crawford and Andre Ethier.

The hitting: The two solo home runs by Scott Van Slyke were the clear offensive highlights for the Dodgers ... Blue had hits up and down the lineup -- except from No. 3 hitter Matt Kemp and cleanup man Adrian Gonzalez, who combined to go zero-for-nine. All five Dodger runs came from the five through seven hitters -- A.J. Ellis, Scott Van Slyke and Luis Cruz. The Dodgers even got a couple hits from the nine hole, one from starting pitcher Hyun-jin Ryu and another from pinch hitter Tim Federowicz ... Kemp and Gonzalez didn't kill rallies, but they didn't get them started, either. In the first and third innings, they came up with a runner on first and one out, only to both make outs to end the innings ... The Dodgers entered the game batting .303 against left handers, despite their 6-7 record against left-handed starters. Friday, the Dodgers were nine-for-34 (.264) against lefties and they scored enough runs to win. But once again, against a lefty, they didn't ...

It's hard to give the Braves too much credit for their hitting. Of their nine hits, four might be called "unearned hits," which either came after two-out errors or resulted from poor defensive plays. But those unearned hits were big, accounting for six runs between them ... The Braves scored two runs on their own in the third inning, with their one through four hitters putting together a sequence ... The big news in the offseason was the Braves acquiring Justin Upton and B.J. Upton, the Upton brothers. But the brothers are very different people this season. Justin Upton is batting third in the lineup, .286 with 14 home runs to lead the National League. B.J. Upton is batting eighth and hitting only .141.

The base running: Nick Punto of the Dodgers had the only stolen base in this game. No one was caught stealing and there wasn't any other action on the bases that didn't result from fielders dropping balls.

The fielding: Until the sixth inning, the Dodgers played a decent defensive game. In the second inning, second baseman Nick Punto made a nice back-handed stop to retire Jason Heyward on a ground ball. Shortstop Dee Gordon was eaten up by Chris Johnson short hop in third for single, but it didn't contribute to any runs ... Dodgers outfielders made back-to-back catches to steal extra-base hits in the fifth. With a man on first and no one out, Scott Van Slyke made a sliding catch at the right field foul line to rob Chris Johnson. The next batter, Brian McCann, hit a smash to center field, but Matt Kemp made a nice, falling catch going to his right ... The Braves didn't score that inning, but they would have scored at least twice if the Dodger outfielders didn't make those plays ...

Then, Braves hitters began peppering the left side of the Dodgers defense, exposing that weakness. With one out in the bottom of the sixth, Braves trailing, 4-2, they sent up Jordan Schafer to hit for pitcher Paul Maholm. Schafer hit a popper to medium left field. The left fielder, center fielder and shortstop all converged. It was left fielder Carl Crawford's play all the way. In particular, there's no way he should defer to the shortstop going back that deep. But Crawford deferred and no one caught the ball. No error marked on the play, but the Dodgers might have made two misplays. The center fielder, Matt Kemp, should have called for Crawford to take it (he might have, but there's no word on if he did or didn't), and Crawford should have caught it ... The next batter, Andrelton Simmons, hit a smash at third baseman Luis Cruz, but Cruz didn't catch it. That was an error. Reliever Matt Guerrier should have been out of the inning, and he wasn't ... Those two errors helped set up a game-turning grand slam by Justin Upton ... In the seventh, with two out and Ramiro Pena on third with a triple, Crawford misplayed a fly ball by Simmons and it fell for a two-base error to score Pena. Simmons then scored on a single by Jason Heyward.

One of the problems with quantifying defense is this: While we can make make reasonable assumptions to reconstruct an inning and decide how much an error costs a team, there is no way to tell how many runs are prevented by a sparkling play. In the fourth, with a man on first, Van Slyke popped one up down the right field line. The first baseman, second baseman and right fielder all chased, and it was Heyward, the right fielder, who came in hard and caught the ball tumbling to the ground. The Dodgers ended up scoring twice in that inning, and it almost certainly would have been more without that catch ... The next batter, Cruz, hit a ground ball to inside of second base, leaving second baseman Dan Uggla to decide whether to make a play on the lead runner at second or the batter at first. But you do have to catch it first, and Uggla didn't field it cleanly. Error. The runners ended up scoring on back-to-back, two-out singles ... In the second inning, Uggla made a nice play in short center field to keep Cruz's clean single from going up the middle, temporarily keeping a run from scoring ... But Uggla did not handle a soft liner in the third inning by Nick Punto, resulting in a hit. Mixed night for him ... In the fifth, Braves shortstop Simmons came up to the infield grass to turn a soft grounder by Ellis into an out.

Strategic moves: One of the easiest second guesses against a manager is for pulling, or not pulling, his starting pitcher. Friday night, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly made the right call by pinch hitting for starter Hyun-jin Ryu in the sixth. Ryu already had thrown 100 pitches. If he were about 20 pitches lower at that point, he has to go up there with two out and no one on to stay eligible for the sixth inning. But his control problems cooked him by then ... Ryu's short stint and high pitch count meant Mattingly was in his pen in the sixth inning. Along with two Dodger errors, reliever Paco Rodriguez walked Heyward on a 3-2 pitch that wasn't even close, loading the bases. Mattingly allowed the lefty Rodriguez to pitch to right-handed Justin Upton, who hit a deep grand slam. Mattingly told reporters after the game that he didn't want to burn up all his relievers so early in the game. Rodriguez already was the second reliever of the inning, and he did finish out the inning before Ronald Belisario came in for the seventh.

What now: The Dodgers fell to 17-23, fifth place in the NL West, still six games behind San Francisco. The Braves are 23-17, still leading the NL East by a half-game over Washington. Saturday night in Atlanta (4:10 p.m. PST), the Dodgers are sending lefty Chris Capuano (1-2, 6.60) against Atlanta's Kris Medlen (1-5, 3.44). Capuano prevailed in something of a training wheels start last weekend against Miami, clearing 6 1/3 innings and allowing only one run by throwing almost nothing but a sinker and a changeup. The Atlanta lineup will be much more challenging. The Dodgers haven't seen much of Medlen lately. He last beat them in June 2010 and last year he faced them for only 2/3 of an inning.