Dodgers vs. Giants: How the NL West is won?

Dodgers vs. Giants: How the NL West is won?

By Chris Haft and Ken Gurnick / MLB.com | 09/06/12 5:23 PM ET

SAN FRANCISCO -- Giants, Dodgers, September ... fill in what comes next.

Drama. Urgency. Excitement. And, of course, significance.

The longtime adversaries begin a three-game series Friday at AT&T Park that could define the remainder of the National League West race. San Francisco leads second-place Los Angeles by 4 1/2 games in the division standings. If the Giants take the series, observers might start counting down San Francisco's magic number for clinching the West. For the Dodgers, winning twice would help their chances of staying in contention until the teams engage in a season-ending, three-game rematch Oct. 1-3 at Los Angeles. A sweep would further revive the Dodgers' hopes, which stagnated during a 3-4 homestand.

And don't scoff the possibility of a sweep. That was the result of the last three Giants-Dodgers series. San Francisco dominated the June 25-27 and Aug. 20-22 sets, bracketing a Los Angeles sweep July 27-29.

"I like the trend if we win the first game," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said.

The renewal of one of baseball's greatest rivalries will unfold before sellout crowds and national television audiences (MLB Network on Friday, Fox on Saturday and ESPN on Sunday). The setting promises to enhance the competition.

"I enjoy the atmosphere up there. There's a buzz, an energy," Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis said. "I feel, in that situation, it makes us closer as a team. We pull for each other, because we know it's us against not only a great team, but 40,000 fans screaming their heads off for us to fail. I think we play well when our backs are against the wall."

Said Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval, "It's fun for everybody on the team when we have series like that, especially [against] the rivals. We're fighting for first place. ... Every series is important, but this one is more important for everybody."

Neither team has thrived recently. Following a 5-1 trip, the Giants lost two of three to Arizona at home, where they own a barely adequate 38-30 record. San Francisco's formidable starting rotation has struggled, posting a 2-4 record with a 6.47 ERA in the team's last 11 games.

"The starters will bounce back," Giants manager Bruce Bochy insisted. "We're here because of how our starters have been throwing all year. I feel good about where we are."

Thursday's scheduled off-day could benefit San Francisco's starters, particularly those who will face the Dodgers. Tim Lincecum, who'll pitch Friday's opener, is 3-11 with a 5.91 ERA this year on a normal four days' rest. Yet he's 4-2, 4.34 with an extra day off. The contrast isn't as sharp for Matt Cain, Saturday's starter (8-3, 3.28 with four days' rest, 4-1, 2.45 on five), but a difference exists. Same with Barry Zito, who drew Sunday's assignment (4-6, 5.34/4-2, 4.69).

Lincecum downplayed the effect of five days' rest. "If it does [help], great," he said. "But I'm not going to give credence to the fact that if I get an extra day -- you know what I mean?"

Nor did Lincecum, who went 4-1 with a 2.43 ERA in the 2010 postseason, express the need to whip himself into a frenzy just because he's appearing in a Giants-Dodgers game. "I'm not going to go out there and try to make myself get that extra adrenaline. It comes when it needs to," said Lincecum, who's 2-1 with a 2.55 ERA in three starts against Los Angeles. "All I can do is prepare and know that, in big games, I can trust the fact that I can rise to the occasion, which is the biggest thing."

Despite adding slugging first baseman Adrian Gonzalez to their lineup, the Dodgers haven't jelled offensively. They scored 20 runs in their seven-game homestand. Center fielder Matt Kemp, who denied injuring his shoulder while colliding with the Coors Field wall on Aug. 28, went 3-for-25 during the homestand. Gonzalez has one home run in 56 plate appearances since the Dodgers acquired him from Boston in a nine-player trade Aug. 25. He might welcome returning to AT&T Park, where he hit .297 with six home runs and 21 RBIs in 45 games with San Diego from 2006-2010.

The standings, the schedule and the calendar are all the Dodgers need to remind themselves of this series' importance.

"Every series is must-win in September," Kemp said. "There are no excuses. We've got to play every game like it's our last game. You never know what can happen."

"It's no secret it's a big series," Ellis said. "But at the end of the day, it's just about us winning games no matter who we're playing. That's what Donnie told us in the team meeting [last week]. We've just got to win as many games as we can, a game at a time, and at the end of the month check the standings."

With the Giants and Dodgers jostling each other for a toehold to climb up Mt. September, a few things are certain.

"It's going to be intense out there," Bochy said. "That's why you play the game. That's why we're here. This is what you should look forward to. It should be a good series. There's going to be a lot of tension here."

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Tough road between here and postseason spot

Having gone 5-7 since the acquisition of Josh Beckett and Adrian Gonzalez, the Dodgers have been a season-high 4.5 games back of the Giants all week; the two teams had the same result each of the last six nights they played. Both teams lost last Friday before winning three in a row and then losing their next two. That string will end starting tonight, as the Dodgers visit San Francisco for the final time this season.

This weekend’s series begins a challenging 24-game close to the season for the Dodgers. L.A. has the NL’s toughest schedule from now until the end of the regular season, and that doesn’t even account for the fact that many of their difficult games are away from Chavez Ravine. Somewhat unbelievably, the Dodgers still have road series left against each of the three current division leaders in the National League, the Nationals, Reds, and Giants.

Worse for the Dodgers are the remaining schedules of the teams they’re chasing and competing against. The top three teams in the Wild Card standings other than the Dodgers all have a below-.500 strength-of-schedule the rest of the way, as do the Giants, while Dodgers' opponents have a .534 winning percentage.

The Pirates, tied with the Dodgers at a game and a half out of the second Wild Card spot, have 10 of their remaining 26 games left against the Astros and Cubs and don’t play a team currently above .500 until Sept. 28. They don’t have a road series left against a .500 team. Meanwhile the Cardinals, currently occupying that second Wild Card spot, have nine games against the Cubs and Astros, and their only road series left against a .500 team is a critical four-game series at Dodger Stadium next week.

Looking at the NL West, the Giants don’t have any games left outside of the division, meaning their only remaining games against a .500 team are against the Dodgers. The good news for the Dodgers is Clayton Kershaw, scheduled to pitch Sunday against the Giants, would also pitch in the second series with the Giants if kept on regular rest.

Kershaw’s starts might be wasted if Giants starters continue their success against the Dodgers from earlier in the season. Over 12 games and 78 1/3 innings, Giants starters have a 2.07 ERA and have surrendered only one home run to the Dodgers this year. Given that, and also that the Dodgers need to make up 4.5 games in a 24-game span, winning the division seems unlikely. The Dodgers haven’t been more than four games better than the Giants in a stretch of any length since San Francisco took over the division lead for the first time at the end of June.

With that in mind, the Wild Card appears now to be the Dodgers’ most likely path into the playoffs. However, with a remaining schedule significantly tougher than those of other contenders, winning one of those Wild Card spots would be an impressive achievement.

Remaining Strength of Schedule
NL Teams in Contention

>>Highest in NL

September, 6, 2012

LOS ANGELES -- It's their greatest challenge yet, and just maybe their greatest salvation.

Seven of the Dodgers' next nine games come against the two teams they're chasing, starting with this weekend's series in San Francisco. Thirteen of their next 15 games are against teams with better records. Of all of the contending teams, the Dodgers have the roughest road to the postseason.

And they had better embrace it, because this is a perilous time to feel sorry for themselves.

For the past two weeks, the Dodgers have played below the level of teams with worse records. Now, they have no choice but to rise above the level of the National League's best, mostly on the road. Can they do it? Predicting this team's fortunes has been a worthless endeavor all season, so why not?

"We always play well against these teams. We can do it again," Matt Kemp said.

Not entirely accurate, but also not wildly inaccurate. The Dodgers are 5-7 against San Francisco in what has been a bizarre, feast-or-famine rivalry. They are 4-3 against St. Louis and, given the fact they're three games closer to a wild-card spot than to their division lead, those four games at home Sept. 13-16 vs. the Cards could be more pivotal than this weekend's tilts by the Bay.

The Dodgers swept the Washington Nationals in their only series so far, but that was back in April. They took two out of three from the Cincinnati Reds.

You would think they’d probably rather play the Chicago Cubs or Houston Astros this time of year. However, you might as well play the teams ahead of you. It's more efficient that way.

Manager Don Mattingly said he likes his team's upcoming schedule, and maybe he actually does. After all, playing teams behind them wasn't working out too well. The Dodgers have losing records against Colorado and Arizona.

"It's really just a chance for us to play head up and not worry about anything going on," Mattingly said. "It looks tough on paper, but it's really better for us."

The schedule tends to even out, and the Dodgers weren't complaining about it when they were fattening their record in April against the worst teams in the league. Now, they're getting taxed on the back end. The Giants and Cardinals both play more home games between now and Oct. 3 and against weaker teams.

The winning percentage of the Dodgers' remaining opponents is .532. The winning percentage of the Giants' remaining opponents is .475, and the Cardinals' is .462. That makes those ending head-to-head meetings the crux of this entire season for the Dodgers, who have lost 10 of their past 16 games.

"You've got to just keep staying after it," Shane Victorino said.

The Dodgers have a great opportunity to make their move in the next couple of weeks. To rely on other teams to do their bidding seems like an untenable position.

Mattingly putting to good use all he learned from Torre

LOS ANGELES -- Don Mattingly learned a lot standing alongside Joe Torre for all of those years in the Yankees and Dodgers' dugouts. There were no lessons, no textbooks or maxims to live by. He just stood close by, observed and let things sink in so that one day, when he was the one making the decisions, it wouldn't feel like he'd never been there before.

Torre had a way about him: a calmness and a classiness only men of a certain age tend to find. He knew the game, but mostly he just knew the men who played the game and how to treat them to get the most out of them -- particularly when it came to star players.

"He knew his guys could play," Mattingly said of Torre. "He knew his talent. And he just trusted his guys.

"Tino [Martinez] has this story. He says, 'I was struggling and Joe called me in and talked to me. He gave me a good cigar and a great restaurant to go to.'"

It's a great story -- one of hundreds just like it Torre's former players tell about him. One that Mattingly could've stolen and co-opted as his own if he would have been thinking about it.

Depending on how closely the players in Mattingly's clubhouse read the daily clips packet, that trick from Torre's old bag of 'em probably has to be taken out of Mattingly's repertoire for a while.

And let's be honest, the timing isn't great. All of a sudden -- or in the time it took for the Dodgers' new owners to green-light some $400 million in additional payroll obligations -- Mattingly's Dodgers bear a striking resemblance to all those star-studded Yankees' teams Torre had so much success with.

No longer is it Mattingly's job to get the most out of a glorified Triple-A ballclub with two transcendent stars (Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw).

No longer is he trying to figure out how a makeshift roster can do more with less.

"It's obviously quite a bit different when you've been adding some of the guys we've been able to add," Mattingly said. "But we've all still got the same goal."

A few days after the monster nine-player deal for Boston's Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford and Nick Punto went through, Mattingly's brother called and asked whether he felt any more pressure in trying to win.

Mattingly shrugged at the query, "We're always trying to win."

Ah, but it's different now. The Dodgers' clubhouse is filled with veterans who have proved themselves many times over. The young players who helped fuel last September's surprising run are back in Triple-A (Dee Gordon), or playing far smaller roles (Javy Guerra).

Mattingly needs to connect with his star players now. Then he needs to do what Torre was always so good at with the Yankees: Get the most out of them.

"I talk to Joe still. Sometimes good conversations about that kind of stuff," Mattingly said of Torre, who works in the commissioner's office now. "And other times we talk about suspensions and things like that. I have different conversations with Joe."

"I think you manage everybody differently," he said. "A kid who's coming up for the first time, you're having a lot of different conversations with that kid than a guy who has six years under his belt and is accomplished.”

"It was a little odd when we first got everyone,” he said. “You get four new guys there, but you also lose some of these guys’ best friends [popular reliever Josh Lindblom, who was dealt to Philadelphia for Shane Victorino] and you send a Tony Gwynn down [to the minors] or a Bobby Abreu down, guys that have kind of been good fixtures and good people.

"But honestly, I think the winning is the biggest thing. You put a string of wins together, it starts to bind you together."

He's right, of course. Winning is what brings a team closer together in a hurry. But he's also glossing over some important things he and the incumbent Dodgers players and coaches have already done to help ease the transition.

It may not sound like a lot -- and because it comes so naturally to guys like Mattingly and Torre, it doesn't feel all that remarkable -- but by far the most important thing has been to quickly get to know each new player's personality. That is, to develop a rapport and a comfort level, then build on that relationship to create a productive environment.

"I just talk to 'em. BS with 'em," Mattingly said. "[Josh] Beckett, I told him he hurt my neck the other day in Colorado. That first homer he gave up [to Rockies outfielder Tyler Colvin]. I was sitting nice and easy and all of a sudden there it goes. He tried to fix it the other day by giving up that other one on the other side."

Mattingly laughs, and you know Beckett did, too.

"Managing is a lot about having some people skills," Mattingly said. "You've got to get your guys to play and buy into what you believe in."

Pretty quickly after each new player joined the team, Mattingly and his staff discussed their initial impressions in meetings and tried to coordinate their messages.

It was typical of Mattingly and Torre's holistic approach. Coach the person, not just the player. Manage the man, not just the game.

"Honestly, I'm just trying to get to know them as a person," Dodgers hitting coach Dave Hansen said. "That probably goes farther than anything: 'How are ya? How you doing? How you feeling at the plate?' We've got to have some compassion here; it's a hard game. But if they know they're secure, I think we'll get a lot farther a lot quicker."

It seems simple. Too simple. But only Mattingly has stood close enough to Torre to know how important that part of it is in a situation like what the Dodgers have become.

"I don't control the game," Mattingly said. "It's their game. At the end of the day, it's their game. All I'm trying to do is create an atmosphere. Create an environment where these guys can go play and be their best. That's what Joe was really good at."

"He's very simple," Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis said of Mattingly. "All he asks you to do is play hard as you can and be where you're supposed to be on time. He never forgets how hard this game is to play. There's never any added pressure coming from the bench.”

"Honestly, it's almost like Donnie is actually on the field with us playing,” Ellis said. “It's like having a very strong veteran player who doesn't actually play in the games leading you."

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