Kershaw ready, but Nolasco still slated to start

Kershaw ready, but Nolasco still slated to start

LOS ANGELES -- Clayton Kershaw threw a shortened "touch-and-feel" bullpen session Saturday, leaving him as an option to pitch Game 4 of the National League Division Series for the Dodgers on short rest Monday.

Manager Don Mattingly said he's still planning to start Ricky Nolasco in Game 4, but left some wiggle room.

"Right now we're scheduled to go with Ricky, and that's the way we're going to go," said Mattingly.

Would that change based on how Game 3 goes? If a Dodgers loss in Game 3 made Game 4 an elimination game, would Mattingly start the likely Cy Young winner?

"Obviously, again, you're going to go through every scenario," he said. "But really we're looking at Ricky as Game 4."

Kershaw has never pitched on three days' rest. He threw 124 pitches over seven innings Friday night. Because of the Tuesday day off, a Game 5 would set up Zack Greinke on regular rest. Kershaw would be pitching a Game 5 on one extra day of rest.

Nolasco allowed 17 runs in 12 innings over his last three starts. His last start was Sept. 25, so he will go 12 days between starts, with only one inning of relief Sept. 29 in between.

LOS ANGELES -- Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said he's not planning any changes to his lineup for the remainder of the National League Division Series and doesn't expect Andre Ethier to be available in the outfield.

Mattingly said Saturday "it would be a great surprise" if Ethier plays in the outfield against the Braves. Ethier has been limited to a role as a pinch-hitter in the NLDS because of a left ankle injury similar to shin splints. He came off the bench in the eighth inning of a 6-1 win in Game 1 and grounded out. During a 4-3 loss in Game 2, Ethier walked with two outs in the ninth and was removed for a pinch-runner.

"He's swung the bat well off the bench for us, and he's kind of been doing what we intended him to be able to do this series," Mattingly said. "If we get any more than that, I think it would be just a nice surprise."

Skip Schumaker has filled in for Ethier in center field, and rookie Yasiel Puig has replaced Ethier in the middle of the lineup behind cleanup hitter Adrian Gonzalez. Mattingly said he feels "pretty good" about his starting lineup heading into Game 3 on Sunday at Dodger Stadium.

"I don't feel like there are a whole lot of changes that we could make," the manager said. "We still like Yasiel back in the middle, being able to be dangerous in the middle of our order. It lengthens us out a little bit and balances us. So we're pretty much going to be rolling with that."

LOS ANGELES – Our County has not produced a Most Valuable Player since 2000.

We present for your consideration Freddie Freeman.

Freeman is the Braves’ first baseman. He just turned 24 last month, and this year he bore the responsibility of placing the Braves’ offense on his ample shoulders and running with it.

He did.

It helped that he could see where he was going.

The Atlanta fans chant M-V-P when he comes up, and he should finish amid the top five, at least. San Francisco’s Jeff Kent, from Edison High, won the award in 2000.

Freeman’s RBI tied Cincinnati’s Jay Bruce for most on a playoff team. He ranked third in batting average, eighth in slugging (.501) and seventh in OPS (.897).

More critically, the El Modena alum never went more than four games without a hit, and he only did that once. And if voters consider numbers that affect how games are won, Freeman was a .448 hitter with men in scoring position and a .411 hitter in scoring position/two-out situations.

Those numbers glisten when weighed against a schedule dominated by NL East clubs. Freeman deals with Jordan Zimmerman, Gio Gonzalez, Jose Fernandez, Matt Harvey and Cole Hamels on a regular basis.

On Saturday he and the Braves were frolicking around Dodger Stadium, still riding their 4-3 Game 2 Division Series victory Friday, laughing as Jason Heyward was rocketing nearly every pitch into the pavilion seats.

The core Braves – Heyward, Freeman, catcher Brian McCann, shortstop Andrelton Simmons, and pitchers Craig Kimbrel, Kris Medlen, Mike Minor and Julio Teheran – were all homegrown. That is largely how the Braves became baseball’s team of the ’90s. They have not been bad millenials either.

“It’s the secret sauce,” club president John Schuerholz said. “You have to draft. But drafting without development is like giving an artisan a big slab of sandstone and telling him just to sculpt something. We’ve always emphasized scouting and instruction, especially with pitchers.”

The Braves drafted Heyward and Freeman in the first and second rounds of the 2007 draft. Heyward was the Rookie of the Year runner-up in 2010 and might still be a serious MVP candidate someday, but Freeman has now surpassed him.

“Things have come together,” Freeman said. “I battled through injuries last year, weird ones. This year I had an oblique in April, but I didn’t have anything lingering.

“They gave the job in the middle of the lineup and I took it with open arms. I like carrying that weight day to day. I watched Chipper Jones, and how he handled it. He kept telling me to keep doing what I did on the way to getting here. A big first baseman might come here and decide he needs to hit a bunch of home runs. But I got here as a gap-to-gap hitter. My base swing is left-center field, and I can always get back to that.”

In fact, his dad, Fred, made sure Freddie used the entire acreage. They would go to the park and Fred would pitch out of three buckets. He insisted Freddie hit the first bucket of balls to left field.

Of course, Freeman could see the ball then. He couldn’t last year, which is why his .259 average and 94 RBIs were actually works of Bravery.

“It was nerve-wracking,” Freeman said. “I make my living with my eyes, pretty much. I had worn contacts for years, but suddenly everything was blurry. Then I’d blink and everything would be clear. Late in the season it calmed down a little bit but by then I’d lost confidence in myself.

“I wish people could understand how tough it was. The ball wasn’t sharp. But I think it made my mental strength better.”

It began in Denver, where winds sent dirt into his eyes, and Freeman had to change his contacts six times. In doing so he scratched his cornea. He tried a number of goggles but none worked for very long.

This year he has special contacts. “No one knows how to get them,” he said, smiling, “but my eye doctor can get them.”

They are “weeklies” that Freeman changes daily. “Using weeklies wasn’t good, because it was the same thing going in and out,” he said. “This way, we’re going through a lot of contacts but it works.”

On top of them he wears protective goggles that are non-prescription. He wore them Saturday, as the Braves worked out and hit at 5 p.m., which happens to be the shadowy time of tonight’s Game 3 first pitch.

Freeman’s vision was not a problem. His visibility is growing, too.

LOS ANGELES – Even after a full season with the team, some things about South Korean left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu remain a mystery to the Dodgers — like how he communicates with Juan Uribe, perhaps his closest friend on the team.

“My favorite part of the game is when he'll run over and cover first base on a play and Juan Uribe will go to the mound to give him a little breather, to kind of rest,” Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis said. “You see them out there talking with each other — I mean, what can these two possibly be talking about because they don't know any languages between them?

“I always wonder what they're talking about.”

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said he has no idea what language Ryu and Uribe might have in common — other than “they both speak ‘Funny'” — and calls them “like the odd couple,” mock fighting in the clubhouse, the dugout or during the team's pregame workouts.

But the Dodgers have learned a couple things about the rookie left-hander they will send to the mound Sunday for Game 3 of their National League Division Series against the Atlanta Braves.

“He's really not a rookie,” said Mattingly, alluding to Ryu's seven years in the Korean Baseball Organization as well as international experience in the World Baseball Classic and the Olympics.

And he likes the spotlight.

“This is a guy who's basically the Clayton Kershaw of his country. He's been the best pitcher there for years,” Ellis said. “He's a guy who's pitched in WBCs and Olympics so he's pitched on the big stage before.

“We've even seen that this season, games where he's kind of raised his level. I can remember a game against Cincinnati when (fellow South Korean Shin-Soo) Choo came to town. It was a big matchup between the two of them, the most-watched major league game of all time (in South Korea). He's throwing 95 mph from the first pitch and this is a guy who usually throws 89-90 (mph). He can raise his level.

“I'm really excited to see what he's going to do on Sunday because he is a big-game pitcher who's got so many different weapons, so many different ways to get you out.”

The numbers back up Ellis. Ryu has raised his level when facing top teams. In six starts against playoff teams, Ryu was 3-1 (the Dodgers won four of the games) with a 2.37 ERA, 26 hits allowed and 40 strikeouts in 38 innings. That includes the two-hitter against Choo and the Reds in July.

“He's come over and you know, nothing seems to bother him,” Mattingly said of Ryu's transition to the majors that produced a 14-8 record and 3.00 ERA in 30 starts. “He's not going to speed up for anybody. I just think he's going to handle it. He seems so relaxed coming over and I think he's pitched a lot of games in his mind that have been big games.

“Some of the scouts we talked to seemed to think that all the WBC games he's pitched and things like that, that's when his best outings have come, against the best teams. We feel like he'll step up.”

Before the series, Ryu was asked by the coterie of South Korean reporters who follow him what he thought playoff baseball would feel like in the major leagues. He told them to check back after he got a taste of it, so they did at Saturday's workout.

“Obviously the first two games of the postseason I experienced were both in Atlanta so my first comment is that being on the road during the postseason it gets really loud and they cheer for their home team a lot,” Ryu said through a translator.

“Therefore, I'm pretty excited about (Sunday). I can't wait to see what our fans are going to act like when we take the field (Sunday).”

The one concession the Dodgers have made to Ryu's rookie status has been to get him extra rest as often as possible. Sixteen of his 30 starts came after more than the standard four days' rest. Sunday, he will take the mound for the first time since throwing four innings and 76 pitches in the Dodgers' regular-season finale a week ago.

As a concession, Ryu threw a bullpen session earlier this week, one that was watched by Mattingly, Dodgers medical director Stan Conte and team physician Neal ElAttrache.

That and a compression sleeve on Ryu's pitching elbow raised some speculation about his status for Game 3. But Ryu dismissed the questions on the eve of his first MLB postseason start.

“Here, he's representing the Dodgers. Over there he's representing his entire country,” Ellis said. “This is definitely not the biggest game he's ever pitched, which is a nice thing to say about him.”

Mattingly won't second-guess late move

By PEDRO MOURA / ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

LOS ANGELES – Back at Dodger Stadium on the eve of Game 3 in the NL Division Series, Don Mattingly was in no mood to discuss his decisions in Friday’s Game 2 loss in Atlanta.

The Dodgers manager was heavily criticized for his seventh-inning moves that led to a lefty-lefty matchup with Paco Rodriguez and talented Braves leadoff hitter Jason Heyward, but he stood by them Saturday.

“Well, I really don't feel like going through the game again, honestly,” Mattingly said. “But I think the situation in the game last night, no matter which way I go, it could be questioned.”

With two outs and runners on second and third, Mattingly removed right-hander Chris Withrow in favor of Rodriguez when Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez substituted in left-handed pinch-hitter Jose Constanza.

Then, when Gonzalez immediately replaced Constanza with the right-handed Reed Johnson, Mattingly ordered an intentional walk to get to the left-handed Heyward, who promptly delivered the decisive two-run single.

“If I leave Withrow in to pitch and give up a hit there, I'm going to question myself and I'm going to be like, ‘Why didn't I use Paco?’” Mattingly said. “So it's one of those things that if the move works, it's good. If it doesn't, it's bad.”

Heyward had an .802 OPS against lefties in 2013; Johnson’s was .673, and he hadn’t recorded a hit since July 28 while bothered by an Achilles tendon strain.

Constanza has 60 career major-league hits and a .665 OPS against right-handers.

“I don't look at it like we did anything crazy,” Mattingly said.

Right-hander Ricky Nolasco remains slated to start Monday’s Game 4 at Dodger Stadium, a potential elimination game if the Dodgers lose Sunday.

Ace Clayton Kershaw could conceivably start that game on short rest and has said he’d be open to it, but Mattingly continues to maintain that Nolasco will be the choice.

“Right now we're scheduled with Ricky, and that's the way we're going to go,” Mattingly said Saturday.

Kershaw has never started on short rest professionally and threw 124 pitches in Thursday’s NLDS opener, the third-most of his career.

Braves ace Kris Medlen threw just 74 pitches Thursday, but Gonzalez said he will start veteran right-hander Freddy Garcia in Monday’s Game 4 no matter Sunday’s outcome.

There was once hope he could, but outfielder Andre Ethier is unlikely to play any outfield this series, Mattingly said.

Ethier has been unable to run curves while bothered by left ankle soreness for much of the last month, but he made the NLDS roster as a designated pinch-hitter.

“It would be a great surprise if we get him to be in the outfield this series,” Mattingly said. “But he's swung the bat well off the bench for us, and he's kind of doing what we intended him to be able to do this series.”

Ethier pinch-hit in Games 1 and 2, grounding out to first Thursday and then drawing a walk Friday. Outfielder Scott Van Slyke pinch-ran for him after the free pass.

GORDON’S STEAL

Infielder Dee Gordon said he had not seen any replays that indicated he was out on his key steal attempt of second in Friday’s ninth inning.

Gordon was called out by second-base umpire Bill Miller on a close play, with Andrelton Simmons’ initial tag attempt either just touching Gordon or just missing him.

The decision to try the steal right away was Gordon’s, and he said he didn’t regret it “one bit.”

“(Bench coach) Trey Hillman told me, ‘You gotta have (guts) to go on the first pitch there,’” Gordon said.

NOTES

Sunday is the 50th anniversary of the only time the Dodgers clinched a World Series title at Dodger Stadium. They clinched a four-game sweep over the New York Yankees on Oct. 6, 1963. …Gonzalez on Hanley Ramirez’s eighth-inning home run in Game 2, on which the Dodgers shortstop appeared to lift one hand from his bat before making contact: “He one-handed it, both feet up in the air. That's how talented this guy is.”… Braves closer Craig Kimbrel had attempted just one four-out save before he did so successfully in Friday’s Game 2, but Gonzalez said the results boded well for the rest of the series. “I think tomorrow he could do it again.”

THE PITCHERS

In a surprising development to many impartial baseball observers, the 26-year-old Ryu had one of the best-ever rookie seasons by an Asian import to the major leagues. Even better for the Dodgers, the Korean pitched solidly in two outings against Atlanta and has generally been far superior at home than on the road. Ryu also got better as the season went on, with a 58-8 strikeout-walk ratio and 2.57 ERA in his final 11 starts. Although he rarely throws bullpen sessions in between starts, he threw a session Friday to keep his rhythm with the extra rest he’s getting this time.

Never pitched in postseason

A former top prospect who put it all together this season, Teheran is still just 22, the second-youngest player in the series after only Dodgers left-hander Paco Rodriguez. A Venezuela native, he struggled in April and September but was lights-out in between, allowing one run or fewer 12 times in 21 starts in that span. Despite more than 200 major-league innings to his name, Teheran has never faced the Dodgers or any Dodger hitters, save for three Michael Young plate appearances when Young was with the Phillies, which all ended in outs.

Never pitched in postseason