LOS ANGELES DODGERS CLIPS

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2013

ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Dodgers loss leaves Mattingly anxious for playoff opener

By BILL PLUNNKETT / ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

SAN FRANCISCO – It might have been the most honest answer Dodgers manager Don Mattingly has given all year.

After his team was held to two runs or fewer for the ninth time in the past 21 games and kept its losing record during the month of September intact with a 3-2 loss to the San Francisco Giants on Thursday night, Mattingly made it clear he is just as eager as everyone else to get the playoffs started.

“I’d like to see a lot of things. I’d like to see us score 10 runs a night, throw shutouts,” Mattingly said. “To be honest with you, I don’t think it’s going to matter one bit. What’s going to matter is the game next Thursday (when the playoffs start).

“We can sit here and cut it up all we want. We can talk about this or that or the other. But until Thursday, these questions aren’t going to be answered. I’m going to be guessing with all my answers. I could tell you I want to see this or that and that would be the magic pattern that is going to take us over the hump. Honestly, that’s all (expletive). It’s going to be next Thursday -- how we execute and how we play next Thursday.”

Paco Rodriguez did not execute well against Angel Pagan in the eighth inning, leaving a cutter over the plate that Pagan hit off the top of the left-field wall and out for the tiebreaking home run.

Rodriguez came into the game having held left-handed hitters to a .125 average (12 for 96) with only two extra-base hits all year. But he was pitching for the first time in a week as Mattingly tried to throttle back on the rookie’s workload. Rodriguez retired just one of three batters – giving up a home run to the left-handed Pagan and a bloop double to Brandon Belt, another lefty.

“It’s extremely frustrating, no question about it,” Rodriguez said. “I’ve been out a week and come in and don’t do my job. It was a bad pitch at the wrong time.”

Not really. In keeping with his just-get-the-playoffs-started attitude, Mattingly said Rodriguez might as well make the mistake “now than a few days from now” and made it clear Rodriguez remains firmly planted in the Dodgers’ playoff bullpen despite some poor outings in September.

“Paco’s all right,” he said. “He needed to get back out there. He hadn’t been out there in awhile. We know Paco and what he can do.”

Thursday’s starter, Edinson Volquez, is a different matter.

One night after Ricky Nolasco had his third consecutive poor start, Volquez made his second consecutive solid start, holding the Giants to two runs in five innings.

Nolasco is not as vulnerable as his 12.75 ERA over his final three regular-season starts might imply. But Volquez has pitched well enough to present a viable option should the Dodgers need an additional starter in the postseason beyond the current four lined up – Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke, Hyun-Jin Ryu and Nolasco.

Over his final three starts, Volquez allowed seven runs (six earned) on 14 hits in 17 innings (3.18 ERA), though he did walk seven in his last two starts.

“Volkie has been improving,” Mattingly said. “Since he came over, his outings have kind of steadily gotten better. This guy’s got good stuff. To this point, he’s done what we’ve asked him to do.”

For his part, Volquez acknowledged that adjustments suggested by Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt have him throwing more strikes.

“That’s big for me,” he said. “When I was in San Diego, I was always behind in the count.”

The question now is where – if at all – Volquez fits into the Dodgers’ postseason plans. The most likely answer is a stretch in limbo, working out at the team’s complex in Arizona in case a pitcher gets injured and Volquez is needed.

“I have no idea. I just do my job,” said Volquez, released by the Padres in August and unsigned beyond this year. “Whatever they decide, I’ll be really happy because I was at home and I got another opportunity to pitch in the big leagues – especially now with a team that is going to the playoffs.”

Thursday’s loss all but eliminated the Dodgers’ chances of getting home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs. They are three games behind both the St. Louis Cardinals and Atlanta Braves (tied for the best record in the National League at 94-65) and hold the tiebreaker advantage only against the Cardinals.

Jansen to be tested by pressure of playoffs

By BILL PLUNKETT / ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

SAN FRANCISCO – The Dodgers will head into the postseason next week knowing they have a pitcher in their bullpen who already has recorded the final out in a World Series.

But Brian Wilson won’t be closing games for the Dodgers in October. That task will fall to Kenley Jansen, 25, who has never thrown a pitch in the pressurized atmosphere of playoff baseball and was still a minor league conversion project (going from catcher to pitcher) the last time the Dodgers made the playoffs in 2009.

“It’s the same game. Nothing changes,” Jansen said of the prospect of throwing the most important pitches in postseason games. “That’s the attitude I carry. You can’t do anything extra. You just have to do your job the same way you’ve been doing it all year.”

Jansen has been doing it very well since taking over the closer role from Brandon League in mid-June. Yasiel Puig’s arrival and Hanley Ramirez’s return to health have been frequently cited as key factors in the Dodgers’ midseason turnaround. But their rebirth also coincided with Jansen’s elevation to the closer role.

He has converted 28 of 32 save opportunities with 109 strikeouts and just 48 hits allowed in 752/3 innings. His 0.85 WHIP is the lowest among NL relievers and his 6.8 strikeout-to-walk ratio is the fourth-best in the majors. Jansen has allowed just four hits with runners in scoring position all season.

“Who knows what’s going to happen or how anyone is going to react?” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said of Jansen’s relative inexperience as a closer – and total lack of experience with playoff pressure. “I don’t see why it’s going to be any different. They don’t seem to hit him now. I don’t think they’ll hit him then.”

As for Wilson, he has quickly pitched his way into a prominent role as a setup man in front of Jansen, allowing just one run on eight hits and striking out 12 in 121/3 innings since joining the Dodgers in August. Wilson had four consecutive seasons with at least 36 saves (2008-11) as the Giants closer, including their 2010 World Series championship. But he said there has been no adjustment necessary in moving to the eighth inning.

“No – I’m a relief pitcher. I need to be ready whenever the starter comes out,” Wilson said. “I told Donnie when I signed I’m here to get outs. Thank you for giving me the opportunity.”

ETHIER OUT

Mattingly acknowledged before Thursday’s game that Andre Ethier is “not likely” to play again before the postseason. “But that doesn’t mean we’re not moving forward,” he said.

Ethier has not played since Sept. 13, except for one pinch-hit appearance Sunday in San Diego, because of an injured left ankle.

Ethier did take batting practice on the field with the team Thursday (he did not run) and Mattingly said there are preliminary plans to set up simulated games to keep Ethier sharp. But his inability to run the bases without pain remains the most important hurdle he has yet to clear.

“Five days ago, I was wearing a boot in Arizona,” Ethier said Wednesday night. “Yesterday, I was shagging balls in the outfield. Who knows? Maybe I could wake up tomorrow and feel good enough to play.”

Ethier was asked if he was concerned he might not be ready for the playoffs.

“I’m not worried about that. I’m worried about tomorrow,” he said. “Does the postseason start tomorrow? No? All right then. We’re just worrying about tomorrow.”

NOTES

Left-hander Clayton Kershaw left the Dodgers on Thursday afternoon and returned to Los Angeles ahead of the team to prepare for his final start of the regular season Friday night. The early departure is typical for the following day’s starting pitcher when a trip ends with a night game. … Mattingly had planned to start Tim Federowicz at catcher with Kershaw to get the two accustomed to working with each other in case A.J. Ellis suffers an injury. Ellis has been Kershaw’s nearly exclusive catcher for the past two seasons. But Mattingly said he changed his mind and Ellis will start against the Colorado Rockies. “I kind of felt like I was planning on an injury, and I don’t like to do that,” Mattingly said. “Kersh has been solid all year long and I just decided I would stay with A.J. catching him tomorrow.”

Fan killed was son of Dodgers security guard

By BILL PLUNKETT / ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

SAN FRANCISCO – The Dodgers-Giants rivalry broke out in violence again Wednesday night with a Dodgers fan fatally stabbed after the game at AT&T Park.

The medical examiner's office in San Francisco has identified Jonathan Denver, 24, as the victim. San Francisco police Chief Greg Suhr identified Denver to the San Francisco Chronicle as a Dodgers fan who was wearing Dodgers gear at the time of an altercation near the stadium.

Denver was from Fort Bragg in Mendocino County, along the California coast north of San Francisco, and attended Wednesday's game with his father and brother.

In a statement released Thursday afternoon, the Dodgers identified Denver's father — Robert Preece — as a member of the game-day security staff at Dodger Stadium.

“The Dodgers are shocked and saddened to learn of the death of Jonathan Denver, who is the son of one of our security guards,” the full statement said. “There is no rational explanation for this senseless act which resulted in Jonathan's death. The pain that this has caused his family and friends is unimaginable. Words are not enough to describe our sadness. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family during this extremely difficult time.”

Two men were held in connection with the attack, which took place approximately 90 minutes after the Giants’ 6-4 victory over the Dodgers. According to San Francisco police, Michael Montgomery, 21, of Lodi was arrested on suspicion of homicide and will be charged as the man responsible for Denver's death. A second person (reportedly 18 years old) also was taken into custody.

“It’s something that seems like it's happening everywhere nowadays, doesn’t it?” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said, calling the violence more a societal than a sports problem. “It just seems senseless. We see it all over the world, it seems like — killing for no reason. It just seems senseless to me.”

The incident apparently broke out when Denver and his party left a bar approximately six blocks from AT&T Park. Taunts were exchanged with a group leaving a nearby nightclub. Police responded to a fight involving approximately 10 people — some wearing Giants gear and some wearing Dodgers gear.

Denver was taken to San Francisco General Hospital where he died from his injuries. A second man was reportedly treated and released for injuries suffered in the brawl.

Wednesday's incident called to mind the 2011 beating of Santa Cruz paramedic Bryan Stow after the season opener at Dodger Stadium between the Dodgers and Giants.

Stow was badly beaten in the parking lot after the game and suffered brain injuries that left him in a coma for some time. His brain injuries will require long-term care. The Giants held a fundraiser for Stow on Tuesday.

Two men have been arrested in connection with the attack on Stow and are awaiting trial.

A moment of silence was held for Denver before the start of Thursday night's game at AT&T Park and the Giants announced that security will be increased for their remaining home games.

“Leave it on the field,” Mattingly said of the intense feelings generated by the Dodgers-Giants rivalry. “We're rivals, and we're going to be competitive. But it’s a game, you know? Leave it on the field.”

On deck: Rockies at Dodgers, Friday, 7 p.m.

By BILL PLUNKETT / ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

When: 7 p.m.

Where: Dodger Stadium

TV: Prime Ticket

Last time they played: The Dodgers and Rockies have split their first 16 meetings this season. The Dodgers took 2 of 3 in their most recent series, Sept. 2-4 in Colorado.

Rockies report: The Rockies have gone 8-14 in September, heading to their second consecutive last-place finish in the NL West.

Player to watch: First baseman Todd Helton has announced that he will retire after this weekend. Helton, 40, was the Rockies’ first-round draft pick back in 1995 (after a career at the University of Tennessee where he served as Peyton Manning’s backup at quarterback when he wasn’t playing baseball). During his 17-year big league career, Helton has hit .317 with 369 home runs, a batting title (in 2000) and three Gold Glove awards. But he is just a .267 hitter with 13 home runs in 117 games at Dodger Stadium.

Did you know: Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw was voted the winner of the Roy Campanella Award. The eighth annual award is voted on by Dodgers players and coaches and honors the player who “exemplifies the spirit and leadership of the late Hall of Fame catcher.” Campanella’s daughter, Joni Campanella Roan, will present the award to Kershaw during a pregame ceremony Saturday at Dodger Stadium.

Numbers game: 55 – Postseason games played at Dodger Stadium. Only one current stadium has played host to more – Fenway Park (68). A record 161 postseason games (including 100 World Series games) were played at old Yankee Stadium.

THE PITCHERS

CLAYTON KERSHAW (15-9, 1.88)

Kershaw will be making his final tuneup start before the playoffs. Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said the length of Kershaw’s start will be “pretty much normal – within reason.” Kershaw has a .31 lead over Miami Marlins right-hander Jose Fernandez and likely will finish with the lowest ERA in the majors for the third consecutive season, something that hasn’t been done since Greg Maddux in 1993-95. Kershaw also leads the majors in WHIP with a narrow lead over injured New York Mets ace Matt Harvey (0.92-0.93). Kershaw also cab establish a career high for innings pitched with 32/3 tonight.

vs. Rockies: 9-5, 3.76 ERA

at Dodger Stadium: 41-23, 2.22 ERA

Loves to face: Jordan Pacheco, 2 for 14 (.143), 3 SO

Hates to face: Dexter Fowler, 16 for 38 (.421), 2 doubles, 1 triple

COLLIN McHUGH (0-2, 7.80)

McHugh, 26, was acquired from the Mets in a trade for outfielder Eric Young Jr. earlier this season. He spent most of the season in the minors, going 6-5 with a 3.42 ERA and 100 strikeouts in 113 innings for three teams at the Double-A and Triple-A levels. He has not fared well in brief trials in the big leagues, going 0-7 with an 8.10 ERA in 14 games for the Mets and Rockies over the past two seasons. In two starts for the Rockies in September, he has allowed seven runs on 15 hits in 10 innings.

vs. Dodgers: First game

UPCOMING MATCHUPS

Saturday – Juan Nicasio (8-9, 5.32) vs. Zack Greinke (15-3, 2.67), 6 p.m., Prime Ticket

Sunday – Tyler Chatwood (8-5, 3.15) vs. Hyun-Jin Ryu (14-7, 2.97), 1 p.m., Prime Ticket

Lev: Prime Ticket, Dodgers set to split

The network’s relationship with the team comes to an end Sunday. It won’t air any pre- or postgame coverage during the playoffs.

By MICHAEL LEV ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Prime Ticket will not air pre- or postgame Dodgers coverage during the playoffs. Its relationship with the National League West champions comes to an end at the conclusion of Sunday’s regular-season finale vs. Colorado.

It wouldn’t be unusual for Prime Ticket or Fox Sports West to do shoulder programming around local teams’ postseason games, even if those games aired on other networks. However, with the Dodgers launching SportsNet LA next year, it made little sense for Prime Ticket to continue its coverage beyond Sunday.

ML'S MEDIA MUSINGS

1. NBCSN canceled Michelle Beadle's "The Crossover" after less than a year on air. The show struggled from the start, with original co-host Dave Briggs being dumped within months. Ratings were poor, and Beadle lamented a lack of promotion. But she's too talented to stay down for long. NBC will find a new role for her. It's just a matter of figuring out the right fit.

2. It was no surprise when EA Sports announced Thursday that it wouldn't publish a college football game next year; that writing was on the wall since the NCAA, in the wake of the Ed O'Bannon lawsuit, withdrew licensing support. While it's a bummer for those who enjoy that game, perhaps EA will funnel its newly freed-up resources to the stagnant "Madden" franchise.

3. ESPN did not enhance its journalistic reputation during the PGA Tour season by giving Tiger Woods separate headlines on its website regardless of whether he was in contention. I get the reasoning behind it. But it's still wrong.

MICHAEL LEV

Those close to the situation say it’s strictly a business decision, claiming that it’s difficult to add sponsors to complementary coverage without the value of also offering the game telecasts.

One difference between MLB and the NBA/NHL is that regional sports networks carry some early round playoff games in those leagues. RSNs don’t televise MLB postseason games.

The Dodgers and Fox Sports declined interview requests. Fox did issue a statement regarding its Dodgers decision:

“We’ll be getting ready for our TV coverage of the Kings, Ducks, and Clippers, but we wish the Dodgers the best of luck in the playoffs.”

Time Warner Cable-backed SportsNet LA is set to take over Dodgers coverage in 2014. Other than the return of Vin Scully, no on-air assignments have been announced.

Scully will call the first and last three innings of each Dodgers postseason game on KLAC/570. Charley Steiner and Rick Monday will handle the middle three innings.

MLB ON TBS

TBS’ coverage of the MLB postseason begins Tuesday with the National League wild-card game. The AL wild-card game follows Wednesday.

TBS will broadcast up to 18 division-series games and the National League Championship Series. Here are some coverage highlights:

• The studio team is eclectic to say the least. Host Keith Olbermann is joined by three-time Cy Young Award winner Pedro Martinez and veteran reporter Tom Verducci.

• The No. 1 play-by-play team consists of Ernie Johnson, Ron Darling and Cal Ripken, with Verducci and Craig Sager joining them as reporters during the NLCS.

• TBS will introduce several new technological innovations, including “Truss Cam,” a camera mounted on a trolley just beyond the outfield wall that can provide 360-degree views; “TBS Total Motion,” which will provide super-slow-motion replays (more than 3,000 frames per second); and “Pitch Trax,” which will illustrate pitch location, pitch type and other variables.

REMOTE PATROL

Larry King is among three guest hosts who will sub for Olbermann on his terrific ESPN2 show during the MLB playoffs. The others are Jeremy Schaap and Colin Cowherd. … Ratings for the 24th season of “Sunday Night Baseball” on ESPN were up 8 percent over last year. Viewership was up 6 percent. … Curt Menefee sits down with Dodgers manager Don Mattingly on the next episode of FS1’s “Fox Sports 1 on 1,” airing at 5 p.m. Monday. …

With NBA training camps getting under way, Time Warner Cable SportsNet is ramping up its Lakers coverage. Highlights include the return of “LakeShow” on Friday and extensive Lakers media-day coverage Saturday. … The iconic series “NBA Inside Stuff” is coming to NBA TV on Nov. 2. Grant Hill, late of the Clippers, and Kristen Ledlow are the co-hosts. …

NBCSN’s regular-season NHL coverage begins Tuesday with Capitals-Blackhawks at 5 p.m. The network will air a season-preview show the previous day at 4 p.m. The following Tuesday, NBCSN will launch two new hockey-themed shows: “NHL Rivals,” which will delve into some of the league’s best rivalries, and “NHL Top 10,” which will dive into some of the sport’s most timeless debates. …

The NFL’s popularity hasn’t crested yet. Last week’s “Thursday Night Football” game between Kansas City and Philadelphia was the highest-rated telecast in the history of the series on NFL Network. Meanwhile, all four of NBC’s NFL telecasts have exceeded 20 million average viewers. … Late NFL Films president Steve Sabol is the subject of the next episode of “A Football Life,” airing at 6 p.m. Tuesday on NFL Network. … Classy move by NFL Network’s Rich Eisen on Thursday, acknowledging Chris Berman’s father, James, who died on Monday. Berman has been on leave. He’s set to resume his ESPN duties this weekend. …

Average viewership of the Premier League on various NBC platforms was up 70 percent through the first five weeks over similar coverage on other networks last year. … ESPN’s “30 for 30” series returns at 5 p.m. Tuesday. The first of six films is “Hawaiian: The Legend of Eddie Aikau.” … Keyshawn Johnson going one-and-done on “Dancing with the Stars” might merit its own “C’mon Man!” segment on “Monday Night Countdown” next week. …

Boomer Esiason will appear every Friday on “The Jim Rome Show” on CBS Sports Radio. The show airs from 9 a.m.-noon Monday-Friday on XPRS/1090. … James Lofton, who is excellent on Westwood One’s Sunday-night broadcasts, is joining SiriusXM’s NFL Radio as a host. … “The Dan LeBatard Show” makes its national debut on ESPN Radio at 1 p.m. Monday. It can be heard locally on KLAA/830.

Man fatally stabbed following Dodgers-Giants game

· posted by BILL PLUNKETT

(UPDATED)

SAN FRANCISCO – The Dodgers-Giants rivalry broke out in violence again Wednesday night with a Dodgers fan fatally stabbed following the game at AT&T Park.

The medical examiner's office in San Francisco has identified 24-year-old Jonathan Denver as the victim. San Francisco police Chief Greg Suhr identified Denver to the San Francisco Chronicle as a Dodgers fan who was wearing Dodgers gear at the time of an altercation near the stadium.

Denver was from Fort Bragg in Mendocino County, along the California coast north of San Francisco, and attended Wednesday's game with his father and brother.

In a statement released Thursday afternoon, the Dodgers identified Denver's father (Robert Preece) as a member of the game-day security staff at Dodger Stadium.

"The Dodgers are shocked and saddened to learn of the death of Jonathan Denver, who is the son of one of our security guards," the full statement said. "There is no rational explanation for this senseless act which resulted in Jonathan's death. The pain that this has caused his family and friends is unimaginable. Words are not enough to describe our sadness. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family during this extremely difficult time.”

Two men were held in connection with the attack, which took place approximately 90 minutes after the Giants' 6-4 victory over the Dodgers. According to San Francisco police, 21-year-old Michael Montgomery of Lodi was arrested on suspicion of homicide and will be charged as the man responsible for Denver's death. A second person (reportedly 18 years old) was also taken into custody.

"It’s something that seems like it's happening everywhere nowadays, doesn’t it?” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said, calling the violence more a societal probelm than a sports. “It just seems senseless. We see it all over the world, it seems like -- killing for no reason. It just seems senseless to me.”

The incident apparently broke out when Denver and his party left a bar approximately six blocks from AT&T Park. Taunts were exchanged with a group leaving a nearby nightclub. Police responded to a fight involving approximately 10 people -- some wearing Giants gear and some wearing Dodgers gear.

Denver was taken to San Francisco General Hospital where he died from his injuries. A second man was reportedly treated and released for injuries suffered in the brawl.

Wednesday's incident called to mind the 2011 beating of Santa Cruz paramedic Bryan Stow following the season opener at Dodger Stadium between the Dodgers and Giants.

Stow was badly beaten in the parking lot following the game and suffered brain injuries that left him in a coma for some time. His brain injuries will require long-term care. The Giants held a fundraiser for Stow on Tuesday.

Two men have been arrested in connection with the attack on Stow and are awaiting trial.

A moment of silence was held for Denver before the start of Thursday night's game at AT&T Park and the Giants announced that security will be increased for their remaining home games.

"Leave it on the field," Mattingly said of the intense feelings generated by the Dodgers-Giants rivalry. "We're rivals and we're going to be competitive. But it’s a game, you know? Leave it on the field.”

Ethier 'not likely' to play before postseason

by BILL PLUNKETT

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly acknowledged before Thursday's game that Andre Ethier is "not lilkely" to play again before the postseason.

"But that doesn't mean we're not moving forward," Mattingly said.

Ethier has not played since Sept. 13 except for one pinch-hit appearance on Sunday in San Diego due to an injured left ankle. After trying to run the bases during a workout Tuesday, Ethier had renewed pain in the ankle and flew back to Los Angeles on Wednesday for further testing.

An MRI and CT scan showed healing and improvement in the injured area but there are no plans for Ethier to test his leg by running the bases again until he is pain-free. That might not come until next week when the Dodgers are setting their roster for a first-round playoff series.

Ethier did take batting practice on the field with the team Thursday and Mattingly said there are preliminary plans to set up simulated games to keep Ethier sharp. But his inability to run the bases without pain remains the most important hurdle.

Ethier remained optimistic, returning from Wednesday's trip to L.A. and pointing out to reporters that "tomorrow I could wake up and the ankle will feel better."

"Five days ago, I was wearing a boot in Arizona," he said. "Yesterday (Tuesday), I was shagging balls in the outfield. Who knows? Maybe I could wake up tomorrow and feel good enough to play."

Ethier was asked if he was concerned he might not be ready to play in the playoffs.

"I'm not worried about that. I'm worried about tomorrow," he said. "Does the post-season start tomorrow? No? All right then. We're just worrying about tomorrow."

Tonight's lineups:

DODGERS (91-67)

RF Yasiel Puig

LF Carl Crawford

SS Hanley Ramirez

1B Adrian Gonzalez

CF Matt Kemp

3B Juan Uribe

2B Mark Ellis

C Tim Federowicz

RHP Edinson Volquez (9-12, 5.77)

GIANTS (73-85)

CF Angel Pagan

LF Gregor Blanco

1B Brandon Belt

C Buster Posey

RF Hunter Pence

3B Pablo Sandoval

2B Tony Abreu

SS Brandon Crawford

RHP Tim Lincecum (10-14, 4.44)

DODGERS.COM

Dodgers' early lead doesn't hold up against Giants

Volquez, bullpen can't protect two-run cushion in series finale

By Ken Gurnick / MLB.com

SAN FRANCISCO -- One week after clinching and one week to go before the playoffs start, manager Don Mattingly pretty much has had it with the roster questions and hypotheticals about the offense and the injuries and all the rest.

"I'd love to see us score 10 runs a night and throw a shutout and have every [reliever] get their outs, but to be honest with you, I don't think it matters one bit, not until Thursday," the manager said after the Dodgers lost to the Giants on Thursday night, 3-2, on Angel Pagan's eighth-inning homer off Paco Rodriguez.

"We can cut it up any way we want, until Thursday, it's just guessing. We can say we have to see this or see that, but honestly it's all BS. It's going to be Thursday, it's going to be how we execute and how we play."

With the four starting infielders back in the lineup Thursday night, the Dodgers scored half as many runs as they did the night before without them, so go figure.

The Dodgers most likely will open the playoffs on the road regardless of the opponent. The Dodgers would need to sweep the Rockies and have the Cardinals be swept by the Cubs in order to start the National League Division Series at home. If the season ended now, their Division Series would open at Atlanta.

Pagan homered on an 0-2 pitch leading off the bottom of the eighth inning, spoiling Rodriguez's first appearance in eight days. Mattingly also took Chris Withrow and Ronald Belisario out of mothballs for some work, an indicator that all three are on the postseason roster.

Mattingly insisted, and Rodriguez agreed, that there's nothing physically wrong with the lefty, that a suddenly reduced workload is the result of intentional freshening and game situations.

"Better now than four days from now," Mattingly said of the home run.

The problem is, Rodriguez was pitching in college 15 months ago. He's never come close to the 75 appearances or 53 1/3 innings that have been demanded of him this year as the primary left-handed reliever in a division-winning bullpen.

The stats seem to indicate a toll has been taken. Through Sept. 1, Rodriguez had a 1.85 ERA and had allowed one home run on the season. In 10 appearances since, he's allowed three homers and has a 7.71 ERA.

Rodriguez beat himself up pretty good after the Giants beat him.

"That's extremely frustrating," he said. "I haven't pitched in a week and I want to come in and do my job. Every time I mess up, I'm not doing my job. I can't let it happen. It's a long season, but I haven't thrown in a while, and I should be fresh and ready to go. It was a bad pitch at the wrong time."

Mattingly said he won't back away from using Rodriguez.

"You don't ever want to see him give up a home run, but I still have a lot of confidence in Paco and what he can do," Mattingly said.

Mattingly wasn't as forceful when reporters tried to pin him down on Edinson Volquez's role, if any, in the postseason. He allowed a pair of runs in the fifth inning of his start against the Giants, then was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the top of the sixth. Volquez is the fifth starter in a rotation that needs only four in the best-of-five Division Series, and he would be out of position as a reliever.

Although fourth starter Ricky Nolasco is slumping, Mattingly has given no indication that Volquez could unseat Nolasco. In Volquez's last four starts, he's allowed nine earned runs in 23 innings for a 3.52 ERA, while Nolasco in his last three starts has allowed 17 runs in 12 innings for a 12.75 ERA.

"I'm not going to talk about roster spots," Mattingly said. "He's got good stuff. To this point, he's done what he's been asked to do, kept us in games with [Chris Capuano] hurt and [Stephen] Fife was struggling. He's been good."

Hanley Ramirez, Adrian Gonzalez, Juan Uribe and Mark Ellis were back in the lineup after getting a break Wednesday night, and the offense presented Volquez a 2-0 lead he couldn't protect. The runs off Tim Lincecum scored on a Gonzalez sacrifice fly (his 99th RBI) and back-to-back doubles by Uribe and Ellis.

"It's kind of hard not to get up when you're playing that team," said Lincecum, a pending free agent who might have pitched his final Giants game. "The fans want it as bad as we do."

San Francisco tied the game with a pair of runs in the fifth on an RBI groundout by Pagan and an RBI double by Brandon Belt after a two-out walk to Gregor Blanco, the third walk in Volquez's five innings. Pagan's eighth-inning homer off Rodriguez hit the top of the fence down the left-field line and bounced over for a home run.

After reporters cleared the clubhouse, rookie hazing took place, with first-year players wearing costumes of cartoon characters. Among them -- Yasiel Puig as Gumby, Hyun-Jin Ryu as the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man and Onelki Garcia as a penguin.

Ethier resumes workouts after exams check out

By Ken Gurnick / MLB.com

SAN FRANCISCO -- Cleared by doctors after Wednesday's MRI and CT scan, Andre Ethier resumed working out on his injured left ankle with the team on Thursday.

Ethier is able to hit, catch balls in the outfield and throw. Manager Don Mattingly said the club will wait until next week to test Ethier on the bases, and determining his role, if any, in the first round of the playoffs might not be made until the last minute.

Because he won't be playing in the final three regular-season games, Ethier will maintain his swing in simulated games, Mattingly said.

"It doesn't mean we're not moving forward," Mattingly said. "I'm a little more encouraged today."

Besides Ethier, Mattingly said he feels good about the physical condition of his club, which has been battered most of the season.

"Andre's the only guy," Mattingly said, although utility man Jerry Hairston has been sidelined with back spasms.

Kershaw named Roy Campanella Award recipient

SAN FRANCISCO -- Clayton Kershaw was named the winner of the eighth annual Roy Campanella Award, given to the Dodger who best exemplifies the spirit and leadership of the late Hall of Fame Brooklyn catcher.

The award, voted upon by Dodgers uniform personnel, will be presented to Kershaw by Campanella's daughter, Joni Campanella Roan, during pregame ceremonies Saturday prior to the 6:10 p.m. PT game against the Rockies.

Previous winners of the award are Rafael Furcal, Russell Martin, James Loney, Juan Pierre, Jamey Carroll, Matt Kemp and A.J. Ellis.

The Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation will make a financial contribution to support the Roy and Roxie Campanella Scholarship Program at California State University, Northridge (CSUN) and its Department of Physical Therapy at the College of Health and Human Development.

Dodgers' Hairston bothered by back spasms

SAN FRANCISCO -- Dodgers utility man Jerry Hairston was unable to work out with the club before Thursday night's game because of back spasms.

Hairston, on the bubble for a postseason roster berth after the acquisition of Michael Young, said he felt the oncoming problem Wednesday night, when he played third base and had three at-bats, including a grounder up the middle that was scored an error on shortstop Brandon Crawford, robbing Hairston of an RBI single.

Hairston said his back hadn't bothered him earlier, although he's been slumping (0-for-19). He's hitting .321 with runners in scoring position, but only .179 as a pinch-hitter. Defensively, he's appeared at first base, second base, third base, left field and right field.

Dodgers' top three arms to get final tune-ups

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Dodgers' top three starters will get final tune-ups for the playoffs this weekend against the Rockies, with Clayton Kershaw pitching on Friday night, Zack Greinke on Saturday night and Hyun-Jin Ryu on Sunday.

Kershaw headed to the airport when the Dodgers took the field for batting practice at AT&T Park on Thursday to assure he gets normal rest. The club will fly home after the game.

Manager Don Mattingly said Kershaw and Greinke, pitching on an extra day of rest, will be allowed to go longer than Ryu, who is on a normal five-day cycle.

"It will be normal, within reason [for Kershaw and Greinke]," Mattingly said. "Not 115 or 120 pitches."

Kershaw's previous start came on an extra three days' rest, while Greinke's was cut short after five innings.

Mattingly: Selig did 'great job' as commissioner

SAN FRANCISCO -- Dodgers manager Don Mattingly tries to stay out of issues above his job, but he did have comments about the announcement that Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig would retire in 2015.

"Seems he did a great job to me," said Mattingly. "Labor peace for years. Seems like big strides in communication between the union and ownership. All the stuff with the performance-enhancing stuff. Getting more comprehensive testing. He's been great. The players have got to love him. They should."

Mattingly, a player representative during the 1994 strike that wiped out the World Series, conceded that he couldn't have predicted he would eventually feel that way about Selig, who was commissioner then.

"It would have been hard to think about it," said Mattingly. "There were so many battles every couple of years. Like anything else, it took '94 to say, 'That's enough of that.' Same with PEDs. The more it happened, the more comprehensive it got with better and better testing."

Kershaw set for final postseason tuneup vs. Rox

Dodgers ace looks to finish regular season with ERA under two

By AJ Cassavell / MLB.com

His second National League Cy Young Award seemingly a formality at this point, Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw gets one more postseason tune up on Friday night against the Rockies -- his last start of the regular season.

With a 1.88 ERA entering Friday, Kershaw has a chance to become the first Dodgers pitcher to finish with an ERA below two since Sandy Koufax did so in his final season (1.73 ERA in 1966). Barring a significant

meltdown, Kershaw is also a lock to become the first pitcher since Greg Maddux in 1993-95 to lead Major League Baseball in ERA three years in a row.

Kershaw will start Game 1 of the NL Division Series next Thursday, and his start against Colorado could go a long way toward determining just where he'll take the mound. By virtue of Thursday's 3-2 loss to the Giants and Atlanta's win, the Dodgers would need to sweep the Rockies and have the Cardinals be swept by the Cubs in order to start the NL Division Series at home.

"It will be normal within reason," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said of Kershaw's pitch count for Friday's game. "Not 115 or 120 pitches."

Opposite Kershaw on Friday will be Rockies right-hander Collin McHugh (0-3, 8.59). He's coming off an outing in which the D-backs pounded him for six runs and 11 hits in five innings of work.

The 26-year-old McHugh has had a rough time as a starter throughout his career -- in eight starts, he's 0-6 with a 7.64 ERA.

Though McHugh has struggled a bit, Rockies manager Walt Weiss has been pleased with the improvement of his young arms this season.

"You turn on the TV in October, you're going to see a lot of good arms," Weiss said. "I think ultimately, you have to perform well on the mound. I think we've taken some strides, especially with the three starters, we've come a long way in that department. I feel like you can never have too many arms."

Rockies: Helton says goodbyeTodd Helton played his final game at Coors Field on Wednesday, as the first baseman who has spent his entire career with the Rockies is set to retire after the weekend series in Los Angeles.

"I'm at the point where I don't want to get my body to try to go through another season," Helton said. "Mentally, 17 years is enough. Physically, it's definitely enough. So I think I'm at peace with it."

Perhaps it's fitting that Helton's final games will come at Dodger Stadium. His 56 RBIs there are more than he has in any away ballpark, and his 107 hits and 13 home runs there are tied for first with Arizona's Chase Field.

Dodgers: Ethier resumes workoutsCleared by doctors after Wednesday's MRI and CT scan, Andre Ethier resumed workouts on his injured left ankle on Thursday.

Ethier is able to hit, catch balls in the outfield and throw. Mattingly said the club will wait until next week to test Ethier on the bases, and determine his role, if any, in the first round of the playoffs.

"It doesn't mean we're not moving forward," Mattingly said. "I'm a little more encouraged today."

• Kershaw was named the winner of the eighth annual Roy Campanella Award, given to the Dodger who best exemplifies the spirit and leadership of the late Hall of Fame Brooklyn catcher.

Worth noting• The Dodgers and Rockies have split their 16 meetings this season. Colorado hasn't taken a season series against L.A. since 2007.

• Rockies outfielder Dexter Fowler has hit Kershaw well, posting a .421 average in 38 at-bats.

• Colorado shortstop Troy Tulowitzki has 25 home runs this season, making him just the sixth shortstop in history with at least four 25-homer seasons.

Health will be key for Dodgers to take next step

After clinching NL West, club now focused on finding success in postseason

By Ken Gurnick / MLB.com

SAN FRANCISCO -- Almost ignored in the aftermath of the Dodgers' division-clinching celebration was the bar-setting comment from the most famous voice of ownership.

"We only accomplished Goal #1," tweeted Magic Johnson. "Today we have to set our sights on goal #2 defeating whoever our opponent is in the playoffs!"

Dodger Nation: We only accomplished Goal #1. Today we have to set our sights on goal #2 defeating whoever our opponent is in the playoffs!

- Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) September 20, 2013

While the media has been obsessed with the Chase Field pool party, the Dodgers had better turn the page to the next challenge. And to make sure of that, Johnson, who won five NBA titles, slapped them alongside the head with another smack of expectation.

It's the expectation that comes with a $2.15 billion purchase price and a $230 million player payroll, the expectation that comes with a starting rotation headed by a pair of Cy Young Award winners.

Manager Don Mattingly is in the final weeks of his contract, so he doesn't need to be reminded. When you play for billionaires and iconic champions, stratospheric expectations are along for the ride.

"You hear about being favored all winter, all Spring Training and as the season gets underway," said general manager Ned Colletti, who has the Dodgers in the postseason for the fourth time in his eight years in charge. "We still had to play the games. We had to push away all the noise. It's tough when you're expected to win."

It's tougher when the best players can't play. Health dictated the best and worst of times for the Dodgers this year, and it won't be any different in the postseason.

Will Andre Ethier's ankle allow him to play? Can Hanley Ramirez keep his back nerve from flaring? Can Matt Kemp, with three stints on the disabled list already, stay in one piece for another month? Will Yasiel Puig harness his instincts and not try to run through any walls? Can Carl Crawford play hard without breaking?

Who knows? Some are brittle, some play too hard, but whatever the reason, the Dodgers' postseason success probably depends on health more than any other factor. Crawford and Puig appear healthy now, but they've missed games in recent weeks too.

Only Crawford appears to be running hard since their injuries, and the big unknown is whether they can flip the switch to full speed when the playoffs start and, more important, what will be the after-effects when they do?

The Dodgers showed this year they could win without Kemp. But that was when they had Ethier to take over. The midseason turnaround that took them from worst to first was mostly tied to the June return from the disabled list of Ramirez and the promotion from Double-A Chattanooga of Puig.

"You can't say Puig without saying Hanley," said Mattingly. "Puig got a lot of attention. Hanley was the force."

Mattingly, though, goes a little deeper to pinpoint two key moments in the season.

"We really gained confidence on the [July 2-10] trip that we won two of three in Colorado, two of three in San Francisco, then swept the Diamondbacks," he said. "We were able to get to 2 1/2 back at the break, and at that point we knew we were in it. We knew we could have a bad series and still be OK.

"That trip was huge, and the trip out of the break was huge [three-game sweeps in Washington and Toronto]. That gave us a ton of confidence."

To Mattingly, health led to improved play, which led to confidence, which resulted in even better play. Everything that went wrong in the first half had reversed. And plenty had gone wrong.

The loss of Chad Billingsley and Josh Beckett, combined with repeated injuries to Chris Capuano and Ted Lilly, left a starting rotation that once had too many to suddenly have too few. Stephen Fife and Matt Magill, not even on the radar coming out of Spring Training, moved into the rotation, but short starts taxed the bullpen.

The rotation was solidified when Colletti dealt three young pitchers to Miami for Ricky Nolasco, who didn't have the marquee value of Matt Garza on the trade market, but turned into a better acquisition. He joined Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke and Hyun-Jin Ryu, while A.J. Ellis further solidified his status as starting catcher with his pitch calling and control of the running game, backed up by Tim Federowicz.

As Kemp's injuries piled up, the Dodgers asked Ethier to shift over to center field. Ethier, whose intensity was called out by the manager in May, responded with surprisingly solid defense in his new position and more consistent offense. But because of his ankle, his role is now uncertain.

The Dodgers also asked a lot, and received a lot, from bench players Nick Punto, Skip Schumaker and Jerry Hairston, but the acquisition of Michael Young appears to have put Hairston on the roster bubble.

Mattingly also has tough roster choices involving extra starter Edinson Volquez, relievers Brandon League, Chris Capuano and Carlos Marmol and youngsters Scott Van Slyke and Dee Gordon.

In addition to the impact of rookies Ryu and Puig, the Dodgers had a solid comeback season from Crawford and a surprising one from Juan Uribe, who won back the starting third-base job he lost last year and will be looking to duplicate his postseason stardom with the 2010 Giants.

LA TIMES

A purple and gold town is feeling blue again

The Dodgers have stolen the thunder back from the Lakers, with money, talent, front-office solidarity — and some Magic of their own.

By Bill Plaschke

What is usually a raucous beginning feels like an awkward ending.

For the first time in 14 years, when the Lakers open training camp Saturday they will be taking the floor in the middle of a Dodgers town.

The domination of buzz that began with the Kobe Bryant era in 1996 has at least temporarily ended this fall as the Lakers find themselves surrounded in dysfunction, confusion and blue.

Giant gold jerseys bearing No. 24 are being replaced by oversized blue shirts bearing No. 66. Lakers flags are being pulled out of car windows to make room for Dodgers flags. Worry about Steve Nash's legs have been muted over concern for Andre Ethier's shins. Bryant took a self-publicized high dive, yet more people were talking about the Dodgers going swimming.

This columnist will not repeat the assumptions that led to the long-ago mistake of calling this a UCLA football town. The Lakers-Dodgers climate change could end by next summer, when the Lakers will have the money and space to bring LeBron James to town. But since the death of Jerry Buss, the Lakers have no longer been the Lakers, so who knows what happens next? Meanwhile, with the best and richest lineup in baseball and the money to keep it going, the Dodgers have again become the Dodgers, a team that owned this city even through the Showtime era, a group that has the economic stability to own it again.

The Dodgers have a rich unified ownership group that has listened to fans. The Lakers have been unable to present the unified ownership front its fans so desperately want, and have instead regaled them with tales of one owner ripping another owner.

Many of the power brokers in town hoped Jeanie Buss would run the franchise, but her recent decision to publicly criticize brother Jim to sell some books raised some expensive eyebrows.

The Dodgers have a president, Stan Kasten, who is clearly in charge and accountable. The Lakers fans have no idea who is running the show, and telling them that Jeanie runs business and Jim runs basketball makes it even more confusing to the average fan straining to hear one voice.

The Dodgers have Magic Johnson. The Lakers lost him long ago.

The Dodgers have a strong personnel guy, Ned Colletti, who has been given the tools to win now. The Lakers have a strong personnel guy, Mitch Kupchak, whose hands have been tied by league rules and team chaos, and can you believe what he recently said about next off-season?

"If we can get done what we want to get done, then great," he said. "If not, then we'll move to the next off-season. And then we'll move to the next off-season. I know at some point in time we'll be able to put together a very competitive and attractive team here."

At some point in time? How many off-seasons was that? Has there ever been a more dire quote about the future of what Jerry Buss had built into the greatest franchise in professional sports?

The Dodgers have an everyday lineup that includes stars Hanley Ramirez, Adrian Gonzalez, Yasiel Puig and Matt Kemp. One possible opening-night lineup for the Lakers is Nash, Steve Blake, Nick Young, Pau Gasol and Jordan Hill.

The Dodgers' games have become home to many of the Hollywood stars who are increasingly shying away from the Lakers. Several of the stars in the Chavez Ravine stands this season have been NBA players. One of them was Bryant.

When examining the unique Dodgers-Lakers relationship, it is often assumed that both teams have other, more important local rivals on their radar. Yet, contrary to popular belief, it could be years before the Lakers ever have to worry about the Clippers, because their fan base is so markedly different and blindly loyal. It's the same with the Dodgers and Angels, who also have diversity of geography.

The Dodgers and Lakers matter to each other because they attract many of the same fans and are thus working for the same dollars. Just ask anyone who attended Dodger Stadium one certain night this summer. Chris Paul was in the stands, and when the Clippers star was introduced, he was loudly booed.

Dodgers fans and Lakers fans are often one person, one wallet, one choice, a Dodgers game in September or a Lakers game in February, a new Dodgers cap or a new Lakers shirt, two teams loved by many, but a landscape that can be dominated by only one.

When Guggenheim Baseball bought the Dodgers two years ago, officials publicly talked about winning the baseball world, but privately they wanted to regain the town from the Lakers. When the Lakers were celebrating their five championships in the Bryant era, part of their quiet glee was that they had clearly stolen the town from the Dodgers.

Don't look now, but the Dodgers are stealing it back. The Lakers open their regular season Oct. 29 at Staples Center against the Clippers. That is also the day between Game 5 and Game 6 of the World Series.

Would a baseball day off ever generate more chatter in Los Angeles than an NBA opening night? Here's guessing the Lakers don't want to find out. Here's guessing the Dodgers can't wait.

Giants-Dodgers rivalry turns ugly off the field again

A man in Dodgers attire is stabbed to death after game in San Francisco.

By Lee Romney, Kate Mather and Scott Gold

SAN FRANCISCO —The young man, a plumber's apprentice, had taken a couple of days off, driving to San Francisco for a reunion with his father and brother. A little before midnight he was dead, stabbed by strangers near a nightclub.

But as word of 24-year-old Jonathan Denver's killing spread Thursday, it became clear that this was the latest turn in a saga that stretched back more than a century — to the roots of one of the most storied and bitter rivalries in American sports.

Authorities said Denver was wearing Los Angeles Dodgers apparel at the time of the attack, and was involved in an altercation with Giants fans. The rivalry between the two teams has routinely spilled off the field. At times it has carried a terrible price — as when Bryan Stow, a 42-year-old paramedic, was savagely beaten outside Dodger Stadium in 2011, targeted because he was wearing Giants clothing.

"The fact that anybody got in a beef over the Giants versus Dodgers and someone lost their life — it's just senseless," San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr said Thursday.

Denver's father, Robert Preece, is a Dodgers fan and sometimes worked security at Dodger Stadium, the team confirmed.

"The pain that this has caused … is unimaginable," the Dodgers organization said in a statement. "Words are not enough to describe our sadness."

The Dodgers lost, 6-4, Wednesday night to the San Francisco Giants. Denver was there, but left the game a little early. With his father, brother, his father's girlfriend and another friend, he went to a bar a few blocks from the Giants' AT&T Park.

The group was in the South of Market neighborhood, on a stretch of Third Street that is jammed with commuter traffic in the mornings but transformed into a baseball pilgrim's corridor on game nights — sometimes with thousands of people headed from the stadium to a nearby public transit station.

The scene can get rowdy, but is almost never violent, said Mitch Brown, 53, a local property manager. The bars that night were full but calm, said Hal Coleman, who was tending bar at Pedro's Cantina. In fact, a lot of the crowd was Dodgers fans, he said. The Dodgers have had a riveting season and are headed to the playoffs.

"I think Giants fans have pretty much given up on the season," he said.

Denver, who was wearing Dodgers apparel, was walking along 3rd Street when he and the others encountered a group of people who were going to a club, authorities said. One of the men in the other group may have been wearing a Giants cap, police said, and there was some jawing between the groups over the rivalry.

The encounter became physical. At first no one was seriously injured, then it erupted again a short time later. It ended when Denver realized that he had been stabbed. He died a short time later at San Francisco General Hospital.

"Just a good, good kid," said Cas Smith, owner of North Coast Plumbing in Fort Bragg, Calif., where Denver lived and had worked for about two years.

Authorities said Thursday they were interviewing two men, ages 18 and 21, in connection with the crime. The men, whom Suhr declined to name, had not been charged.

"They're not free to go," he said. "They are talking."

Police said they have the name of a third potential suspect and the first name of a fourth.

The Dodgers and Giants first met in the 19th century, with both franchises located in New York, and the rivalry continued when they moved west in 1958. Combined, the teams could offer a full roster of baseball royalty — Sandy Koufax, Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider; Orlando Cepeda, Willie McCovey, Willie Mays.

But the rivalry has at times degenerated into violence, on and off the field.

In 1965, at Candlestick Park, the Giants' Juan Marichal attacked Dodgers catcher Johnny Roseboro with a bat. A Dodgers fan shot and killed a Giants fan in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium in 2003. In March 2011, Stow, a Santa Cruz paramedic and Giants fan, was attacked in a Dodger Stadium parking lot.

Stow is back home, still recovering from the attack after numerous hospitalizations and surgeries. Several fundraisers have been held for the Stow family, including one this week at AT&T Park.

Denver was an unlikely candidate to be caught up in the rivalry.

"I don't think he was a big baseball fan," Smith said. But, said Louie Padilla, 63, who lives next to Denver's father in Alhambra: "He loved his dad very much."

This week he asked to take Wednesday and Thursday off work for a mini-reunion. Denver lived with his brother in Fort Bragg, and they were planning to join their father, who was traveling to San Francisco for part of a late-season, three-game series.

Smith praised Denver's character, saying that he would help an elderly person across the street, and recalling that as a teenager, Denver used to come by his house and pull weeds.

Denver was planning to become a journeyman plumber, which required five years of training as an apprentice.

Denver was "dedicated to learning the trade," he said. "He really had a thirst for knowledge."

Records show that Denver was arrested twice this year for alcohol-related offenses.

He pleaded guilty to a DUI charge in August, after he was pulled over by a Mendocino County sheriff's deputy for driving with a cracked front windshield and no front license plate. This month, he was arrested at the Mendocino County Fair and Apple Show on suspicion of public intoxication, authorities said.

Just last weekend, Denver worked off some of his community-service hours associated with those charges at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens.

"He got all that behind him," Smith said. "He was just a young kid that made a couple mistakes."

San Francisco, and Giants fans in particular, appeared stunned by Denver's death.

"I don't like the Dodgers," said J Wheeless, 34, a San Francisco chef who has a Giants logo tattooed on his left forearm. "But it's a team. It's a game — one we all learned to play as kids.... Every time I go to a game, there's always a friendly banter between fans. I've personally never encountered any hatred. I think this is a bunch of meatheads and ignorant individuals."

Dodgers fans, too, were unsettled.

Dee Audette, 45, a Dodgers season ticket-holder, flew to San Francisco for this week's series. She has a tattoo of famed sportscaster Vin Scully on her right arm, and was at AT&T Park five hours before Thursday's game — waving to players on the team bus as it pulled into the stadium.

She said she and her companion had garlic fries thrown at them during the first game of the series, and ping-pong balls the second.

"We just laughed it off because we didn't want to have any problems. We just want to have a good time," she said. "We were walking down the street and we were talking to an officer and he advised us: 'Be careful.'"

Bonnie Stow, Bryan Stow's sister, released a statement on behalf of the family: "We are saddened by this senseless killing and our thoughts and prayers go out to the victim's family."

The Giants organization called the killing "horrific."

"Our thoughts and prayers are with his family during this difficult time," the team said. "While details are still emerging, we want to be clear that there is absolutely no place in our community for this type of senseless violence."

The organization said there would be a heightened police presence at Thursday night's game, and throughout the Giants' last three games of the season.

The team also said it would observe a moment of silence for Denver prior to Thursday's game.

The two teams have played each other more than 2,000 times since 1884, a rivalry that has resulted in a virtual draw — 1,200 wins for the Giants; 1,174 wins for the Dodgers.

That Matt Kemp would be a big help to Dodgers

Outfielder who has spent most of the season on the disabled list is still struggling to regain his form before the playoffs. There have been some good signs.

By Dylan Hernandez

SAN FRANCISCO — There are days when it looks as if none of it ever happened — the shoulder injury late last season, the operation that followed, the early-season slump this year, the three stints on the disabled list that cost him 79 games.

Those are the days everything feels possible, the ones that make Don Mattingly remind everyone, as he did earlier this week, "He is Matt Kemp, you know?"

Those are the days Kemp smiles and laughs and talks about why he thinks he's close to being the player he used to be.

But every day isn't like that for Kemp.

"Kind of in and out still," Mattingly said.

Kemp was in and out early in Thursday's game against the San Francisco Giants, getting on base with a walk and grounding into a double play.

Kemp is an admittedly emotional player, but his reactions to his recent triumphs and failures have been tempered. He has played baseball long enough to know that nothing meaningful ever reveals itself in one game.

So, every day, Kemp steps into a batting cage with hitting coach Mark McGwire and takes swing after swing, hoping that old feeling will come back and stay with him.

This is what Kemp has been doing all season.

He did it in spring training. He did it after he strained a hamstring in late May. He did it after he irritated his surgically repaired shoulder in early July. And he's doing it now.

But this time it's different. He no longer has time, something he acknowledged when he said, "I'm trying not to waste any at-bats."

The Dodgers have three games remaining in the regular season. Four days after the regular-season finale, they will open their National League division series.

Kemp would be facing even longer odds to regain his old form in a week if not for a decision the Dodgers made in late August.

Five games into his latest minor league rehabilitation assignment with the Dodgers' Class-A affiliate, the team asked him to go to its spring-training complex rather than remain with the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes in the California League playoffs.

"I didn't know how it was going to turn out," Kemp said.

With some of their minor league pitchers still throwing at the Arizona facility, the Dodgers were able to set up simulated games and get Kemp as many at-bats as he wanted — eight, 10, 12, whatever.

"It turned out really, really well," Kemp said. "You get 15 at-bats a day, you can definitely get a groove. It doesn't matter who's pitching. You can start to find your swing. I'm glad they came up with that idea."

Kemp liked the routine so much that he said he might incorporate it into his spring-training regimen in the future.

Over his final week in Arizona, he estimated that he took 100 at-bats.

Kemp was activated from the disabled list on Sept. 16.

His uneven play since then illustrates the challenge he faces.

In his first start, on Sept. 17, he had four hits, including two doubles.

Tuesday, in a 2-1 victory over the Giants, he hit his first home run since his return, a solo shot to left-center against three-time All-Star Matt Cain.

However, between those two games, he was two for 12 with five strikeouts.

"I'm sure it's day to day with him; some days better than others, certain matchups," Mattingly said.

In addition to making sure Kemp gets enough bats over the next three days, Mattingly faces the challenge of making sure he doesn't get too many. A little more than a week ago, Kemp couldn't run the bases at full speed.

The Dodgers can't afford to lose Kemp again, not now with Andre Ethier sidelined by shin splints and possibly unavailable for the division series.

So, Mattingly holds his breath and hopes for the best.

"This is a guy that if you'd seen him a couple years ago, a lot of people would tell you he was the best player in the game, or one of them," Mattingly said. "Until he got hurt last year, we saw a lot of the same thing. Is he back to that, feeling that comfortable and that confident? I don't know about that, but to get a healthy Matt Kemp that we could play every day would be a nice thing for us."

Don Mattingly keeps it in perspective following fatal stabbing

The Dodgers manager says the game needs to be left 'on the field' in response to a fan being killed near AT&T Park in San Francisco.

By Dylan Hernandez

SAN FRANCISCO — In the hours leading up to the Dodgers' 3-2 defeat to the San Francisco Giants on Thursday, Manager Don Mattingly reminded his team's supporters that baseball was a game and nothing more.

Like many of his players, Mattingly woke up to news that a Dodgers fan was fatally stabbed near AT&T Park on Wednesday night.

"It's a game, you know?" Mattingly said. "Leave it on the field."

The Dodgers and Giants observed a moment of silence before their game, which was decided on an eighth-inning solo home run by Angel Pagan.

BOX SCORE: Giants 3, Dodgers 2

Serving up the line-drive shot was Paco Rodriguez, one of the team's most frequently used relievers this season. Wanting to recharge Rodriguez's left arm before the playoffs, Mattingly held the rookie out of the previous six games.

The game might have been the last in a Giants uniform for two-time Cy Young Award winner and impending free agent Tim Lincecum, who walked off the mound to a standing ovation after the seventh inning. Lincecum limited the Dodgers to two runs and eight hits.

Dodgers starter Edinson Volquez pitched relatively well, as he was charged with two runs and four hits in five innings.

Proceeding with caution

Andre Ethier isn't expected to play again before the end of the regular season, according to Mattingly.

That doesn't mean Ethier has been ruled out for the National League division series.

Ethier, who is recovering from shin splints on his left leg, won't be cleared to play until he can run at full speed. Mattingly said the Dodgers will wait as long as possible to have Ethier run the bases, perhaps even after the Dodgers' regular-season finale Sunday.

Final tuneups

Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke will make their final regular-season starts over the next two days and Mattingly said he doesn't plan to limit their pitch counts since they will be pitching on five days' rest. Kershaw will start the Dodgers' series opener against the Colorado Rockies on Friday; Greinke will pitch Saturday.

Hyun-Jin Ryu will have a shorter leash in the Dodgers' regular-season finale Sunday, as he will be starting on regular four days' rest.

Honor for Kershaw

Kershaw was voted by the Dodgers players and coaches as the winner of the Roy Campanella Award, given to the player who "best exemplifies the spirit and leadership" of Campanella. Kershaw will be presented with a trophy on Saturday night.

Paco Rodriguez's struggles continue in Dodgers' 3-2 loss to Giants

By Steve Dilbeck

Three games to go before the regular season ends for the Dodgers, their focus turns completely to the playoffs, and still the questions mount?

On the same day the Dodgers said Andre Ethier was unlikely to play during the season’s final weekend, they went back to reliever Paco Rodriguez for the first time in eight days.

And the results were not encouraging.

BOX SCORE: Giants 3, Dodgers 2

Rodriguez gave up a home run to the first batter he faced, Angel Pagan’s solo shot in the eighth proving the difference Thursday in the Giants’ 3-2 victory at AT&T Park.

Pagan didn’t exactly crush his homer, but he hit it sharply, the drive actually hitting the top of the wall near the 339-foot mark in left and ricocheting out. One out later, Brandon Belt looped a double down the line and Rodriguez was done.

Rodriguez, 22, has been phenomenal this season, but he was still in college a year ago last spring and never before had appeared in more than 32 games. Thursday marked his 75th appearance.

The Dodgers saw he was faltering and gave him his first extended rest of the season prior to Thursday. But in his last 10 games, Rodriguez has a 7.71 earned-run average. In his previous 65 games, he had a 1.85 ERA. He’s given up five home runs on the season, three coming in those last 10 games.

Edinson Volquez started for the Dodgers, and what’s next for him covers the spectrum. It might have been his last appearance as a Dodger. Or they could take a look at him in relief Sunday. They could even put him on their playoff roster as a long reliever.

Volquez at least kept himself in the postseason conversation with his performance Thursday. He looked very sharp in his first four scoreless innings, and then wobbled some in the fifth.

He gave up a pair of runs after Nick Noonan led off with a single. He went to second on a Volquez wild pitch, to third on right-hander Tim Lincecum’s sacrifice bunt and scored when Pagan bounced out to second.

Volquez walked Gregor Blanco, and he scored to tie it on a double by Belt.

Volquez left after the fifth, having allowed two runs, four hits and three walks. He struck out four. In his last two starts, Volquez gave up three earned runs in 11 1/3 innings.

Not brilliant, maybe, but good enough to keep the Dodgers thinking.

For the second consecutive night, the Dodgers were opposed by a veteran who might have been making his final start for the Giants.

Lincecum will be a free agent at the end of the season and has said he intends to test themarket. Not sure how the market will be for someone who finished the season 10-14 with a 4.37 ERA.

The Dodgers scored single runs against him in the first and fourth innings. In the first, Carl Crawford tripled and scored on an Adrian Gonzalez sacrifice fly. The Dodgers took a 2-0 lead in the fourth on back-to-back doubles by Juan Uribe and Mark Ellis.

Lincecum went seven innings for the Giants, surrendering two runs, eight hits and two walks, with six strikeouts.

Don Mattingly: Fatal stabbing of Dodgers fan part of larger problem

By Dylan Hernandez

SAN FRANCISCO -- Manager Don Mattingly said he viewed the fatal stabbing of a Dodgers fan in San Francisco on Wednesday night as part of a global violence epidemic.

“It’s something that’s happening everywhere nowadays, isn’t it?” Mattingly said. “It’s like senseless. We see it all over the world, it seems like. Killing for no reason. It seems senseless to me.”

Asked if he thought there was an increase in sports-related violence in recent years, Mattingly replied, “It just seems like everywhere. You go from the D.C. thing to Africa to this, it’s just one thing after another. In the news, it’s just all the time. It seems senseless to me.”

Mattingly wouldn’t offer an opinion as to why there is so much violence.

“It’d be dime-store thinking,” he said. “It’s just guessing.”

Did Mattingly have a message for Dodgers fans?

“I think it should be all people, all fans,” he said. “It’s a game, you know? Leave it on the field.”

21-year-old man arrested in Dodger fan's slaying, S.F. police say

The father of a man accused of fatally stabbing a 24-year-old Dodgers fan in San Francisco says his son told him it was self-defense.

By Lee Romney and Kate Mather

San Francisco police confirmed Thursday evening that a 21-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the fatal stabbing of a Dodgers fan the night before.

Michael Montgomery of Lodi was in custody and would be charged in the slaying of Jonathan Denver, 24, San Francisco police said. No further details were immediately available.

Police said earlier in the day that they had detained and were questioning two men -- described in a police report as being ages 18 and 21 -- in connection with the Wednesday night attack.

Denver, who lived in Fort Bragg, Calif., and his brother met their father -- who worked security for the Dodgers -- in San Francisco to watch the Dodgers play the Giants on Wednesday, friends said. Police said the group left the game in the 8th inning and were about four blocks away from AT&T Park when they encountered a group that had come to town to visit a nightclub.

"There was a back-and-forth about the Giants-Dodgers rivalry, which deteriorated into a physical fight," San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr said.

There were were no serious physical injuries during the first round, but then a second fight erupted, although it was "unclear who followed who," Suhr said.

That fight involved "two or three people" from the victim's group and "four or five" from the other group, Suhr said, and ended when Denver, who was wearing Dodgers gear, realized that he had been stabbed.

Denver died at San Francisco General Hospital, officials said.

The attackers fled, police said. Two were taken into custody a few blocks away.

Authorities vowed extra security at Thursday's game at AT&T Park, including some officers dressed in Dodgers gear. The Giants said there would be a moment of silence before the game.

"Obviously, this is one of the most storied rivalries in baseball," Suhr said. But "there is no place for violence. Please be respectful of everybody rooting for whoever they want to root for.

"Although ... the suspects were not at the game and the victim had left ... the fact that anybody got in a beef over the Giants versus Dodgers and someone lost their life, it's just senseless."

Dodgers fan stabbed to death after Giants game: 'good, good kid'

By Kate Mather

The 24-year-old Dodgers fan who was stabbed to death after his team lost to the Giants in San Francisco on Wednesday was described as polite and a "good, good kid" by those who knew him.

Jonathan Denver was pronounced dead at San Francisco General Hospital after he was stabbed at about 11:40 p.m. four blocks from AT&T Park, where 90 minutes earlier the Giants had beaten the Dodgers, 6-4.

"It's a tragedy," said 63-year-old Louie Padilla, who lives next to Denver's father in Alhambra. "I can't believe that happened to him."

Jonathan Scaramella, 24, said his best friend would go to Dodgers games when he visited his dad in Los Angeles.

Denver was a fan of the team, he said, but primarily because of his father.

“He just likes the Dodgers because of his dad’s connection,” Scaramella said. “He wasn’t, like, going to kill anybody over it. That’s for sure.”

Cas Smith, owner of North Coast Plumbing in Fort Bragg, Calif., said Denver had worked for him for about two years as an apprentice plumber but said he had known him for about a decade.

Smith said Denver asked earlier this week if he could have Wednesday and Thursday off so he and his brother -– whom he lived with in Fort Bragg -– could meet their father in San Francisco for the baseball game.

“I think that he wanted to be down there and have a little reunion with his father," he said. "I don’t think he was a big baseball fan.

"He’s just a good, good kid,” Smith said. “He was the kind of kid that if an old lady was walking across the street, he would go help her.”

San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr on Thursday offered details of the deadly confrontation between Denver’s group and another group that occurred blocks from the ballpark after the 8th inning.

Police confirmed that Denver was wearing Dodgers gear when he and a person he was with were attacked.

After a “back-and-forth about the Giants-Dodgers rivalry” twice descended into violence, Denver ended up stabbed, Suhr said. He was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The other man Denver was with, whom police did not immediately identify, was bruised after being beaten.

Two men being questioned in the attack -- ages 18 and 21 -- have not yet been identified.

Smith said the news was “devastating” for his crew.

“I told the guys,” he said. “They’re all crying.”

Dodgers: Father of slain fan was 'one of our security guards'

By Kate Mather and Lee Romney

The Dodgers fan fatally stabbed after a game in San Francisco was the son of a security guard who worked for the team, officials confirmed Thursday.

In a statement issued Thursday afternoon, the Dodgers said they were "shocked and saddened" to learn of Jonathan Denver's death. They called him "the son of one of our security guards.”

“There is no rational explanation for this senseless act which resulted in Jonathan's death," the statement continued. "The pain that this has caused his family and friends is unimaginable. Words are not enough to describe our sadness. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family during this extremely difficult time.”

Denver, who lived in Fort Bragg, Calif., and his brother met their father in San Francisco to watch the Dodgers play the Giants on Wednesday, friends said. Police said the group left the game in the 8th inning and were about four blocks away from AT&T Park when they encountered a group that had come to town to visit a nightclub.

"There was a back-and-forth about the Giants-Dodgers rivalry, which deteriorated into a physical fight," San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr said.

There were were no serious physical injuries during the first round, but then a second fight erupted, although it was "unclear who followed who," Suhr said.

That fight involved "two or three people" from the victim's group and "four or five" from the other group, Suhr said, and ended when Denver, who was wearing Dodgers gear, realized that he had been stabbed.

Denver died at San Francisco General Hospital, officials said.

The attackers fled. Two were taken into custody a few blocks away. They were undergoing questioning midday Thursday

Louie Padilla, 63, lived next to Denver's father in Alhambra. Padilla said Robert Preece worked as a security guard at Dodgers Stadium and other L.A. venues, such as Staples Center and Nokia Theatre.

Padilla said he last saw Denver about two years ago, when he came to visit his father in Los Angeles. The father and son were close, Padilla said.

"He's a good kid. Believe me, he's a good kid," Padilla said. "Very respectful, well-mannered."

"It's a tragedy," he continued. "I can't believe that happened to him."

Padilla said Denver -- whom he said would always root for the Dodgers -- would often talk to him about the team.

"He would come over as well and watch the games here and just kind of pick my brain -- what I thought about the Dodgers' chances this year," Padilla said. "Just sports talk all the time."

Padilla called Denver's death a "black eye on both cities."

"Most of the Dodgers fans and I know a lot of the Giants fans are great people," he said. "We respect San Francisco and San Francisco respects Los Angeles. It's just a beautiful game -- it's America's pastime. We shouldn't have to be losing our lives, our child's lives to be able to watch a game and just to enjoy it."

Giants to add police enforcement for tonight's game with Dodgers [Updated]

By Steve Dilbeck

The reaction and fallout from the postgame stabbing Wednesday figures to be long and involved, but part of the immediate reaction came Thursday when the Giants announced they would add security for tonight’s game against the Dodgers at AT&T Park in San Francisco.

A 24-year-old Dodgers fan was stabbed and killed a few blocks from the ballpark during a brawl about 90 minutes after Wednesday’s game.

“We were deeply saddened to learn of last night’s horrific incident that occurred several blocks from the ballpark and resulted in the tragic death of 24-year old Jonathan Denver,” the Giants said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his family during this difficult time.

“While details are still emerging, we want to be clear that there is absolutely no place in our community for this type of senseless violence.”

[Updated at 3:23 p.m.: The Dodgers released the following statement that said Denver was the son of a Dodgers security guard:

“The Dodgers are shocked and saddened to learn of the death of Jonathan Denver, who is the son of one of our security guards.

“There is no rational explanation for this senseless act which resulted in Jonathan's death. The pain that this has caused his family and friends is unimaginable. Words are not enough to describe our sadness. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family during this extremely difficult time.”]

The Giants said they were working with the San Francisco Police Department to add enforcement in and around the ballpark tonight and in their final three home games against the Padres this weekend.

The Giants may have learned from mistakes made by the Dodgers. The team and then-owner Frank McCourt were criticized for reacting slowly after Giants fan Brian Stow was savagely beaten in the Dodger Stadium parking lot after the 2011 season opener. McCourt's immediate reaction was to say how satisfied he was with his stadium security.

The Giants said they would also have a moment of silence for Denver before tonight’s game against the Dodgers, the final time the teams will meet this season.

Stabbing death doesn't feel like real world, but unimaginable one

By Steve Dilbeck

It’s one of those blank-screen days. When the video monitor just sits there empty, not mocking because you can’t find anything clever to write, just empty.

There are only so many slow sighs that can be released, so many times the eyes can be closed without hope that when opened anything will be different.

It is sports, right? About fun and games? Exciting and passionate entertainment?

You feel happy when your team wins, down when they don’t, maybe just thrilled when you watch two teams you really have no particular rooting interest in that perform at an amazing level.

What do you feel when sports takes an unimaginable leap to murder? That’s rhetorical, hopefully. First it has to be fathomed, then processed, then ... what?

A 24-year-old Dodgers fan was stabbed to death about four blocks from AT&T Park after the Dodgers-Giants game Wednesday night. Two men have been arrested. This follows a Giants fan being severely beaten in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium in 2011 after another Dodgers-Giants game.

So you sigh, feel the heaviness, the absolute soulful sadness.

The particulars will come later. If alcohol was a factor, who said what first, who started a fight that included up to 10 people. What we know right now is, a young life was lost. A great rivalry turned dark.

And you sigh, and feel empty.

Man stabbed to death after Dodgers-Giants game is ID'd

By Joseph Serna

Authorities have identified the man who was stabbed to death near AT&T Park in San Francisco on Wednesday after a Dodgers-Giants game as 24-year-old Jonathan Denver.

Denver was fatally stabbed during a fight reportedly between Dodgers and Giants fans after the game four blocks away from the ballpark.

San Francisco police gave few details, but said the attack happened at 3rd and Harrison streets about 11:40 p.m., about 90 minutes after the conclusion of the game in which the Giants beat the Dodgers, 6-4.

Denver’s brother and father were wearing Dodger blue when he was stabbed, NBC-Bay Area reported. The argument began after a comment about Dodgers apparel, KGO-TV reported.

It could not immediately be confirmed whether Denver was wearing Dodger colors, or if others in the fight were wearing Giants gear.

Police declined to comment on a possible motive for the fight.

Three suspects have been detained, said San Francisco police Sgt. Danielle Newman. Denver was rushed to San Francisco General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Detectives are interviewing witnesses as the investigation continues, Newman said. One of the suspects had blood on his shirt, according to KGO-TV.

The Dodgers and Giants have a rivalry going back generations. In 2011, it turned violent when Giants fan Bryan Stow was severely beaten in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium. Two suspects are in custody, charged with the beating.

Stow suffered brain damage and is still recovering.

Dodgers fan stabbing: Bryan Stow's family calls death 'senseless'

By Kate Mather and Joseph Serna

The family of Bryan Stow, the San Francisco Giants fan brutally beaten at Dodger Stadium in 2011, spoke out Thursday against the fatal stabbing of a Dodgers fan in San Francisco, calling the death "senseless."

"We are saddened by this senseless killing and our thoughts and prayers go out to the victim's family," Bonnie Stow, Bryan Stow's sister, told the Los Angeles Times.

San Francisco police said Jonathan Denver, 24, of Fort Bragg, Calif., was wearing Dodgers gear when he and another person were attacked about 11:40 p.m. Wednesday. The incident occurred four blocks from AT&T park, where 90 minutes earlier the Giants had beaten the Dodgers 6-4.

Denver died of his injuries; the other man was bruised after being beaten, police said. Two suspects have been arrested in the attack.

The incident recalled the beating of Stow, now 44, who was attacked after the Giants played the Dodgers in Los Angeles on opening day two years ago. Stow, a former paramedic and father of two, suffered severe brain trauma and now requires 24-hour care.

Two men arrested in Stow's assault are awaiting trial.

The beating sparked outrage and prompted security changes at Dodger Stadium and other ballparks, and several fundraisers were held for Stow's family.

The San Francisco Giants are currently hosting a fundraiser for Stow, according to the team's website, with special tickets offered for Thursday and Sunday's games at AT&T park.

ESPN.COM

Brian Wilson yells at Giants CEO

ESPN.com news services

SAN FRANCISCO -- The game ended, and Dodgers reliever Brian Wilson hustled toward the opposing dugout to lash out at Giants chief executive officer Larry Baer -- the man who employed the bearded pitcher for seven seasons until he recently joined rival Los Angeles -- over the World Series ring he was owed from 2012.

Once Wilson was done yelling, Baer walked to the other side of the ballpark and delivered the ring to Dodgers personnel outside the Los Angeles clubhouse to give to the pitcher Thursday night.

For more news, notes and analysis of the Dodgers, check out ESPN LA's Dodgers Report. Blog

"We have been for seven months trying to give him his World Series ring and tried these past three days," Giants spokeswoman Staci Slaughter said. "It's been more challenging than we expected. We've given the ring to the Dodgers, and he now has it. We really tried to do the right thing. We invited him to the ring ceremony. A number of members of our organization repeatedly reached out to him, and we didn't get any response."

Slaughter said only that Wilson "voiced his displeasure" when speaking to Baer. The Giants stayed in contact with Wilson and monitored his recovery from a second Tommy John surgery that cost him most of last season, but he ultimately signed with the archrival Dodgers.

The shaggy-haired Wilson wasn't around in the clubhouse for comment after the Dodgers' 3-2 loss. However, CSNBayArea.com reported that when asked what the confrontation was about, Wilson said: "Just a conversation between me and him."

Wilson also said the confrontation was not about apparent taunting from fans during his warm-up, the website reported.

"It's just unfortunate, because he was an important member of our organization," Slaughter said.

Arrest made in fatal stabbing of fan

ESPN.com news services

Henry K. Lee, MLB News

from AT&T Park after the Dodgers-Giants game Wednesday night was the son of a Dodgers security guard, the team said Thursday.

Dodgers spokesman Jared Kaufer said that Jonathan Denver's father, Robert Preece, worked security at Dodger Stadium.

San Francisco police say Denver, 24, was walking with his father, brother and two other people not far from the Giants' ballpark after San Francisco's 6-4 victory when their group exchanged words with some Giants fans who were leaving a nightclub.

The exchange turned physical, and Denver, who was wearing Dodgers gear, was stabbed.

"There is no rational explanation for this senseless act," the Dodgers said in a written statement. "The pain that this has caused his family and friends is unimaginable."

Denver's group left the stadium in the eighth inning. His attackers did not attend the game.

For more news, notes and analysis of the Dodgers, check out ESPN LA's Dodgers Report. Blog

San Francisco police said Michael Montgomery, 21, of Lodi, Calif., was arrested on suspicion of homicide in connection with the stabbing.

Montgomery's father said his son told him it was self-defense. Marty Montgomery told the Lodi News-Sentinel on Thursday that Michael Montgomery was jumped during the fight and that his son told him by phone that Denver had hit him over the head with a chair.

Michael Montgomery told his father that Denver yelled "Giants suck!" at Montgomery's friend, who was wearing a Giants hat, and that Denver and others hit Montgomery and his friends without warning.

Michael Montgomery and a friend went to Marty Montgomery's house in order to get the Giants hat before they left for San Francisco on Wednesday afternoon, his father said. They were going to attend a rave.

"If they didn't have the hat, they probably never would have been in this situation," Marty Montgomery said, adding that his son was not a passionate Giants fan.

Another person, whose name was not released, was also taken into custody.

"One of the suspects during the course of the interviews [with detectives] made incriminating statements that give us the indication that he will be the person booked for homicide," San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr told reporters. "We're trying to figure out what we're going to do with the other suspect. The investigation is still ongoing."

Police said they were looking for two more suspects. Police were canvassing the area Thursday looking for the weapon used to kill Denver and any surveillance video of the crime.

Fans of both teams expressed a range of emotions as they entered Thursday night's game at AT&T Park.

"I was a little bit scared at first but then I thought tonight will probably be the safest night at this ballpark, so I thought it was still OK to bring my son out to the game," said Clay Brust, a Dodgers fan from Reno, Nev.

Brian Chew, a Giants fan from San Bruno, Calif., said the stabbing was unfortunate.

"It seems like the passion that exudes in some fans is really pointed in the wrong direction," Chew said. "We have bigger purposes in life than just orange and black, or blue and white."

The altercation was the second violent confrontation between Dodgers and Giants fans in the past several years to end in death or serious injury. Bryan Stow, a Northern California paramedic and Giants fan, suffered a traumatic brain injury when two men dressed in Dodgers gear attacked him following the teams' March 31, 2011, game in Los Angeles.

Stow's family said in a statement that they were "horrified and deeply saddened" by Wednesday's violence. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family."

Suhr said that Denver, his father and his brother had left a bar around 11:30 p.m. when they got into a spat about the Giants-Dodgers rivalry with a group of people leaving a nightclub. At first, Suhr said, no one was seriously hurt in the fight that occurred about 90 minutes after the game ended. But it picked up again a few minutes later, Suhr said, who added it wasn't clear who started the second fight but that it ended with Denver's stabbing.

The Giants and Dodgers are longtime division rivals, and passions tend to run high when the teams play. The Giants won the World Series last year but will miss the playoffs this year. The Dodgers, meanwhile, have won the NL West.

"I think the message to all people, all fans, is it's a game," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. "Leave it on the field."

Denver was born in Los Angeles County but was living in Fort Bragg, a city about 170 miles north of San Francisco, according to public records. He and his brother went to San Francisco to attend the game with their father, said Cas Smith, the owner of North Coast Plumbing in Fort Bragg, where Denver worked.

"He was a hardworking kid," Smith told San Jose-based KNTV.

Denver, who just started a job as a plumbing apprentice, did have two recent brushes with the law in Mendocino County, according to KGO-TV. He was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in July and for public intoxication at the county fair this month.

Police said they didn't know whether alcohol was a factor in Wednesday's altercations.

In Fort Bragg, longtime friend Matt Gomes told KGO-TV that Denver was a die-hard Dodgers fan who "was a really great guy who would do anything for anybody and always put a smile on people's faces when he was around."

San Francisco police said they planned to have more officers on the streets, although they said that police presence is already higher for Giants-Dodgers games.

Violence has marred many other games between the teams. In 2003, Giants fan Marc Antenorcruz, 25, was fatally shot after an argument at Dodger Stadium.

Two Dodgers fans are awaiting trial on charges in the Stow beating, which sparked outrage and brought stadium security changes around the state and country.

The Giants have held occasional fundraisers for Stow. The team will donate $10 from each ticket sold in certain sections of AT&T Park at Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday's games to a fund set up for him, spokeswoman Staci Slaughter said.

Information from ESPNLosAngeles.com's Mark Saxon and The Associated Press was used in this report.

Tigers the odds-on WS favorites

According to the numbers, Detroit is the best bet to win the World Series

By Dan Szymborski | ESPN Insider

The numbers suggest Cabrera and Fielder will be popping corks at the end of the World Series.

In the September 30 issue of "ESPN The Magazine" (at newsstands now!) we ran down the statistical case for the Detroit Tigers being the favorites to win the 2013 World Series. A lot happens in two weeks of a pennant race, and when a press deadline hits, time doesn't stand still, and the facts on the ground tend to change. So the numbers have been updated through Wednesday's game, recalculated and re-crunched, and the new favorite to win the World Series is ... the Detroit Tigers.

What makes a team dangerous in October is similar to what makes a team dangerous from April through September, but there are differences that make the playoffs a whole new ballgame and that play to the Tigers' strengths, despite the fact that they will likely be the No. 3 seed in the American League.

Top-heavy Tigers

For example, quality depth, an important aspect of coming out on top over 162 games, tends to be a significantly smaller factor over a stretch of a few weeks -- after which a World Series champ can emerge in as few as 11 games.

World Series Odds

The probability of winning the World Series for all the teams still mathematically alive for a playoff spot.

TEAM WS ODDS

DET 17.6%

BOS 16.0%

OAK 14.4%

ATL 13.8%

LAD 12.3%

STL 9.0%

CIN 4.6%

TAM 3.9%

CLE 3.9%

PIT 2.8%

TEX 1.7%

Detroit's depth has been one of the team's weaknesses this year, with very few of the bench players being the types a manager wants to see in the starting lineup for a significant stretch of time. If the Tigers had lost Miguel Cabrera or Prince Fielder for large portions of the season, manager Jim Leyland's headache would likely have spurred the tobacco industry to record profits. Boston was on the other end

of the spectrum, and so confident in the team's depth over a long season that it could afford to part with Jose Iglesias.

Great rotation

When you're in the postseason, the frontline talent takes on an increased amount of importance -- everybody who's healthy plays, and there's no easing up on pitch counts -- and that's where the Tigers have loaded most of the team's value. That's what gives the Tigers, and to a similar extent the Dodgers, a slight postseason boost.

The front four of Detroit's rotation -- some combination of Max Scherzer, Anibal Sanchez, Justin Verlander and Doug Fister -- is about as imposing a foursome you'll find among the playoff teams. Ranking AL pitchers by WAR, that quartet ranks third, fourth, 10th and 12th among the 347 AL pitchers who have made a start this season.

AL teams have a couple more advantages in that they're guaranteed home-field advantage in the World Series, a small but real advantage, and an AL team with the same record as an NL team is likely a slightly better team than the latter. Even with the NL's worst team in 2012 moving to the AL in the offseason and becoming the AL's worst team in 2013, the AL has already clinched a victory in interleague play, the 10th straight season that the AL outperformed the NL in head-to-head match-ups. It's hyperbole to say that the NL is a Quadruple-A league or anything, but it is fair to make the claim that the AL is a little stronger.

Detroit's current projected World Series probability as of this morning, is 17.6 percent (see table above right), and that stands at the top of the pack of the 11 teams that are still mathematically alive. Probability was calculated using the ZiPS projection system and a Monte Carlo simulation that ran the team-versus-team probabilities a million times.

Probabilities include the odds of making the playoffs and winning the division (instead of winning the wild card and from the chart), and you can easily see just what a disadvantage the wild-card teams face under baseball's new system. The AL wild-card race has been a brutal battle, essentially whittled down from six contenders to three in recent weeks, and the two eventual winners merely get the opportunity to wage an uphill struggle to get to the Series.

Parity rules

The good news for the non-Tigers teams is that having a 17.6 percent chance at winning the World Series means there's a greater than 80 percent chance that someone else will emerge victorious in the end. Baseball, by design, is a sport in which being the favorite doesn't mean very much, and very few teams dominate the competition to the extent that NFL or NBA teams do. And it's more than baseball simply playing the most games and having things tend to even out.

Jim Leyland's secondary bullpen options are less than inspiring.

From 2003-12, 27 NFL teams went 13-3 or better over the 16-game season, 8.4 percent of all NFL teams. If you look at baseball's season as a boatload of little 16-game stretches, MLB teams dominate far less often, with only 1.8 percent of teams going 13-3 or better in any 16-game stretch.

The same holds true looking at the NBA. Looking at the last 10 completed NBA seasons, ignoring the strike year, 17 NBA teams have hit the 60-win threshold, going 60-22 or better. Even looking at every single 82-game stretch, the last MLB team to win 60 games was the 2004 Cardinals, the only team to accomplish such a run at any point in the last decade.

Detroit's downfall

Like Achilles, the mythical Greek hero who was made immortal by being dipped in the river Styx, but whose heel was left unprotected because his mother wasn't very thorough, the Tigers do have a weakness that can come back to haunt them in the postseason: the bullpen.

Joaquin Benoit and Drew Smyly have been very dependable in relief this season, but outside the top two pitchers, the pen's ERA this season has been 5.00. Taking out every team's top two relievers this season, only a single team, the Red Sox, have been even within a half-run of Detroit's bleak total. Rick Porcello will be in the pen, Bruce Rondon's been solid and Al Alburquerque recovered from a disastrous July, but the Tigers still project to have the weakest bullpen of any possible playoff team.

As long as the starters are pitching well and deep into games, this may not be an issue, but every time it's bullpen-versus-bullpen this October, Detroit will be at a disadvantage. Going back to our trusty old Monte Carlo simulations, if the Tigers' bullpen comes in with a tie game in the ninth, the odds of the Tigers winning are 49.9 percent. If it's the eighth inning, that drops to 48.1 percent ... then 46.5 percent, 45.2 percent and so on, depending when the pen enters a tie game.

In other words, the more we see of Detroit's relievers, the less likely we'll see a uniform with a scripted D on the front being drenched with Champagne one October evening. That's the Tigers' weakness, but other than that, the math is in their favor.

Dodgers continue their crawl to October

By Mark Saxon | ESPNLosAngeles.com

SAN FRANCISCO -- The offense has stalled. They have frittered away a chance at home-field advantage. Their momentum heading into the playoff is virtually exhausted.

All of which means what, exactly, when the bright lights come on somewhere other than at Dodger Stadium next Thursday, when the Dodgers begin the postseason on national TV? Depends on whom you ask. To manager Don Mattingly, it's all meaningless -- though he used a stronger word for it.

Gregor Blanco scores a run in a win Thursday over the Dodgers, who don't seem to be heading into the playoffs with any kind of momentum.

"You know, I'd like to see all kinds of things. I'd love to see us go out and get 10 runs a night and throw shutouts and everybody get their outs, but I'm going to be honest with you, I don't think any of it's going to matter one bit," Mattingly said. "What's going to matter is the game next Thursday."

If Mattingly's words don’t convince you, perhaps his lineups will. Yet Thursday was one of those evenings when Mattingly started nearly all of his frontline guys, with catcher A.J. Ellis the only healthy regular who wasn't in the starting lineup.

And still, they allowed Tim Lincecum to turn back the clock a couple of years in what may have been his final start as a Giant in a 3-2 Dodgers loss.

The Dodgers were eliminated from the race for best record in the National League. And, unless the St. Louis Cardinals implode this weekend at home against the last-place Chicago Cubs and the Dodgers sweep the Colorado Rockies, the Dodgers will begin the playoffs on the road.

The bigger worry is that the Dodgers can't generate any momentum going into October. Lately, they

seem to be gazing ahead at the playoffs rather than focusing on these final regular-season games. They're 6-9 since Sept. 10.

Angel Pagan hit the go-ahead home run in the eighth inning off reliever Paco Rodriguez, who hadn't pitched in more than a week. One of the Dodgers' best relievers has been struggling for a solid month.

"Obviously you don't want to do that," Mattingly said. "Better now than a few days from now."

Edinson Volquez may have pitched his way into a postseason role as a long reliever. He dominated San Francisco for four innings before they began to get at him in the fifth. Volquez gave up two runs and four hits and struck out four. In his past four starts, he has a 3.24 ERA.

One could even suggest Volquez should be used over Ricky Nolasco -- who has a 12.75 ERA in his last three starts -- if the Dodgers' first-round playoff series lasts four games. But Mattingly essentially shot that down Wednesday, saying "your guys are your guys," which intimates Nolasco will remain in the rotation.

The Dodgers wasted opportunities against Lincecum. They scored one run after Carl Crawford's one-out triple in the first inning, but left two runners on. Tim Federowicz got thrown out at the plate in the second. Matt Kemp hit into a double play, erasing a rally in the third. And, after Mark Ellis doubled with nobody out, Federowicz, Volquez and Yasiel Puig all struck out in the fourth.

Is Kershaw proof win stat is irrelevant?

By Mark Saxon | ESPNLosAngeles.com

SAN FRANCISCO -- Clayton Kershaw playfully took ground balls at shortstop off the bat of third-base coach Tim Wallach during batting practice Wednesday afternoon at AT&T Park.

It was a bit awkward since he's a left-handed thrower, of course, but Kershaw scooped several balls up the middle and shoveled to second using his glove. He went into the hole, spun and made a nice, firm throw on the money to Dee Gordon.

The Dodgers are only 18-14 this season in games in which Clayton Kershaw has started, but his value as a pitcher is measured in so many other ways.

It gave the impression that, should every other player on the Los Angeles Dodgers' roster capable of playing shortstop go down, he could probably do it.

Why not? There's very little Kershaw hasn't accomplished for the Dodgers in keeping other teams from scoring this season. He leads the major leagues in ERA (1.88), WHIP (.92) and ERA+. He leads the National League with 224 strikeouts, fewer than only Yu Darvish and Max Scherzer in the major leagues.

He's a 25-year-old Cy Young winner who, by virtually all measures, is having his finest season. After he polishes off his regular season with Friday night's start at Dodger Stadium against the Colorado Rockies, he figures to become only the third pitcher since 2000 to finish a season with a sub-2.00 ERA, joining Roger Clemens and Pedro Martinez.

He will be only the second Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher to do it. The other, of course, was the man he's

so often compared to, Sandy Koufax, who did it four times.

Yet, at 15-9, Kershaw is tied for 10th in the majors in wins going into Thursday's games. He is tied for 22nd in winning percentage.

In recent seasons, Cy Young voters have become astute enough to look beyond wins in selecting the league's best pitcher, so Kershaw stands little chance of missing out on his second Cy Young Award in three seasons. The San Francisco Giants' Tim Lincecum won the award in 2009 going 15-7. Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners won it in 2010 at 13-12.

But does that go far enough?

There has been a movement among some statistically-minded fans, led by MLB Network anchor Brian Kenny, to get rid of the win as an official statistic. Many of those people also believe Kershaw should be the league MVP. On Twitter, the campaign trends under #killthewin. Kershaw could be the poster child for the movement, but neither he nor fellow Cy Young winner Zack Greinke, the Dodgers’ 1-A, is in favor of such a drastic move.

"Getting rid of the stat would be way extreme," Greinke said. "I've always thought it doesn't indicate how well you pitched, but it's an important statistic. If the Cy Young is the Most Valuable Pitcher, then wins have to count. But if it's just who is the best individual pitcher, then I don't think it's as important."

As often happens these days in baseball arguments about players' value, the dispute has tended to break down on generational lines and along the lines of those who compete within the game and those who dissect it from afar.

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly says he sees the value in a pitcher's won-loss record. Earlier this month, Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland went on a rant about the run-support statistic and, specifically, how it has been used against his ace right-hander, Scherzer, who is 21-3 but also ranks highly in more advanced statistics. He leads the American League in WHIP, for example.

"Some people could find a flaw in Bo Derek," Leyland said.

The Detroit Tigers have scored an average of 5.59 runs per game when Scherzer is pitching, over two runs per game more than the Dodgers have provided Kershaw, who ranks 66th in run support. Dodgers hitters have scored more runs for Hyun-Jin Ryu than any other L.A. starter.

Kershaw won 21 games (and the Cy Young) in 2011, but since then the Dodgers have struggled to score for him consistently. He went 15-9 last year and still finished second in Cy Young balloting. He admits it's not ideal, but he's dealing with it.

"Won-loss record is tough for a pitcher to be gauged on. There are just a lot of things you can't control, but at the same time, it feels good to see a win by your name," Kershaw said. "I think it is a stat. I don't think it should be used as the stat to determine a pitcher's success."

By most measures, Kershaw is pitching at a higher level than he was in either of his two previous seasons. This will be the third straight season in which he has led the majors in ERA. In 2011, he said, it felt as if he had a 2-0 lead every time he took the mound. He has learned not to base his confidence

level on whether he is winning or losing games.

He isn't willing to call this season his best ever, at least not right now.

"I'll let you know in November," Kershaw said. "What really matters is team success. If we can make a run at this thing, it'll be the best season yet."

Perhaps the most amazing number is this: The Dodgers are just 18-14 in games Kershaw has started even though he leads the National League with an 8.1 WAR, according to baseball-reference.com.

That could leave the postseason for Kershaw to display his true value to the Dodgers as they try and turn a season of expectations into a season of fulfilled expectations. He will start Game 1 of the Dodgers' National League Division Series that begins next Thursday and, if things go well, the first game of every subsequent postseason series.

Kershaw is 0-1 with a 5.87 ERA in the postseason, but he hasn't pitched in one since 2009, when he was 21 years old.

"I don't think I really understood what was going on, to be honest with you," Kershaw said. "I just thought it was another game to pitch. I didn't understand it doesn't happen every day. I just thought it was part of the season. Now, I understand that it's pretty special to get to go there."

Paco Rodriguez says he's OK

By Mark Saxon | ESPNLosAngeles.com

SAN FRANCISCO -- Every afternoon, Dodgers left-hander Paco Rodriguez spends part of it lounging on clubhouse furniture with what looks like a massive ice pack wrapped around his left arm. The device is connected to a small computer.

According to the manufacturer, it provides "dynamic compression to limbs compromised by poor circulation." Other Dodgers players have used the the same device to help increase blood flow in various parts of their body.

Rodriguez, one of the key Dodgers relievers, hasn't pitched since the day before the Dodgers clinched the NL West, a span of eight days without entering a game. But he says he feels perfectly sound.

"It's just a matter of getting an opportunity," Rodriguez said.

The Dodgers, mindful of his heavy workload and the fact he is finishing his second full season in professional baseball, have tried to limit his use. He was told he was off limits for the Dodgers' Sept. 8 and 9 games. Since then, his role simply hasn't come up much.

Rodriguez has warmed up in the bullpen without getting into a game.

"We really do feel like we need to get him into a game," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. "But we don't want to just put him in a game. We want to make sure it's the right situation."

* Mattingly said it's unlikely Andre Ethier, who has an injured left ankle, will play in a game before the end of the regular season Sunday, but that the team will try to set up a simulated game to get him at-bats and that it's possible Ethier could still make the first-round playoff roster.

Here are lineups for Thursday's game:

Dodgers

1. Yasiel Puig RF 2. Carl Crawford LF 3. Hanley Ramirez SS 4. Adrian Gonzalez 1B 5. Matt Kemp CF 6. Juan Uribe 3B 7. Mark Ellis 2B 8. Tim Federowicz C 9. Edinson Volquez RHP

Giants

1. Angel Pagan CF 2. Gregor Blanco LF 3. Brandon Belt 1B 4. Buster Posey C 5. Hunter Pence RF 6. Tony Abreu 2B 7. Brandon Crawford SS 8. Nick Noonan 3B 9. Tim Lincecum RHP

End-of-season awards

A tip of the cap to the very best (and the very worst) performers of 2013

By Jayson Stark | ESPN.com

I'm sure you all recall how I predicted back in April that Dioner Navarro and Juan Uribe would both bash three home runs in a game … that a Giants pitcher would throw 8 2/3 perfect innings -- and it would be Yusmeiro Petit … that Reid Brignac would play as many games for the Yankees as Derek Jeter … and that Cubs pitchers would hit as many home runs as Lance Berkman (six).

OK, so I forgot to predict any of that. But what the heck. Did I ever claim to be Nostradamus or something?

Well, one thing I've learned over the years is: It's always easier to look back than to look forward. So it's time once again to hand out my annual end-of-season awards in a ceremony that, as always, will not be hosted by Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Neil Patrick Harris or even Lenny Harris. Ready? The envelopes, please …

AL MVP: Miguel Cabrera, Tigers

Miguel Cabrera

#24 3BDetroit Tigers

2013 STATS

GM146

HR44

RBI137

R103

OBP.440

AVG.345

Oh boy. Here we go again. A year ago, in this very space, I did my darndest to explain why Mike Trout deserved this award, even over a real, live Triple Crown winner. And it came down to this: Miguel Cabrera may have had an offensive season for the ages, but Trout was a better baseball player. So why, a year later, am I about to brand myself as an official flip-flop artist and argue for why Cabrera ought to be the MVP? Yeah, yeah. I'm aware this comes down to basically the same conversation. But the context isn't the same -- because not every season presents us with the same set of circumstances. Now maybe you don't see it that way. A lot of really smart people don't. And I'm not here to say they're wrong, because face it: There is no wrong answer here. I wrote just last week about the greatness of Mike Trout. So no need to lecture me on that front. But can we stop for a moment to admire the brilliance of the other guy in this debate? Would that be OK? Cool. Because here are Miguel Cabrera's numbers, as of Friday morning:

.345/.440/.637/1.077/44 HR

You know how many hitters have matched or beaten those numbers since World War II? Exactly three: Barry Bonds, Mickey Mantle and Larry (Yes, He Played at Coors) Walker. And if we include RBIs (with Cabrera at 137 as we speak), nobody else has done it. You know the last right-handed hitter to put up that slash line, with that many home runs? That would be Jimmie Foxx. In 1938. And the only other men who have ever matched or beaten those stats in any era are Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Hack Wilson. Period. So this just in: Miguel Cabrera isn't just a really good hitter having a really good year. He's one of the greatest hitters who ever dug into a batter's box. And he's having a historically insane year, even as he plays through a groin/abdomen injury that has sapped him of his thunder (.246 in September, with just two extra-base hits). So what this debate comes down to, one more time, is how we define "valuable."

My AL MVP ballot

1. Miguel Cabrera

2. Mike Trout

3. Chris Davis

4. Josh Donaldson

5. Robinson Cano

6. David Ortiz

7. Manny Machado

8. Evan Longoria

9. Adrian Beltre

10. Max Scherzer

If there are bright people out there who believe the only definition of "valuable" is "value above a replacement player," they're allowed to see it that way. Or any way. But they don't have the right to demean anyone who sees this differently. The MVP conversation has always involved differentiating the most "valuable" player in the league from the most "outstanding" player. So I don't understand the logic that, apparently, we're no longer allowed to even contemplate the question, "Could this team possibly have won or contended if Player X hadn't been around to do his thing?" The fact is, while it's clearly not Trout's fault that the Angels have spent one day all season above .500, that's the cold reality. His team last played a meaningful game when? About Memorial Day? That wasn't the case last year. The Angels actually won more games than the Tigers. They weren't eliminated until the final weekend of the season. But this year has been a whole different deal. And if you don't believe it's more meaningful, and more pressure-packed, to be a difference-making player -- let alone a historically difference-making player -- on a team that has to grind for six months to win something, ask any player who has ever been there, done that. They know. And they don't need any decimal points to tell them. So this vote, one year later, goes to Miguel Cabrera. Not because I don't understand how special Mike Trout is. Because, after thinking this through long and hard, I'm allowed to come to a different conclusion after a very different season.

NL MVP: Andrew McCutchen, Pirates

Andrew McCutchen

#22 CFPittsburgh Pirates

2013 STATS

GM155

HR20

RBI83

R95

OBP.404

AVG.318

But meanwhile, over in the National League, there's nothing to fight about -- because Andrew McCutchen is an MVP for every constituency (other than possibly those renegade constituencies in places like St. Louis and Atlanta). For the traditionalists who love a guy with a big smile, pretty numbers and a great story line, McCutchen is right up their power alley. Hanging with the league leaders in all sorts of time-honored stat columns -- hits, runs, doubles, steals, walks and, of course, the batting race. Having a monster second half (.342/.442/.558) for a team that needs all the offense it can dredge up. And, with 38 doubles, in position to potentially join Mike Trout as the only players in baseball with 20 homers, 20 steals and 40 doubles. But get out your spreadsheets, because McCutchen is also a sabermetrician's dream. Leads all NL position players in the offensive component of Wins Above Replacement (7.3). Second in Adjusted OPS. Superior baserunner. Plus defender. Lights up the Power/Speed Number column. Neck and neck with Joey Votto for the league lead in a FanGraphs stat you probably never heard of, called WPA/Li, which measures what a player contributes to his team's Win Expectancy and factors it by how he plays in high-leverage game situations.

My NL MVP ballot

Author's note: Since I'll be casting a vote for this award, I'm not permitted to give my full ballot. So leave it at this: The players I considered included Paul Goldschmidt, Joey Votto, Clayton Kershaw, Matt Carpenter, Yadier Molina, Hanley Ramirez, Freddie Freeman, Jayson Werth, Shin-Soo Choo, Carlos Gomez, David Wright, Andrelton Simmons and Troy Tulowitzki.

But you know what? In McCutchen's case, what he means to the Pirates can't be summed up by any number, new-age or old-age. What this guy is, above all, is a special player who has come along at a special moment in time in the life of his franchise. And he meets the classic MVP definition of any era. "If you look at any of the playoff teams," says his GM, Neal Huntington, "and ask, 'If you took one player out of their lineup, what kind of impact would it make,' I can't see how any player in baseball could possibly be more important to his team than Andrew McCutchen. If you took him out of our lineup, I honestly don't know if we're still a playoff team." Well, let's answer that question for him. Of course they're not. A playoff team? They might not even be a .500 team without him. So what is there to debate? This case is officially closed.

AL Least Valuable Player (LVP): Josh Johnson and the Blue Jays

Six months ago, I picked Josh Johnson to win the AL Cy Young Award. I picked the Blue Jays to win the AL East. I thought their monster trade with the Marlins was a stroke of genius. I even thought Melky Cabrera was a decent roll of the Ontario dice. So it's safe to say I'm in no position to dump on this team and its ultra-thoughtful GM, Alex Anthopoulos, for all the stuff that went wrong this year. But holy crappola.

MY AL LVP ballot

1. Toronto Blue Jays

2. Josh Hamilton

3. Chris Young

4. Carlos Pena

5. Mike Moustakas

Special two-team citation: Mike Morse

Biogenesis Division: Nelson Cruz, Jesus Montero

This outfit produced so many deserving LVP candidates, I had to let them share in this award. Johnson went 2-8 in 16 starts, made his fifth and sixth trips to the disabled list in the last seven seasons, killed the rotation, destroyed his free-agent marketability and became the second starter in the history of the franchise (joining Dave Lemanczyk) with an ERA (6.20) and WHIP (1.66) this ugly in this many innings. Melky had a .682 OPS, got four extra-base hits after May and then headed off for back surgery. Emilio Bonifacio and Maicer Izturis both had a sub-.600 OPS and combined for more errors (17) than steals (13). J.P. Arencibia hit .194, with a .229 OBP and 56 more strikeouts (147) than hits (91), and apparently wasn't real happy his broadcast team decided to mention that. He also helped the Jays become just the fourth team in the last 40 years to have three different catchers (Arencibia, Josh Thole, Henry Blanco) hit below the Mendoza Line (in 40-plus PA). And a rotation that was supposed to be their backbone wound up ranking 29th in the big leagues in ERA (4.80) and innings per start (5.57).

Normally, the LVP award is an individual achievement. But these Blue Jays remind us that every once in a while, we need to pick out an entire group and ask: "What the heck just happened?"

NL LVP: B.J. Upton, Braves

B.J. Upton

#2 CFAtlanta Braves

2013 STATS

GM123

HR9

RBI26

R30

OBP.268

AVG.184

It would make perfect baseball sense if B.J. Upton goes out there this October and hits like .700, with 12 homers, 18 steals and 25 Web Gems -- because one of these days, or weeks, or centuries, a guy with this

much talent has to do something productive. Right? But so far? Wow. One season into a five-year, $75.25 million contract, all the highest-paid player in Braves history has done is put himself in contention to become the biggest free-agent debacle of all time.

I don't use words like "debacle" lightly, either. But boy, do they apply to a fellow who has (got the Advil handy?) … a .184 batting average, the second-lowest average in the entire sport among players with at least 400 plate appearances (beating out only his own teammate, that .181-hitting Dan Uggla) … a .289 slugging percentage, a lower percentage than -- no kidding -- Juan Pierre, Adeiny Hechavarria and Ben (Still Homerless in my 1,304-AB Career) Revere … gone 0 for the entire season (0-for-28, 18 strikeouts) with runners on third base … hit .157/.227/.222 against left-handed pitching … a mind-boggling .108 batting average (10-for-93, with 42 strikeouts) with runners in scoring position … gone an even more mind-boggling 4-for-54 (.074), with 27 strikeouts and no homers, with two outs and runners in scoring position … and has hit .106 so far in September, including 1 for his last 36, with 19 whiffs.

My NL LVP ballot

1, B.J. Upton

2. Ryan Braun

3. Dan Uggla

4. Rickie Weeks

5. Starlin Castro

So what's the word for it that the Braves are still going to manage to win their division by 10 games or so, even though their biggest acquisition of the offseason has just had a year that disastrous? Well, you might pick "miracle" to describe it. But I'll go with "historic." Before this, no team had finished in first place, while running out a regular position player (i.e., one with 400-plus PA) with a batting average below .190, since the 1906 White Sox did it with their own .183 hitter (Lee Tannehill) playing third base. And now the Braves are about to finish first with two regulars (Upton and Uggla) who meet that description. Amazing.

AL Cy Young: Max Scherzer, Tigers

Max Scherzer

#37 SPDetroit Tigers

2013 STATS

GM32

W21

L3

BB56

K240

ERA2.90

You should know, right off the top, that if, by some miracle, the voters agree with me on these picks, the Tigers will become just the ninth AL team ever to produce an MVP/Cy Young duo in the same season. (Last to do it, according to Fox Sports Detroit's Steve Kornacki: the 2006 Twins, with Justin Morneau and Johan Santana.) But that isn't all that connects Max Scherzer and Miguel Cabrera these days.

Like Cabrera, Scherzer's Cy Young candidacy is also under assault by a lot of very bright people. And while they're making compelling cases for the likes of Chris Sale and Yu Darvish, what many of them are really trying to do is remind us that the once-exalted "Win" is actually the most overrated stat since the "Hold." Well, the fact is, I'm with them in concept. If you still think "Wins" mean what they did in, like, 1922, you need to take a long, hard look at, say, Jeremy Hellickson's stat line (12-9, 5.16). He's living proof that "Wins," in a vacuum are overrated.

My AL Cy Young ballot

1. Max Scherzer

2. Yu Darvish

3. Chris Sale

4. Hisashi Iwakuma

5. Anibal Sanchez

But now that we've got that out there, I actually think Max Scherzer's season has been underrated, at least by all the people whose mission in life is to ban "Wins" from a stat sheet near you. It isn't easy to ignore the won-lost record of a pitcher who is 21-3. But let's do that. What you'll find is that Scherzer leads the league in Adjusted ERA and WHIP. And both the on-base percentage and OPS of the poor hitters who have to face him are the lowest in his league. But let's keep rolling. Scherzer also ranks in the top three in the AL in strikeouts, strikeout ratio, FIP, WAR for pitchers, opponent batting average, quality starts and quality-start percentage.

So let me ask you: Who else in this Cy Young field can say that? Correct answer: Nobody. So would I admit that that picturesque 21-3 record he's piled up is a product, to some degree, of his gigantic run support (third-best in the AL)? Indubitably. And does he owe a huge thank-you gift to his bullpen, which has allowed no more than one run after he left the game in 25 of his 31 starts? Of course he does. But please don't tell me that only a "Win" worshipper would cast a Cy Young vote for a guy with a sub-1.00 WHIP and 10 punchouts per nine innings. This vote goes to Max Scherzer for one reason only: He's earned it.

NL Cy Young: Clayton Kershaw, Dodgers

Clayton Kershaw

#22 SPLos Angeles Dodgers

2013 STATS

GM32

W15

L9

BB52

K224

ERA1.88

There's a lot of stuff in baseball I don't totally comprehend. But can somebody, anybody, please explain why Clayton Kershaw isn't universally celebrated as the official Best Pitcher in Baseball, in a Verlander-esque kind of way? Did you know he's about to become the fifth pitcher ever to lead his league in ERA three seasons in a row? The others: Greg Maddux, Roger Clemens, Sandy Koufax and Lefty Grove. Whoever they are. And that's not all.

Did you know Kershaw is also about to become the seventh pitcher in history to lead his league in WHIP three seasons in a row? The others: Maddux, Koufax and Grove, plus Johan Santana, Carl Hubbell and Babe Adams. And did you know that if you'll look past Puig-mania, pool parties and other wacky Dodgers plot lines, you'll find that Kershaw is having a season that's so dominating, if you measure it by ERA (1.88), WHIP (0.92) and opponent average (.195), that, since the mound was lowered in 1969, only Pedro Martinez (in 2000) has ever matched or beaten those numbers?

My NL Cy Young ballot

1. Clayton Kershaw

2. Jose Fernandez

3. Adam Wainwright

4. Matt Harvey

5. Craig Kimbrel

All this brilliance has been going on right before your eyes, ladies and gentlemen, courtesy of a fellow who is still only 25 years old, pitches for one of America's most storied franchises and has no reason not to be one of the most buzzed-about baseball players alive. So why is he so underappreciated? I don't get it. But the good news is: This guy will get it -- another Cy Young trophy, I mean, barring one of the all-time miscarriages of baseball justice.

AL Cy Yuk: Phil Hughes, Yankees

Phil Hughes

#65 SPNew York Yankees

2013 STATS

GM30

W4

L14

BB42

K121

ERA5.19

So many Cy Yuk contenders. Such a tough call. I've already saluted Josh Johnson's excellent work in assuring that my Cy Young prediction would go down as possibly the dumbest in baseball history. I could easily have handed this award to the first-half winner, Joe Blanton (2-14, 6.04). Wade Davis (with his eyeball-popping 1.70 WHIP) worked his way into this argument. And thanks to Jim Johnson's nine blown saves (in which he allowed an incredible 19 runs in seven innings), we almost saw our first-ever instance of a pitcher leading the league in saves and winning a Cy Yuk in the same year. But frankly, none of them out-Yukked Phil Hughes.

My AL Cy Yuk ballot

1. Phil Hughes

2. Josh Johnson

3. Joe Blanton

4. Jim Johnson

5. Wade Davis

It was his free-agent year. He made 29 starts for a team that knew it was going to need a big year from its rotation. And Hughes then went out there and went 4-14, with a 5.19 ERA -- in a season that started out messily and just got worse: 3-12, 5.69 after May 4 … 1-10, 5.51 after June 6 … 0-7, 6.26, with a .322/.364/.546/.910 slash line, in his final 14 starts (in which he only got through the fifth inning four times) … and 0-1, 9.00 in September, averaging six outs a start. All told, he made 11 starts against the AL East -- and won none of them. And he went an unfathomable 1-10, 6.32 at Yankee Stadium -- which not only broke the all-time franchise record for worst home ERA in a season (of 15 or more starts) but made him just the second pitcher in the history of any franchise to make at least 15 home starts in a season and not win at least two of them. (The other: Phil Huffman, for the Blue Jays, in 1970.) So kids, you have to admit it. Cy Yukkery doesn't get much uglier than that.

NL Cy Yuk: Barry Zito, Giants

Barry Zito

#75 SPSan Francisco Giants

2013 STATS

GM29

W5

L11

BB54

K85

ERA5.75

It's great that Barry Zito got one more win, and one more warm and fuzzy moment, in his Giants finale Wednesday night. The guy may have spent the last seven years forgetting to turn himself into Carl Hubbell. But he really did handle a lot of potential ugliness and embarrassment with amazing professionalism. So he deserved a better ending than the award we're about to bestow on him. Zito has won the Cy Yuk award before. And I really didn't want to pile on one more time. But yikes. This was one of those seasons that had Cy Yuk written all over it.

The hitters who faced him batted .319 this year, with a .385 on-base percentage and .875 OPS. No pitcher in the history of the Giants -- not in the Polo Grounds, not by the Golden Gate Bridge -- had ever gotten mugged for an average or OPS that high. Heck, Willie Mays had a career batting average, as a Giant, that was 15 points lower than that (.304), and an identical OBP (.385). So if you've turned every hitter who marches up there into Willie Mays, um, that's not good. But along the way, Zito also allowed 40 more hits (173) than he twirled innings (133). No Giants pitcher had ever done that since the opening of AT&T Park (although Livan Hernandez did miss by just two-thirds of an inning one year).

My NL Cy Yuk ballot

1. Barry Zito

2. Edinson Volquez

3. Brandon League

4. Ian Kennedy

5. Pick a Phillies reliever

And when Zito ventured away from AT&T, that's when his bullet train really veered off the tracks. Last October, you might recall, he beat the Cardinals in St. Louis in Game 5 of the NLCS, in a heroic performance that saved the Giants' season. It was quite a night. Who knew he would never win another game on the road as a Giant. He went 0-9 with a 9.56 ERA in road games this year -- and his team went 0-11 in his those starts. Only seven other pitchers in the live-ball era had ever gone 0-9 or worse in that many road starts in one season. But none of them had an ERA even remotely near Zito's 9.56 stratosphere. (Closest anyone came: George Murray, 0-10, 6.75, for the 1923 Red Sox.)

Now there's no reason to feel sorry for Barry Zito. He slurped up 126 million bucks of the Giants' bankroll over the past seven years. But now he also gets this lovely parting gift -- one last Cy Yuk award.

AL Rookie of the Year: Wil Myers, Rays

Wil Myers

#9 RFTampa Bay Rays

2013 STATS

GM84

HR13

RBI51

R46

OBP.351

AVG.291

Wil Myers didn't play a game in the big leagues this year until the 70th game of the Rays' season. Good thing he stopped by! His team got swept in a doubleheader in Boston that day to drop to 36-35, barely ahead of Toronto in the AL East basement race. But from that day on, they went 54-34, best record in the American League, second-best record in the whole sport (behind the L.A. Puigs). That wasn't all Myers' doing, obviously. But three months later, he's second on their team, behind some guy named Longoria, in slugging (.476) and OPS (.829). So they sure couldn't have done it without him.

My AL Rookie ballot

1. Wil Myers

2. Jose Iglesias

3. Chris Archer

Honorable mention: David Lough, Dan Straily, Martin Perez, Danny Farquhar

It's also a good thing for the AL Rookie of the Year race that Wil Myers stopped by, though, because it was a pretty pedestrian crew. Now he leads all AL rookies in slugging, OPS and RBIs. And if he catches Oswaldo Arcia, who is one home run ahead of him (14-13), Myers is going to become the first player ever to lead all AL rookies in homers and RBIs without even playing 90 games.

And that tells you exactly what kind of year for rookies it's been in this league. Myers might finish about 10th in the rookie-of-the-year balloting if he played in the National League. But in the league he's lucky enough to be toiling in, nobody has been better.

NL Rookie of the Year: Jose Fernandez, Marlins

Jose Fernandez

#16 SPMiami Marlins

2013 STATS

GM28

W12

L6

BB58

K187

ERA2.19

I've voted for many awards in my day. Always love doing it. But I've never been happier not to have a vote, for any major award, than I am this year to find myself watching other people fry their brains trying to figure out which three names belong on the National League Rookie of the Year ballot. That ballot only has three spaces -- but it needs about 12.

I count 10 NL rookies who have racked up at least as many Wins Above Replacement, according to FanGraphs, as the AL rookie WAR leader, Wil Myers (who is at 2.1). And that list doesn't even include two guys I'd be looking at long and hard at if they played in the AL: Evan Gattis and Jedd Gyorko.

So figuring out how to fill out the bottom of this ballot is impossible. But even sorting out the top two spots is a nightmare. You have no idea how hard it is not to cast a first-place vote for Yasiel Puig -- unless you think rookies with a .936 OPS come along every darned year. (Just for future reference, the only other NL rookies since World War II with an OPS that high, in this many trips to the plate, are Albert Pujols, Ryan Braun, Lance Berkman and -- of course! -- Bernie Carbo.)

My NL Rookie ballot

1. Jose Fernandez

2. Yasiel Puig

3. Hyun-Jin Ryu

Honorable mention: Julio Teheran, A.J. Pollock, Nolan Arenado, Shelby Miller, Evan Gattis, Jedd Gyorko, Gerrit Cole, Juan Lagares, Trevor Rosenthal

But I still can't vote for Puig ahead of Jose Fernandez, a guy who just had possibly the greatest rookie season of any starting pitcher in modern times. Yeah, really. Throw any name you want at me: Gooden, Valenzuela, Nomo, Wood, Fidrych, Darvish. They did not have a better rookie year across the board than Fernandez just had. His season ranks No. 1 in the live-ball era in Adjusted ERA (177), opponent average (.182), opponent slugging (.265) and opponent OPS (.533). You can look that up. But there's more. He went 9-0, with a 1.19 ERA, in the psychedelic Fish Tank in Miami this year -- a home record matched only by Orel Hershiser (9-0, 1.08) among rookies in the live-ball era.

Fernandez's team went 18-10 when he pitched -- and a gruesome 41-90 when anyone else started. He was the first rookie starter with a WHIP under 1.00 (0.98) since baseball lowered the mound in 1969. And then there's this: The guy actually had a higher average when he batted (.220) than when the other teams' hitters batted against him (.182). Once upon a time, when Fernandez jumped all the way from

Class A ball to make the team in spring training, at age 20, we were wondering what he was doing in the big leagues. By September, we were wondering where he belonged on our Cy Young ballots.

AL Manager of the Year: Terry Francona, Indians

Francona

You thought he was crazy, right? Leaving the (ahem) cushy world of ESPN to go manage a team that just lost 94 games, with a minus-178 run differential. What two-time World Series-winning, curse-busting managerial genius would ever do that? Well, Terry Francona. That's who. In a season in which an incredible number of his AL managerial peers (John Farrell, Joe Girardi, Bob Melvin, Joe Maddon, etc.) have worked some remarkable magic of their own, it's still the guy who went to Cleveland who has managed his way to the top of this mountain.

My AL Manager ballot

1. Terry Francona

2. John Farrell

3. Bob Melvin

Terry Francona runs a game, and gets his team prepared to play, as well as anyone in baseball. But beyond that, there may not be a manager in the sport who can match his off-the-chart people skills. He "cares so deeply," said his GM, Chris Antonetti, "about each player, and works tirelessly to put them in a position to be successful." And the standings tell you everything you need to know about how well that's worked. The Indians have more talent than people seem to give them credit for. But none of this would have been possible without the manager's never-ending flow of positive energy.

NL Manager of the Year: Clint Hurdle, Pirates

Hurdle

And speaking of positive energy, if you've ever listened to Clint Hurdle speak, you know the sort of upbeat, inspirational thoughts that flow out of him, practically nonstop, in deep, emphatic and often poetic torrents. There's something that's both evangelical and volcanic about this man. He doesn't just enunciate his thoughts. He erupts. And when he speaks, it's impossible not to listen -- even if you're across town, minding your own business, chomping on a Primanti Brothers sandwich.

My NL Manager ballot

1. Clint Hurdle

2. Don Mattingly

3. Fredi Gonzalez

And what franchise could possibly be a better match for Hurdle's effusive persona than the Pirates -- a team with two decades of bad memories to erase, not to mention two consecutive devastating second-half collapses to grapple with? Well, the manager wouldn't allow any scars to linger from the way 2011 and 2012 ended. And as a once-bright young star who learned how to cope with failure, he could relate to his troops on every level, after where they've come from. You're seeing the results this season before your very eyes. Maybe this team would be headed for the Octoberfest with or without him. But from the moment he pulled on his black and gold jersey, he has felt like the right man in the right place at the right time.

ESPN DEPORTES

Dodgers y Gigantes a su última cita del 2013

por Rigo Cervantez/ESPNdeportesLosAngeles.com

Los Dodgers de Los Angeles y los Gigantes de San Francisco, se verán las caras por última vez en la presente temporada, este jueves, en el AT&T Park, muy cerca del famoso puente Golden Gate.

Será el juego que decidirá unicamente esta serie de tres desafíos, porque los campeones del último Clásico de Otoño, con su victoria del miércoles, la número 10 del año sobre los Dodgers, ya aseguraron la supremacía en los duelos de la temporada 2013, entre los encendidos rivales.

El derecho Edinson Vólquez recibe la encomienda de ir al montículo a dar la cara por el equipo de Don Mattingly y llega a esta cita con foja de 9-12 y una efectividad de 5.77 en su total de temporada, que incluye 32 salidas a la loma, una de ellas, en funciones de relevo.

El de Barahona, República Dominicana, de 30 años de edad, quien ha venido mostrando progresos en cada una de sus actuaciones, desde que se uniera a los Dodgers el mes pasado, podría ganarse, con una labor sólida frente a los bates de San Francisco, un lugar en la rotación de Mattingly para la postemporada.

Desde que llegó al equipo de Los Angeles, Vólquez tiene marca de 0-2, con efectividad de 4.30.

Por su parte, los Gigantes, según lo dijo el timonel Bruce Bochy, juegan por el orgullo, ese que permea a todos los equipos campeones.

Un orgullo que los anima a luchar con todas las fuerzas para no terminar en el sótano de la División Oeste de la Liga Nacional y de esa forma evitar el tener que unirse a los Marlins, que son el único equipo que ha finalizado en el último lugar de su división, en 1998, una temporada después de coronarse campeones de la Serie Mundial.

Para ello, los de San Francisco, confían en la destreza del derecho Tim Lincecum, quien tiene una marca de 10-14 con efectividad de 4.44, en los 31 juegos que lanzó como abridor este año.

En sus más recientes 6 salidas al montículo, luce una cosecha de 4-1, incluyendo una victoria frente a los Dodgers, el 14 del presente mes, en la casa de Chávez Ravine, por paliza de 19-3, en una jornada de trabajo de 6 episodios, en la que permitió 5 hits y 3 carreras.

Lanzando en el AT&T Park, Lincecum ha logrado 45 triunfos contra 37 derrotas, y acumula un promedio de carreras limpias de 3.39, en un total de 724 y un tercio de entradas de trabajo, en las que ha recetado 771 chocolates.

Ha sido el líder en ese departamento, en el de ponches, en la Liga Nacional, durante tres temporadas consecutivas, entre las campañas de 2008 y 2010. Este año alcanzó la marca de 1,500 abanicados y actualmente acumula 1,504, en su carrera.

Lincecum, de 29 años de edad, nacido en Bellevue, Washington, podría estar realizando su última actuación en la casa de los Gigantes, como miembro del equipo de Bruce Bochy, ya que al final de la actual temporada, podría incursionar en la agencia libre.

LA DAILY NEWS

Carl Crawford has found a comfort zone with the Dodgers

By Gideon Rubin, Correspondent

SAN FRANCISCO >> Carl Crawford doesn’t even want to think about Boston. Asked about his two-year stint with the Red Sox, he stared at his locker and then turned his head disapprovingly.

“I really don’t want to talk about Boston anymore, especially right now with where we’re at,” he said. “I’m trying to leave that alone right now.”

Asked about his new home in Los Angeles, Crawford’s face lights up.

“I like everything about it,” he said. “I’m from Houston and it reminds me a lot of Houston — without the heat.”

Since coming to the Dodgers last summer in the so-called “Big Trade,” Crawford has found a comfort zone after two turbulent years marred by injuries and subpar results in Boston.

Crawford signed a seven-year, $142 million contract with the Red Sox after nine years with the Tampa Bay Rays.

Despite some injuries and inconsistency, he’s played a key role in leading the Dodgers to their first playoff berth in four years.

“The comfort level’s been amazing,” he said. “I guess you can say it’ s a little different.”

Crawford hit a combined .260 (117 for 506) over two seasons in Boston. He played in just 31 games in a forgettable 2012 season in which he underwent separate wrist and reconstructive elbow surgeries.

Going into Thursday, Crawford was batting .283 with five homers, 28 RBI and 15 steals.

Injuries have continued to be a problem, though. A hamstring kept him out of the lineup for more than a month, and back problems have flared up in recent weeks.

Crawford says he feels healthy now though — and just in time for a postseason that starts next week.

He appears to have emerged from a prolonged slump, going 5 for 9 in his last two games in San Francisco that followed a dreadful 5-for-42 clip going back to Sept. 4.

“My body feels better right now,” he said. “I just have to try to maintain it, keep it good for the playoffs.”

Crawford’s health could prove critical to the Dodgers’ World Series aspirations, especially with the uncertain playing status of outfielder Andre Ethier, who’s out with an ankle injury.

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said he’s been encouraged by Crawford’s play, noting he’s been more aggressive on the base paths, a positive indicator from a health standpoint.

“He could be a big factor for us” in the playoffs, Mattingly said.

A healthy Crawford, with his combination of above-average power and blazing speed, can potentially impact a series, Dodgers third baseman Michael Young said.

“I played against him a long time in the American League and he’s definitely a game-changer,” Young said.

Crawford’s speed alone is something opposing teams will have to prepare for.

“If he gets on base and there’s a ball in the gap, he’s going to walk home,” Crawford said.

Utilityman Nick Punto, who came with Crawford from Boston along with first baseman Adrian Gonzalez and pitcher Josh Beckett, sees Crawford flourishing in his new environment.

“I think he really enjoys playing in L.A., it’s a place he’s very comfortable playing in,” Punto said.

Crawford has provided some intangibles along with some impressive physical tools, Punto said, noting his work ethic and leadership haven’t gone unnoticed.

“He’s one of the first ones in the batting cage and he’s always prepared to play,” he said. “He’s one of those guys who doesn’t say a whole lot but when he does everybody listens.”

Crawford admits he’s excited about a return to the postseason, something that didn’t seem possible after hitting rock bottom last year, when Red Sox fans and the Boston media branded him a malcontent.

“I’m in a good position right now, I’m happy to be where I’m at,” he said. “I went through a lot the last two years. I’m just happy to be right here where I’m at.”

Dodgers-Giants rivalry led to homicide, police say

By Joshua Melvin, Mark Gomez, Thomas Peele and Mark Emmons, Bay Area News Group

SAN FRANCISCO -- The dead man was wearing Dodger blue. And the reason for his killing, police believe, is because he crossed paths with people who root for the orange and black of the Giants.

Now, amid the disbelief, the question remains: Why is the storied Giants-Dodgers rivalry spinning so horrifically out of control?

Fan passions once again turned violent late Wednesday night, this time an exchange of words led to a 24-year-old man -- the son of a Dodger Stadium security guard -- being stabbed to death during a fight between opposing groups of fans after a game, five blocks from AT&T park.

“The fact that anybody got into any kind of beef over the Giants and the Dodgers and somebody lost their life, it’s just senseless,” San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr said with disgust.

The victim, Jonathan Denver, a plumber’s apprentice from the Mendocino County city of Fort Bragg, was described by his employer as “very mild-mannered.” On Thursday, police announced Michael Montgomery, 21, of Lodi, was arrested in the homicide. Authorities continued to search for two other suspects and the weapon on Thursday. Police would not confirm reports that a fourth suspect had been released from custody.

This latest ugly chapter comes during a week when the Giants are holding three fundraisers for Bryan Stow -- the Bay Area Giants fan who suffered brain damage after being beaten following the 2011 season opener in Los Angeles.

Before Thursday’s game, near a statue of Giants pitching great Juan Marichal, who in 1965 hit a Los Angeles catcher in the head with a bat to start one of baseball’s most infamous brawls, a Dodgers fan called for peace.

“We hate each other, but we love to hate each other,” said Marvin Majia, 24, of Los Angeles. “We love every little detail of this rivalry. I just hope this wasn’t payback for Stow. It’s just a game.”

Down the street at the Willie Mays statue, Virginia O’Herin said she thought rage about things other than baseball had seeped into team rivalries.

“We’re angry about the economy and our jobs,” said O’Herin, 50, a Dodgers fan from Portland, Ore. “We’re letting it out in the wrong place. This is a really great rivalry. I’m just heartbroken. It’s a fan issue. You can’t blame baseball.”

Fan altercations are a long-standing problem at sporting events, with alcohol often serving as the lubricant.

“I think it’s far more likely that alcohol ends up having more to do with this than the Giants and the Dodgers do,” said Daniel Durbin, director of the USC Annenberg Institute of Sports, Media and Society.

That said, Durbin added, West Coast fans long ago picked up on the heated rivalry between the two franchises when they relocated from New York City before the 1958 season. They took notice as the teams constantly were dueling for National League pennants -- and sometimes fighting on the field.

“It’s why the Giants and Dodgers rivalry is alive and well in the minds of fans,” Durbin said. “Sports fan identification is not like being fans of reality TV. They take ownership of a team. When you have one team going to the playoffs, one team struggling and you mix in alcohol, sports fans tend to take insults more personally than fans of the Kardashians.”

Professional teams have stepped up security inside arenas and stadiums, but violence can occur in parking lots and nearby streets.

That’s what happened when Stow, a father of two and former paramedic from Santa Cruz, was attacked outside Dodger Stadium. Thursday, the Stow family issued a statement about the latest violence, saying they are “saddened by this senseless killing.”

Suhr said Denver had attended the Giants’ 6-4 victory with his father, brother and two others. Wearing Dodgers apparel, Denver left the ballpark with the group sometime around the eighth inning and headed to a bar.

Later, about 11:30 p.m., near Third and Stillman streets, they encountered another group of people -- one of whom was wearing a Giants cap -- that had been at a bar and not the game. There was “some back and forth about the Giant-Dodger rivalry,” Suhr said, starting a fight.

That melee broke up, but when they crossed paths again minutes later at Third and Perry streets, a second altercation ensued, and Denver was stabbed. He was rushed to San Francisco General Hospital, where he died of his injuries.

Cas Smith, the owner of North Coast Plumbing and Heating in Fort Bragg, said he didn’t think Denver was much of a baseball fan.

“He was just down there for like a family reunion,” Smith said.

But Denver, who recently was arrested for DUI, is wearing a Dodgers T-shirt in his booking mug. His father, Robert Preece, works at Dodger Stadium.

“The pain that this has caused his family and friends is unimaginable,” the Dodgers said in a statement.

At Thursday’s game, there was a stepped-up law enforcement presence in and around the ballpark. There also was a moment of silence in Denver’s honor.

A Dodgers fan who refused to give his name captured the mean-spiritedness of the rivalry.

“I guess it’s payback for two years ago,” said the man as he walked past the scene of the stabbing, referring to the Stow beating. “It’s OK. Giant fans will get worse if they come to Dodger Stadium.”

Dodgers fan Art Urrutia and his Giants-rooting wife Brandi talked about a far different attitude as they prepared to take their 19-month-old son Giovanni to his first Giants game. Art Urrutia, who had brought his family from New Mexico, said he was leaning toward not wearing his Dodgers gear. But he was planning to dress his son in a Giants shirt and Dodgers hat.

“It’s just to show that it’s just baseball,” Art Urrutia said. “It’s a game. Nobody should get hurt.”

Jonathan Denver, 24, son of Dodgers security guard, stabbed to death following San Francisco Giants game

By Mark Gomez and Joshua Melvin, Bay Area News Group

Jonathan Paul Denver, 24, of Ft. Bragg. Denver died at San Francisco General Hospital the evening of Sept. 26, 2013 after he was stabbed in an altercation between the group of men he was with and another group. The incident occurred outisde AT&T Park, following the completion of the game between the Giants and the visiting L.A. Dodgers. Denver was wearing Dodger's apparel, but it's not known if he or any of the other men actually attended the game. (Mendocino County Sheriff's Department)

SAN FRANCISCO — The storied rivalry between the Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers took a violent and deadly turn Wednesday night when a fight between two groups of opposing fans resulted in the stabbing death of a 24-year-old man whose father is a Dodgers security guard.

The fight which resulted in the death of Dodgers fan Jonathan Denver started when two groups of people began arguing about the rivalry, San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr said Thursday. Suhr said two people are in custody and police are still searching for two other suspects and the murder weapon.

On Thursday afternoon, the Dodgers released a statement confirming that Denver’s father works for the L.A. team.

“The Dodgers are shocked and saddened to learn of the death of Jonathan Denver, who is the son of one of our security guards,” the team said in the statement. “There is no rational explanation for this senseless act which resulted in Jonathan’s death. The pain that this has caused his family and friends is unimaginable. Words are not enough to describe our sadness. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family during this extremely difficult time.”

Magic Johnson, Dodgers part-owner, issued a statement on his Twitter page, writing, “From the owners, players and fans, we send our condolences and prayers to friends and family of Dodgers fan Jonathan Denver.”

Denver attended Wednesday’s game between Los Angeles and the Giants at AT&T Park with his father, brother and two others, Suhr said.

Denver, who was wearing Dodgers apparel, left the ballpark with his group sometime around the eighth inning and headed to a bar.

Upon leaving the bar, Denver and his group walked northbound on Harrison Street near Third Street, about six blocks away from the park, when at about 11:30 p.m. they encountered a group of people, one of whom was wearing a Giants cap, Suhr said. The second group had not attended the Giants game that night, and instead were out at a nightclub.

The two groups exchanged words about the Dodgers and Giants rivalry and a fight broke out. The melee eventually broke up.

But minutes later the two groups crossed paths again, and a second fight ensued.

It was during this encounter that Denver was stabbed. He was rushed to San Francisco General Hospital, where he died from his injuries.

Denver was a plumber’s apprentice who worked for the past two years for North Coast Plumbing and Heating in Fort Bragg, according to company owner Cas Smith.

“I don’t think he was much of a baseball fan,” Smith said. “He was just down there for a, like, family reunion.”

Denver took Wednesday and Thursday off to attend the Giants-Dodgers game with his brother and father, according to Smith.

Denver was tall, standing about 6 feet 3 inches, and was “very mild-mannered,” Smith said. But he did recently have a DUI arrest.

Denver’s booking mug for the DUI arrest shows him wearing a Dodgers T-shirt.

The killing comes one night after the San Francisco Giants held the first of three fundraisers for Bryan Stow, the Giants fan who was attacked outside Dodger Stadium in March 2011. Stow, a former paramedic from Santa Cruz, suffered brain damage during the attack following an Opening Day game between the Giants and Dodgers in Los Angeles.

The Giants are contributing $10 to the Bryan Stow Fund for every special-event ticket purchased for tonight’s game against the Dodgers and Sunday’s final game of the season against the San Diego Padres.

The Stow family provided a statement this morning following news of the stabbing death of a Dodgers fan.

“We are saddened by this senseless killing and our thoughts and prayers go out to the victim’s family,” the statement said.

The two teams play again tonight at AT&T Park, their last meeting of the 2013 season.

San Francisco police will send extra officers to the ballpark for tonight’s game, according to Officer Gordon Shyy, a department spokesman.

“We want people to feel safe coming to AT&T Park,” Shyy said. “There is no room for this type of behavior. The rivalry should stay on the field. We’re working with the Giants to make sure nothing spills out.”

Nobody answered the door at the duplex on Primrose Avenue in Alhambra where neighbors said Denver’s father, Robert Preece, lived.

Neighbor Josefina Espinoza, who has lived in neighborhood for 38 years, said she knew the whole family. The death was a big surprise, she said.

“They would often get together and they would have their friends over but there were never any arguments or fights. They were always very happy neighbors,”she said in Spanish, through a translator.

She said she saw the family get together, and that the son was wearing a Dodger hat and shirt, but didn’t realize that they were heading up North on Wednesday.

Several neighbors said they didn’t know Denver. One exception was Yoly Carvera, who lives in an apartment complex on Primrose across from the duplex. She said Denver had lived at the duplex with his father until about three years ago when he moved up north.

“His dad has been there for quite a while,”Carvera said of the duplex. “They come and visit him. We didn’t really know him. There’s not much to say. He was a good boy. He wasn’t in any problems. Daddy and he were very quiet.”

Following 3-2 loss, Dodgers concerned about Ethier’s injured ankle

By Gideon Rubin, Correspondent

SAN FRANCISCO >> With just three regular-season games remaining, the playing status of injured outfielder Andre Ethier going into the playoffs remains shrouded in uncertainty.

The Dodgers experienced a 3-2 loss to the San Francisco Giants in front of 41,221 at AT&T Park on Thursday, but with a division title already in hand, the former all-star’s left ankle was the team’s most pressing concern.

Mattingly said tests performed by team doctors in Los Angeles on Wednesday pointed to some healing, but said the former all-star isn’t ready to resume base-running drills.

Ethier has been hitting daily, and the Dodgers aren’t concerned about him taking fly balls and throwing.

“The biggest restriction is going to be base running,” Mattingly said. “We’re going to wait as long as we can on that and see where that goes.”

Mattingly declined to speculate whether the Dodgers would consider carrying Ethier on their playoff roster as a pinch hitter.

Ethier will face live pitching in a simulated game this weekend when the Dodgers return to Los Angeles, Mattingly said.

The purpose of the simulated game is to maintain Ethier’s timing, Mattingly said. It isn’t clear who’ll pitch to him.

The Giants broke a scoreless tie in Thursday’s game in the bottom of the eighth inning when reliever Paco Rodriguez (3-4) served up a solo homer to Angel Pagan leading off the eighth.

Dodgers starter Edinson Volquez allowed two runs on four hits and three walks in five innings.

Mark Ellis had two hits, including an RBI double in the fourth that gave the Dodgers a 2-0 lead.

The Dodgers scored the game’s first run in the first inning when Carl Crawford tripled with one out and scored on a sacrifice fly.

The Giants tied the game in the fifth when Brandon Belt’s run-scoring double highlighted a two-run inning.

High marks for Selig

Commissioner Bud Selig got high marks from Mattingly on the day he announced his retirement after the 2014 season.

Selig, 79, was named interim commissioner after Fay Vincent’s ouster in 1992. His resignation is effective in January, 2015.

“Bud’s been great; it seems like he’s done a great job,” Mattingly said.

Mattingly cited labor peace, improved communications between the labor union and owners, and the ongoing performance-enhancing drugs crackdown among Selig’s most significant accomplishments.

Also

Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw was named the team’s eighth annual Roy Campanella Award winner. The award, which is voted on by players and coaches, is given to the team’s most inspirational player. ... Kershaw and Zack Greinke will not be on strict pitch counts when they make their last regular season starts tonight and Saturday, Mattingly said. “Within reason,” he said, “not like 115-120 (pitches).”

Uribe, Wilson trying to bring old Giants’ World Series swagger to Dodgers

By Jill Painter, Los Angeles Daily News

You can imagine even the quirky Brian Wilson entering the Dodgers clubhouse for the first time in August with a bit of trepidation.

Wilson, the former Giants closer who owns a dastardly beard and interesting vibe, had come to resurrect his career with his former rival. But the awkward transition was comforted by a friendly face in the corner of the clubhouse: Juan Uribe.

The former Giants teammates, who won a World Series together in 2010, bonded again instantly. Their must-see pre-game dominoes tilts filled with cash, loud voices and swear words in two languages, commenced.

“You play dominoes to be calm mentally and relax and get ready for the game,” Uribe said. “It’s a way to do it where everyone can see. For me, this guy is a good guy and a good teammate.

“He likes winning like me. He’s a guy you want on your team.”

Wilson didn’t talk to Uribe before he signed with the Dodgers, but they picked up where they left off in a hurry.

“I’ve always known what kind of caliber teammate Uribe is, and I knew he’d be a great fit here,” Wilson said. “As soon as I found out I was coming over, the friendship is basically the same — laughing, joking, having a good time. Playing some serious dominoes.”

This isn’t about dominoes, of course, but they do have that in common. And dominoes are more entertaining to watch than a player working on a crossword puzzle.

This is about a friendship between an infielder from the Dominican Republic and a pitcher from Massachusetts who together helped win the ultimate prize in baseball.

Reuniting feels so good, even if it’s in Southern California — where Wilson lives in the offseason — and not Northern California where their friendship was born. They’re trying to team up to win a World Series again, this time with the Dodgers.

“He knows about winning,” Uribe said. “That’s a guy you want to be on your team.”

Uribe will be relied on heavily for his postseason swagger as he and Carl Crawford are the only two Dodgers starters with World Series experience. Jerry Hairston, Nick Punto and Skip Schumaker also have World Series experience.

The Dodgers last made the playoffs in 2009 and last won a World Series in 1988.

Wilson is a big story not only for his personality, wit and beard, but because he’s pitching again after his second Tommy John surgery.

The Giants didn’t re-sign him after the 2012 season, in which he pitched in just two games but still was with the team for its second World Series win in three years. He hadn’t pitched since April of 2012 before returning to the mound for the Dodgers last month.

The Dodgers gave him a chance, and he’s seemingly been there forever, even with a getaway-day black suit complete with dark pink shirt and black shoes with pink trim and skeleton heads.

It’s about the people and pitches, not the shoes or that scraggly beard.

Even when Wilson faced the Giants in September, he didn’t get emotional.

“Not at all. It’s another team,” Wilson said. “Everybody wants to think it’s something it’s not. It’s hitters that I’ve known for a while. It’s me getting my three outs or whatever my team needs me to do.”

Uribe hit a career-high 24 home runs in 2010 in the Giants’ World Series championship season. He struggled in his transition with the Dodgers, hitting just .204 with four home runs in 77 games in 2011 and .191 with two home runs in 66 games with the Dodgers in 2012, all the while battling injuries.

He’s so well-liked by his teammates, that even when Uribe was the victim of the hidden-ball trick against Tampa this season, Adrian Gonzalez was the first to present him with the third-base bag and a shoe taped to it as a prank.

Uribe can laugh about it all, especially because he’s hitting and seemingly has his groove back.

Wilson already has the Dodgers’ back like he’s been bleeding blue forever. After the Dodgers clinched the National League West in Arizona, he came to his team’s defense. Arizona Senator John McCain was one of many people to complain about the Dodgers’ celebration in the Diamondbacks’ pool. McCain tweeted the Dodgers were “No-class act by a bunch of overpaid, immature, arrogant, spoiled brats!”

Wilson tweeted a stinging — and funny — response: “Senator McComplain knows a thing or two about coming in second and watching someone take a plunge in the pool (I mean poll) #PooLITICS.”

For Wilson, he’s simply happy to be pitching again. He led the National League with 48 saves in 2010 but didn’t have a contract to pitch with any team when the season started in April. He worked out on his own and was confident he was ready in August. The Dodgers were ready for him, especially if he can live up to his Twitter Avatar, which demonstrates he’s proud of two things:

“Twitter of a world champion, and a world champion beard.”

He and Uribe don’t have a beard in common, but that doesn’t mean Uribe doesn’t understand that unruly abundance of black facial hair that should have its own name.

“It’s good. I like it,” Uribe said. “Some people don’t. But I like it. Fans do, too.”

They’ll like Uribe and Wilson even more if they can bring another World Series title to Los Angeles.

Dodgers have no preference for first-round playoff opponent

By Gideon Rubin, Correspondent

SAN FRANCISCO >> Does the Atlanta Braves pitching staff worry the Dodgers more than the St. Louis Cardinals bats?

Does Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto scare them more than Pittsburgh Pirates outfield sensation Andrew McCutcheon?

All four of the Dodgers’ potential first-round playoff opponents present unique challenges, but is there any one team in particular they’d least like to see in the postseason?

Those are some of the burning questions that may make for hot topics on message boards and talk radio, but which the Dodgers insist they simply aren’t asking.

“We really don’t care who we face, and I’m pretty sure every team feels the same way,” Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez said, summing up clubhouse sentiments.

Not even a preference?

“There isn’t,” he said. “You can’t choose who you play because the minute you choose who you play, you lose to that team.

“It’s that simple.”

Said shortstop Hanley Ramirez: “This is the big leagues man, everything’s going to be tough.”

First base coach Davey Lopes downplayed the importance of playoff matchups even more forcefully.

“The important thing when you’re playing is to get to the playoffs, everything else is irrelevant,” Lopes said.

“(The media) is going to determine on paper what the better matchup is, but players don’t do that. They’re ready to play against anyone. Any team that’s in the playoffs that doesn’t feel that they match up with anybody else shouldn’t be in the playoffs.”

AN important nugget of franchise playoff history supports Lopes’ assertion.

On their way to their last World Series appearance in 1988, the Dodgers beat a New York Mets team in the league championship series that they were 1-10 against during the regular season.

“Believe me, you’re playing at a different emotional level (in the playoffs) than you are in the regular season,” Lopes said. “It doesn’t make a difference if you’re hot right now, it’s what you’re going to be doing next week” that matters.

For what it’s worth, the Dodgers are a combined 11-14 against their four potential playoff rivals.

They’ve fared worst against Atlanta, going 2-5, best against Pittsburgh (4-2), and are close to even in head-to-head meetings with St. Louis (4-3) and Cincinnati (3-4).

The Dodgers may not know where they slot in the playoffs until Sunday. St. Louis (94-65) leads Atlanta (93-65) for the top seed by a half-game. The Dodgers trailed the Cardinals by two games going into

Wednesday’s game against the Giants.

“I look at it more like if we go out and play well and play up to our ability and our guys do what they’re supposed to do, I feel like we’re capable of beating anybody, so I’m not so much concerned right now, but once we get into it we’ll definitely be looking,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said.

Mattingly said he’s more interested in individual matchups gleaned over a long time frame than head-to-head meetings between teams that may not reflect how well teams are playing right now.

The Dodgers played all their games against Atlanta before their historic turnaround that started on June 21. They were swept in a three-game series at Atlanta in May in which they were playing especially dreadful ball.

“Momentum plays a huge role, so in a short series it’s all kind of a crapshoot,” Mattingly said.

“Every team that’s in there is going to have confidence, every team will have won and will have celebrated and will think they have a chance, so it truly will be a matter of who goes out there and performs.”

Clayton Kershaw wins 2013 Roy Campanella Award.

Posted on September 26, 2013 by J.P. Hoornstra

Pitcher Clayton Kershaw was named the winner of the 2013 Roy Campanella Award, an honor voted on by the Dodger players and coaches.

The award, instituted in 2006, is given to the “most inspirational Dodger,” and one who best exemplifies the spirit and leadership of the late Hall of Fame catcher.

Kershaw is 15-9 with a major league-leading 1.88 ERA in 32 starts this season as he attempts to become the first pitcher to top the big leagues in ERA in three consecutive seasons since Greg Maddux (1993-95). The award will be presented at Dodger Stadium on Saturday night by Joni Campanella Roan, Roy’s daughter.

San Francisco Giants 3, Dodgers 2.

by J.P. Hoornstra

After 159 games, one of the most burning questions facing the Dodgers is this: What should be done with Paco Rodriguez and Edinson Volquez?

Rodriguez entered spring training as a question mark for the 25-man roster. He entered September as the team’s most reliable set-up man. But there was always the lingering question about his workload as a 22-year-old rookie. Thursday’s appearance was his 75th of the season, and while his innings count isn’t appreciably different from last year, the Dodgers made a conscious effort to give him more rest.

So Rodriguez didn’t pitch between last Wednesday and Thursday night, and his location was no different than the last time anyone saw him on a mound — that is, not good.

In the eighth inning of a 2-2 game, Rodriguez served up a line drive to Angel Pagan on an 0-2 slider at the belt. Since this is AT&T Park, a line drive to the left-field corner has the potential to clear the fence. This one didn’t — it bounced off the top of the fence, then over — but it made all the difference in the Dodgers’ 3-2 loss.

Rodriguez has faced 30 batters in September. Fourteen have reached base, six via walk and eight via hit. Three of those eight hits have left the ballpark. His time to dethrone Brian Wilson as the Dodgers’

primary eighth-inning option is basically up. Even if Rodriguez does pitch well in, say, two of the Dodgers’ three games against the Colorado Rockies, how much confidence would that inspire for October?

The problem is the opposite with Volquez. He wasn’t expected to do anything for anyone when the San Diego Padres placed him on unconditional release waivers in August. Not only did the Dodgers snap him up right away, they watched Volquez become their fourth-best starting pitcher. (“Watched” might be accurate, but is far too passive a term here. Volquez and pitching coach Rick Honeycutt watched a lot of video to identify flaws in Volquez’s delivery, but implementing them in such short order, with so much success, could not have been easy.)

Volquez’s 3.52 earned-run average over his last four starts is far better than that of Ricky Nolasco (8.20 in his last four, 12.75 in his last three). Against the Giants, in his final start of the season, Volquez pitched five innings and allowed two runs, both in the fifth inning.

This is a good problem to have. Volquez has at least made it difficult for the Dodgers to leave him off their playoff roster. At most, he has pitched his way into the Game 4 starter’s job, with a big ugly assist from Nolasco.

There are two distinct, glass-half-empty/glass-half-full ways of viewing this.

Half empty: Nolasco and Rodriguez, two pitchers the Dodgers could count on three short weeks ago, are pitching themselves out of October jobs.

Half full: Volquez and Wilson, two pitchers who were not on the Dodgers’ roster in mid-August, have auditioned well. Their roles are important but not major, and the major roles are secure. The projected starters for Games 1, 2 and 3 are enviably stable. The ninth inning is in the seemingly sure hands of Kenley Jansen. The Dodgers’ burning questions are on the back burner.

Chris Withrow threw two scoreless innings Thursday. If the season ended today, he and Wilson would be the team’s top right-handed set-up men, J.P. Howell the top lefty, and Volquez might be the Game 4 starter.

Scary thing is, the season ends in three days. It’s unexpected, maybe a little weird, but hey — it might work.

Some bullet points:

• The box score is here.

• Juan Uribe‘s ground-rule double in the fourth inning might have been the first ball ever to angle sideways off one wall and land over another wall for a ground-rule double.

• After the game, Wilson walked over to the front-row seat of his former boss, San Francisco Giants President and CEO Larry Baer. They had a short conversation and Wilson didn’t appear to be in a good mood. Wilson might have been angry about some jewelry.

Yasiel Puig had baseball’s third-most popular jersey in the second half.

by J.P. Hoornstra

New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, New York Mets pitcher Matt Harvey and Dodgers rookie outfielder Yasiel Puig had baseball’s three most popular jerseys since the All-Star break.

Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw‘s jersey ranked sixth, and teammate Hyun-Jin Ryu’s jersey ranked 17th, according to the list of sales of Majestic jerseys from MLB.com/Shop, the official online shop of MLB.

Only the Dodgers and the Yankees (Rivera, Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano) had as many as three players on the list:

1. Mariano Rivera, New York Yankees2. Matt Harvey, New York Mets3. Yasiel Puig, Los Angeles Dodgers4. Manny Machado, Baltimore Orioles5. Buster Posey, San Francisco Giants6. Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers7. Yadier Molina, St. Louis Cardinals8. Andrew McCutchen, Pittsburgh Pirates9. Yoenis Cespedes, Oakland Athletics10. Mike Trout, LA Angels of Anaheim11. Dustin Pedroia, Boston Red Sox12. Derek Jeter, New York Yankees13. David Wright, New York Mets14. Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers15. Bryce Harper, Washington Nationals16. Chris Davis, Baltimore Orioles17. Hyun-Jin Ryu, Los Angeles Dodgers18. David Ortiz, Boston Red Sox19. Robinson Cano, New York Yankees20. Paul Goldschmidt, Arizona Diamondbacks

FOX SPORTS

Here's my best of 2013

KEN ROSENTHAL

Here it is, my annual awards column. I eagerly look forward to fans questioning not just my MVP

selections, but also my choices for ninth and 10th place.

A couple of things:

* To make this column as realistic as possible, I list the same number of players as the voters do for each award — 10 for MVP, five for Cy Young and three each for Rookie and Manager of the Year.

* When I refer to WAR (Wins Above Replacement), I’m referring to the Fangraphs version.

* And finally, as we brace for another round of Miguel Cabrera vs. Mike Trout, it’s worth rolling out the

instructions that all MVP voters receive:

“There is no clear-cut definition of what Most Valuable means. It is up to the individual voter to decide

who was the Most Valuable Player in each league to his team. The MVP need not come from a division winner or other playoff qualifier.

“The rules of the voting remain the same as they were written on the first ballot in 1931: (1) actual value of a player to his team, that is, strength of offense and defense; (2) number of games played; (3) general

character, disposition, loyalty and effort; (4) former winners are eligible; and (5) members of the committee may vote for more than one member of a team.”

OK, here goes:

AL MVP

1. Mike Trout, Angels2. Miguel Cabrera, Tigers3. Josh Donaldson, Athletics4. Chris Davis, Orioles5. Robinson Cano, Yankees6. Evan Longoria, Rays7. Adrian Beltre, Rangers8. Dustin Pedroia, Red Sox

9. Manny Machado, Orioles

10. David Ortiz, Red Sox

I also picked Trout last season, but if anything the choice was more difficult this time. As I wrote a year

ago, I don’t see the Trout-Cabrera debate as an old-school/new-school referendum. I legitimately appreciate the arguments on both sides.

So, why Trout?

Uh, good question.

Cabrera’s batting average/on-base/slugging line is even better than it was last season, when he won the Triple Crown. His team, unlike Trout’s, is going to the playoffs. And usually — never mind the criteria — I

prefer my MVP to come from a contender, believing that such players must perform under greater pressure.

My problem with Cabrera — and it’s admittedly nitpicking — is that he essentially has disappeared in September due to his physical issues, producing only one home run in 79 at-bats and a .687 OPS.

The Tigers have gone 13-10 with Cabrera in this deteriorated state — and, of course, some might argue that only reinforces his value. Cabrera supporters also will point out that Josh Hamilton won the MVP in

2010 after barely playing in September, beating Cabrera.

All fair. But Trout, too, arguably is performing better than he did last season — his on-base has jumped

from .399 to .431 while his slugging has barely declined, from .564 to .556. Factor in his defense and baserunning, and he easily is the game’s best all-around player.

So, as I wrote recently, are you going to penalize Trout because Angels management made a series of foolhardy decisions? Sorry, I’m just not comfortable doing that.

The rest of my ballot is self-evident. I know Pedroia’s power is down, but in my view he is the Red Sox’s MVP. I know, too, that Ortiz is a DH, but his offense is so good, it’s impossible to ignore his contribution.

NL MVP

1. Andrew McCutchen, Pirates2. Yadier Molina, Cardinals3. Paul Goldschmidt, Diamondbacks4. Joey Votto, Reds5. Matt Carpenter, Cardinals

6. Freddie Freeman, Braves7. Carlos Gomez, Brewers8. Troy Tulowitzki, Rockies

9. Hanley Ramirez, Dodgers10. Yasiel Puig, Dodgers

The bottom of the ballot is more interesting than the top, no? Ramirez and Puig could have gone higher,

but I adhere to the second criteria, number of games. Ramirez has appeared in 85, Puig 101.

I’ve got Ramirez higher because he ranks a stunning 11th in WAR, adding value with above-average

defense at shortstop. (I generally lean toward up-the-middle defenders when making my MVP selections.)

OK, now to the top of the ballot. I was tempted to go with Molina even though he missed two weeks with a sprained right knee, believing that his value at catcher is greater than any metric will tell you. But

Molina slumped in September, while McCutchen is second in the league in OPS since the All-Star break, behind only the Nationals’ Jayson Werth. Really, what’s not to like?

As for Goldschmidt over Votto, I know the Reds made the playoffs while the D-Backs did not. Still, Goldy is first in the league in OPS, first in OPS-plus and fourth in WAR, leading Votto in all three categories. He

also is second in slugging percentage with runners in scoring position, trailing only Freeman.

Speaking of Freeman, he’s enjoying a terrific season, but not at the level of Goldschmidt and Votto.

Cardinals fans will clamor for Carpenter, and I love the guy, too — he’s third in the league in WAR, he converted to second base and became an above-average defender, and his 55 doubles are 12 more than

any NL player. But if you asked Carpenter to name the Cardinals’ MVP, he’d say Molina.

Gomez ranks 11th in the league in OPS and is the game’s best defensive center fielder. Tulowitzki missed

nearly a month with a fractured rib, but is second in OPS and seventh in WAR.

AL Cy Young

1. Max Scherzer, Tigers2. Anibal Sanchez, Tigers

3. Yu Darvish, Rangers4. Chris Sale, White Sox5. Hisashi Iwakuma, Mariners

The “Kill the Win” crowd can relax: Scherzer is deserving even if you ignore his 21-3 record. He’s first in

WAR, first in opponents’ OPS, third in ERA-plus. People need to stop trying to find reasons to pick someone else. Scherzer is the most deserving.

Sanchez, if he had not missed nearly three weeks with a strained right shoulder, might have edged Scherzer; his statistical portfolio also is excellent, but innings matter; the more good ones a pitcher

throws, the greater his value. Darvish vs. Sale is essentially a coin flip. Iwakuma is second in the league in innings — he has thrown 35 1/3 more than the Athletics’ Bartolo Colon — and third in ERA.

NL Cy Young

1. Clayton Kershaw, Dodgers2. Jose Fernandez, Marlins3. Adam Wainwright, Cardinals4. Matt Harvey, Mets5. Madison Bumgarner, Giants

Not much of a discussion — Kershaw’s 1.88 ERA is the lowest since Roger Clemens’ 1.87 in 2005, and he

also is first in WAR and ERA-plus. My only reservation with putting Fernandez second is that he threw only 172 2/3 innings, or 63 2/3 fewer than Wainwright. But Fernandez’s brilliance — he leads the NL in

opponents’ OPS — is undeniable.

POWER RANKINGS

See if your favorite team is pointed in the right direction this week.

Harvey actually threw 5 2/3 innings more than Fernandez and ranks among the league leaders in a

number of significant categories despite making his last start on Aug. 24. Bumgarner benefits from pitching at AT&T Park, but he’s fourth in opponents’ OPS and fifth in ERA. I had him just above the

Dodgers’ Zack Greinke.

AL Rookie of the Year

1. Wil Myers, RF Rays2. Jose Iglesias, SS Tigers

3. Chris Archer, RHP, Rays

A few weeks ago, I was leaning toward Iglesias over Myers; Iglesias is a far better defender and at the

time his WAR was slightly higher, in part because he had played in a greater number of games.

Well, things change.

Myers’ .890 OPS in September helped propel the Rays to the top of the AL wild-card standings. He also has passed Iglesias in WAR, despite appearing in 22 fewer games.

Archer, Rangers lefty Martin Perez and Athletics righty Dan Straily are all legitimate candidates for the third spot; Archer has the lowest ERA of the three.

NL Rookie of the Year

1. Jose Fernandez, RHP, Marlins

2. Yasiel Puig, OF, Dodgers3. Hyun-Jin Ryu, LHP, Dodgers

TAKE ME OUT

Baseball diamonds are a girl's best friend. Check out MLB's FOXiest fans and tweet us your photo.

I didn’t struggle much with Fernandez vs. Puig. Fernandez made the Marlins’ Opening Day roster, while Puig did not join the Dodgers until June 3. Fernandez also is second on my NL Cy Young ballot, while Puig

merits only my 10th-place vote for MVP.

Third place was a tough call — I chose Ryu because he has thrown a slightly greater number of innings

than Cardinals righty Shelby Miller and Braves righty Julio Teheran and also produced a slightly better ERA.

AL Manager of the Year

1. John Farrell

2. Bob Melvin3. Terry Francona

I’m tempted to give it to Joe Girardi for keeping the Yankees in contention despite using a club-record 56 players. But in the end, it’s difficult to choose him over managers who achieved greater success.

Francona could go higher if the Indians secure a wild card without a likely top-five Cy Young or top-10 MVP finisher. Farrell, though, is my choice for presiding over the Red Sox’ startling turnaround, leading

the team to a winning record each month.

Melvin, last year’s winner, is worthy again, and not simply for surviving the sewage at O.Co Coliseum.

The Athletics opened the season with the game’s fourth-lowest payroll and endured sub-par seasons from outfielders Yoenis Cespedes and Josh Reddick. But they again prevailed over the Rangers in the AL

West.

MLB STANDINGS

Who's clinched? Who's still in the playoff picture? Check all the divisional races.

NL Manager of the Year

1. Clint Hurdle, Pirates2. Fredi Gonzalez, Braves

3. Don Mattingly, Dodgers

This is a runaway. The Pirates no longer are short on talent, but Hurdle’s positive energy was infectious,

helping him reverse a losing culture, helping the team avoid a third straight second-half collapse. Pitching coach Ray Searage should get some kind of award as well; the Pirates’ staff is aggressive, and it

is good.

Gonzalez dealt with significant adversity — bullpen injuries, the season-ending loss of ace right-hander

Tim Hudson, sub-.200 batting averages by B.J. Upton and Dan Uggla. No matter — the Braves rolled the

disappointing Nationals and the rest of the weak NL East. Gonzalez’s insertion of Jason Heyward into the

leadoff spot was one of the better moves of the season.

Mattingly, what can I say? I predicted in May that he would be fired. Club president Stan Kasten warned

him that he might be fired. And the man never flinched. Puig’s arrival and the returns of Ramirez and Greinke from injuries ignited the Dodgers’ turnaround. But Mattingly’s steady hand helped, too.

SPORTING NEWS

MLB Network's Bill Ripken: 'Dodgers have to be the team to beat'

Jesse Spector Sporting News

Bill Ripken played 912 games in his major league career from 1987-98 with the Baltimore Orioles, Texas Rangers, Cleveland Indians, and Detroit Tigers, and these days he can be seen on MLB Network, where he will be part of the "MLB Tonight" panel breaking down playoff action through October. This week, he spoke to Sporting News about the season, the playoffs ahead, and a blast from his own past.

Sporting News: What has stood out to you the most this year in baseball and what are you going to remember this season for?

Bill Ripken: There's a lot, isn't there? I think the story that stands out in my mind is the Pirates making the postseason after all these years. I think that's a great story. Looking at the American League side of things, you've got Cleveland and Kansas City still in the wild card hunt right now, which is pretty special. You're looking at three teams, that it looks like two will be in the playoffs that we weren't really expecting at the beginning of the year. So, it's maybe the influx of the new teams in the postseason.

SN: You've also got the Braves in there, a team that we've seen in the postseason before, but with a new twist, and it's familiar to you, of having two brothers on the team. I know you and Cal didn't get to play in the playoffs together, but how cool would that have been?

BR: It would have been good. In '96, I was back in Baltimore, and I didn't have any appearances in games in that run, but we went through it going into it and celebrating that. But my role in '96 was diminished compared to the first time I was there. You look at Atlanta, it brings up another story to me, which is I don't know, without going into percentage, I know the vast majority of baseball analysts had the Washington Nationals winning the NL East for sure, and I know I had them going to the World Series. You look at that team on paper, and the Braves came out of the gate so strong and just kept going. The Nationals didn't play well early, and nobody else in the National League East seemed to want to take hold of that. You look at the Braves, they're one of the more interesting stories of the year simply because they took advantage of a team in the Washington Nationals that didn't play up to their potential.

SN: Having the Nationals as your pick at the beginning of the season, obviously they're out now, so if you have the chance going into these playoffs to make a new pick, who's it going to be?

BR: On the National League side of it, I don't think you can dismiss what the L.A. Dodgers put together. They were certainly right there with the Nationals as one of the disappointments of the game, and then they went on this unbelievable tear. When you think about the postseason, you think about the guys that stand out there on the mound, and there's no reason to think that (Clayton) Kershaw and (Zack) Greinke can't match up with anybody else's No. 1 and No. 2 and be able to dominate. You look at the Dodgers and think about what they have on the bump, I think they have enough to do a lot of damage in

the postseason. I think we've learned over a period of time that you can't count the Cardinals out because they absolutely get things done when they have to. I don't think of them in the same light as the Dodgers on the National League side of things — the Dodgers have to be the team to beat.

PHOTO GALLERY: Rare images of Ebbets Field from Sporting News archives

SN: With Kershaw, he seems like he's just about a lock for the Cy Young. Is he an MVP candidate to you as well, in a year when the field of position players is kind of up for grabs?

BR: I guess the way it's defined, you're not excluding him. I've never been a fan of having a pitcher be the MVP. I believe the Cy Young is basically the pitchers' MVP award. I think the most valuable player should be reserved a little bit more. That said, under all the criteria, sure, you could look at Kershaw and make that case, but on the position player side of things, I would have to make a strong argument maybe for Andrew McCutchen. Here's a guy over the past couple of months that has seemed to turn up his game, and under the definition of the way the MVP is worded, value to his team, where would the Pirates be without Andrew McCutchen? I would certainly make the argument that they wouldn't have popped corks (on Monday). They would be in a much different place as far as their win-loss record is concerned. I'm still going to hold out for a position player to get that, but I can certainly understand the point because Clayton Kershaw has been that dominant. He's been a force, he is a force when he goes out there and takes the ball — the Dodgers feel like they've got a really good chance to win that ballgame when he's on the bump. He's a pretty special player, but I think Cy Young is him and I'm leaning McCutchen MVP.

SN: How about the American League side?

BR: In the American League, I can't ignore what Max Scherzer has done and the success that he's had. I'm not one of the guys who just looks at wins and losses like some people may claim. Scherzer's other numbers are very comparable to the other top pitchers in the league, and then you look at the 20-3 on top of that, you go "Damn! That's pretty special." The Chris Davis argument is there (for MVP). The woes of the Orioles in the last week, that might hurt him and his situation because if they made the playoffs, you could make the argument. I may have to go back to Detroit again for the MVP and look at Miguel Cabrera. This dude doesn't cease to amaze me when he's out on the field. I know his health has not necessarily been right the last three weeks or a month, but the numbers he throws up, it seems to be Miguel Cabrera and everybody else, as an offensive threat. When he steps up in the batter's box, it's just different than when anybody else does. So, I would have to lean toward him.

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SN: What about Mike Trout and his candidacy? I know the Angels have been out of it for a while, but without him, this season could have been just an outright disaster for that team.

BR: An outright disaster, but they still would finish ahead of the Houston Astros. So, when you're thinking about Mike Trout, do I think Mike Trout is the best overall player in the game of baseball? The answer is probably yes. But under the way the MVP is written and the way it's defined as value to the club, unless Mike Trout was superseding everybody else, the entire field, by huge numbers, I'd look at a guy who's on a team that's going to the postseason. I just believe that's the way it works. So, with Mike Trout, the Angels are gonna finish third. Without Mike Trout, they'd probably be finishing third. There's not much of a jump there. You can make the argument that if you take Miguel Cabrera's numbers out of the Detroit Tigers, as strong as they are and as good as their pitching is, is Cleveland in first place? Is Detroit tied with Kansas City? You can make those arguments. I still look at the MVP as value to the club and winning percentage and going to the postseason means something to me. Like I said, is Mike Trout the best overall player in the game? Probably so, but that's not the way that award is written.

SN: Looking forward to the playoffs, and you being in the studio, when you're watching to do the postgame stuff, what kind of stuff do you look for, to break out and analyze?

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BR: I try to find something that's a little bit different than the obvious. When you get to the postseason, or any game for that matter, you're looking at 27 outs a side, 54 for the game, if it goes regulation, and a lot is made of the eighth inning and the ninth inning, and the heroics that go on. The closer, the hitter that gets the big hit or the walk-off home run. But during the game itself, there are an awful lot of little things that happen in a baseball game that actually get you to that point. I would hate to see those things overlooked. If something happens in the third inning of a game, the game is completely one-sided or different the way it turns out. You want to celebrate the ninth-inning heroics, you want to see (Craig) Kimbrel and (Aroldis) Chapman in the game, closing people out, blowing them away. That's all good. But there was something that happened during the course of that game to allow it to happen, and it should not be ignored.

SN: In the playoffs, it all comes down to this one month — best-of-five, best-of-seven, best-of-seven, and really anything can happen. Is there too much emphasis on that, as far as how teams then get built, instead of the 162 games?

BR: You mentioned the Atlanta Braves earlier, and I still think the Atlanta Braves, when they did their 14 division titles in a row, still don't get enough credit for that. A lot of people say, "Well, they only won one world championship," but for 14 straight years, they were the best in that division, and when you look at the 162 and how you're constructed to do that, you have to have depth, you have to have talent, skill and execution. All that plays out, and in a short series, one little thing can happen and it can all go away. So, I still look at the Braves, when they had those 14 straight division titles, it was pretty impressive. If you would ask me, as an executive of a club, would I rather have 14 division titles and one world championship in that 14 years, or make the playoffs six times in 14 years and maybe win two world championships? I think I"m leaning toward the 14 division titles and one World Series, because I know we did our job over the long haul better than everybody else, and it wasn't a fluke — 14 division titles in a row is not a fluke. I'm not saying that teams that have won the World Series are necessarily fluky, I'm just saying that in a short series, something can happen where a break goes your way or doesn't go your way, and the next thing you know, you advance or you don't. Over the 162, you prove that you're the best team, and the Atlanta Braves in that run were pretty impressive.

SN: The other thing I wanted to ask you about is two baseball cards. One is pretty well documented, but it's going to be 25 years since that '89 Fleer card with the bat handle. What are your memories of that, and do people still, especially people in their 30s, still remember you for that?

BR: I don't think so and I would certainly hope not. There's a certain amount of people that come up and say, "Hey, I have that card!" Okay, good. It's 25 years, and the majority of folks that turn on the tube and watch MLB Tonight have no idea of that card's existence. Sometimes it comes around and goes full circle, where it's, "Oh, that was you!" Yeah. It's a long time ago, and what we try to do here at the network is try to reach and shape a new generation of baseball fans, and I don't think they really know a lot about that, and that's A-OK with me.

SN: What happened to the bat?

BR: I have no idea. It was certainly an accident that it ever got in the picture. It was a heavy bat that could not be used in a game. Why that phrase ever got on there, I can't tell you why. As far as the picture itself and how it got on there, that was purely by accident. But the bat is MIA. At one point, I thought about getting a series of a dozen or two dozen R-161s and writing on the bottom of all of them.

Then we'd know where one of them would be. It had to have wound up in a dumpster or something, gotten broken in some way, shape or form. It never surfaced. I've been through my stuff a number of times, trying to find it, but I have no idea where that thing ended up.

SN: The other card, as memorable for a different reason, was the year before — it was you, Cal, and your dad on the '88 Donruss card. That one's got to be pretty cool to have your family on a baseball card — did they ask you to do that, or what happened?

BR: The picture was taken in spring training, and when you're sitting there and we were making history at the time, with the fact that a manager had two sons on the same team and it had never happened before. Everybody got the idea to take a picture of the three of us, there were one or two cameras. It was a long time ago. Can you imagine today how many pictures there would be, with the coverage the way it is today? I really can't remember, but I do know it's one of the better pictures taken of the three of us. It's a shame our cameras weren't that good way back then to be clearer and better looking, but the fact of the matter is, history was made, you think about how long baseball's been played, and you've got two brothers playing in the big leagues, which is rare enough, and then the father there, and how it all played out. It's one of the most memorable things in my career. You look at your career in different ways —you have a couple of cool moments on the baseball field, but having that, being around each other as much as we were, we can really look back on it for how special it was.

TRUE BLUE LA

Andre Ethier ankle injury prompts Dodgers NLDS roster questions

By Eric Stephen

Will Ethier be ready to contribute in the playoffs after just one major league plate appearance in three weeks?

The left ankle of Andre Ethier still hasn't healed, and per multiple reports on Thursday manager Don Mattingly said his outfielder likely won't see action for the remainder of the regular season. While "out for the season" usually carries more weight than the four and now three games Ethier will actually miss, his injury throws a bit of a wrench into the Dodgers' plans for the postseason.

The good news for Ethier is that he resumed workouts on Thursday, and can basically do everything but run, per Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:

Ethier is able to hit, catch balls in the outfield and throw. Manager Don Mattingly said the club will wait until next week to test Ethier on the bases, and determining his role, if any, in the first round of the playoffs might not be made until the last minute.

Ethier won't be cleared until he can run the bases, something he was unable to do sufficiently on Tuesday, per Dylan Hernandez of the LA Times:

Mattingly said the Dodgers will wait as long as possible to have Ethier test his leg on the basepaths. That could be after the Dodgers’ regular-season finale Sunday.

In the meantime, the Dodgers are planning to set up simulated games for Ethier over the next few days. Mattingly hopes that will be enough to keep Ethier sharp at the plate.

"We’re going to figure out a way to get him some ABs and stuff like that," Mattingly said.

Perhaps a role could be carved for Ethier in the NLDS even if he can't run the bases, per Tony Jackson at Dodger Scribe:

But after saying earlier this week that Ethier will need to be able to run the bases in order to be on the playoff roster, Mattingly seemed less committal on that subject today when asked if the team might carry Ethier strictly as a pinch hitter.

"I don’t want to get into a lot of different scenarios (now)," Mattingly said. "I just think that is something we really need to discuss."

The Dodgers will begin the NLDS on Thursday, Oct. 3, and will do so almost certainly on the road either against the Braves or Cardinals*.

*There is actually a scenario in which the Dodgers could host the Pirates, but it would require weekend sweeps by Pittsburgh in Cincinnati, the Cubs in St. Louis and the Dodgers at home against the Rockies, followed by the Pirates beating the Cardinals in a one-game playoff for the NL Central on Monday. But that doesn't seem too plausible.

More: Ethier's ankle NL playoff scenarios Dodgers lose 3-2

The three off days before the playoffs begin give Ethier time to heal, but will it be enough to be game-ready? Ethier lasted started on Sept. 13 and has one plate appearance since. Oct. 3 will mark 20 days since his last full game, but will nearly a week's worth of at-bats in simulated games be enough?

Matt Kemp took that route in his rehab in September, but was in Arizona for nearly two weeks and got what both he and Mattingly estimated to be hundreds of simulated at-bats. Kemp is hitting .355/.412/.548 in 10 games since his activation from the disabled list.

The bottom line is that if Ethier is healthy he will be on the NLDS roster. But for a moment, let's assume he is not for purposes of constructing a roster without him.

Here are the roster locks for the NLDS:

Starting pitchers (4): Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke, Hyun-jin Ryu, Ricky Nolasco

Bullpen (6): Kenley Jansen, Brian Wilson, Ronald Belisario, Paco Rodriguez, J.P. Howell, Chris Withrow

Catchers (2): A.J. Ellis, Tim Federowicz

Starting infielders (6): Adrian Gonzalez, Mark Ellis, Hanley Ramirez, Juan Uribe, Michael Young, Nick Punto

Starting outfielders (4): Carl Crawford, Kemp, Yasiel Puig, Skip Schumaker

The final bullpen spot is a battle between Carlos Marmol, Brandon League, Chris Capuano and Edinson Volquez.

That leaves two spots for Jerry Hairston Jr., Scott Van Slyke and Dee Gordon.

Jerry Hairston Jr.

To say Hairston is struggling is an understatement, as the 37-year-old is hitless in his last 19 at-bats, he is 2-for-29 in September and 3-for-45 in his last 23 games, with no walks. Hairston is hitting .211/.265/.275 in 226 plate appearances on the season, including just .143/.189/.179 since the All-Star break.

With the addition of Michael Young, Hairston is a bit redundant though his experience in the outfield gives him additional flexibility. Judging by what Mattingly said in Arizona on Sept. 19 (when Hairston's slump was 3-for-32), Hairston has an ally in his skipper.

"He's a guy who has a lot of experience against a lot of different style of pitchers. He's not going to walk up there and not know about the situation," Mattingly said. "As far as a pinch hitter, he's pretty high on our radar for big at-bats late in the game."

To further complicate matters Hairston has back spasms, per Gurnick.

Scott Van Slyke

Van Slyke, like Hairston, gives the Dodgers someone who can play first base and the corner outfield spots, though unlike Hairston Van Slyke can't play third base. But Van Slyke gives the Dodgers a true power option off the bench, something they need with or without Ethier.

Van Slyke shuttled back and forth between Triple-A Albuquerque and the Dodgers this season, and has hit .242/.338/.476 with seven home runs and eight doubles in 145 plate appearances, including .242/.351/.435 with three home runs against left-handed pitchers. Van Slyke has just one home run in his last 85 major league plate appearances, dating back to June 6, but despite the lack of power during that span has shown the ability to reach base, hitting .232/.353/.319 during that span, in sporadic duty.

Dee Gordon

Gordon is the true wild card for the division-winning Dodgers, as he gives the Dodgers an added weapon to potentially use late in games. In stints in August and September with the big club Gordon is hitting .385 (10-for-26) with a .429 on-base percentage, but he likely wouldn't be added because of his bat. Or his glove, as he has seven errors in 22 starts at shortstop.

The Dodgers would want Gordon for his legs, as their Billy Hamilton light. Gordon is 4-for-4 in stolen base attempts in September and has been successful in 10 of 12 steal attempts on the season. In Albuquerque, Gordon stole 49 bases in 60 tried. His role, if added, would be as a late-inning pinch runner.

It will be interesting to see what the Dodgers decide, with or without Ethier. My guess — and it's just a guess — is that Gordon will make the NLDS roster over Hairston and that if Ethier is still hurt then Van Slyke will get the nod.

NL playoff standings: Braves and Cardinals deadlocked

By David Young

The Dodgers first-round opponent is still up in the air as the Atlanta Braves moved into a tie with the St. Louis Cardinals for the best record in the National League. Los Angeles is nearly locked into the number three seed in the NL postseason.

The Braves and the Cardinals are tied atop the National League standings as the teams play out their final series to determine playoff seedings. Only two games of significance were played yesterday as the playoff bound NL Central teams were all off.

Here are Thursday's relevant results.

Giants 3, Dodgers 2: Angel Pagan stroked a solo homer off Paco Rodriguez in the eighth inning, snapping a 2-2 tie and nearly guaranteeing the Dodgers the number three seed in the National League post-season.

Braves 7, Phillies 1: Jason Heyward led off the bottom of the first, and his perfect 5-for-5 night, with a rally-killing solo homer, but his teammates added four runs in the frame, on their way to trouncing

Philadelphia. Tyler Cloyd started for the Phillies and was charged with all seven Atlanta runs while departing the game with no outs in the second inning.

More: Giants 3, Dodgers 2 Dodgers rookies hazed

The combination of the Dodgers loss and the Braves win means that the Dodgers cannot top Atlanta for seeding, as Atlanta would prevail in the tiebreaker with the Dodgers. The Braves also hold the tiebreaker with the Cardinals, so even if Atlanta and St. Louis were to lose all their remaining games and the Dodgers won out, Atlanta would be top-seeded for the playoffs.

National League standings

Div Team W-L Pct GB

NLC St. Louis 94-65 .591 ---

NLE Atlanta 94-65 .591 ---

NLW Dodgers 91-68 .572 3

WC1 Pittsburgh 91-68 .572 3

WC2 Cincinnati 90-69 .566 4

However, because the Dodgers hold the tiebreaker over St. Louis, they could host the Redbirds for the NLDS if Los Angeles sweeps the Rockies at home, while St. Louis loses all three of their games to the Cubs. But any Dodgers loss or any Cardinals win cements the number three seed for the Angelenos.

The only other scenario that nets Los Angeles a number two seed is Pittsburgh winning the NL Central (see below), as the Bucs would lose tiebreakers with the Dodgers and the Braves.

St. Louis continues to hold a magic number of one for the NL Central crown. Only one set of outcomes for the Pirates and the Cardinals would prevent the Redbirds from winning the division outright. As Eric Stephen explained yesterday:

If by chance both sweeps happen, the Pirates would host the Cardinals in a one-game tie-breaker for the division on Monday, Sept. 30. Pittsburgh would get home field advantage in said game thanks to winning 10 of 19 games against the Cardinals in 2013. The winner Monday would be NL Central champs, with the loser hosting Cincinnati on Tuesday in the wild card game.

Also yesterday Eric explained the scenarios for the NL wild card:

The Reds and Pirates meet for three games in Cincinnati beginning Friday night and, putting aside the double-sweep dream scenario for Pittsburgh, the winner of the three-game series in Cincinnati this weekend hosts the NL wild card game.

If the Pirates take two of three, they will finish with a better record than the Reds; if Cincinnati wins two of three games they tie Pittsburgh and would host the wild card game based on winning the season series, now tied at 8-8.

Today's games of interest in the National League (all times PT):

4:10 P.M. - Pittsburgh (A.J. Burnett) at Cincinnati (Homer Bailey)

4:30 P.M. - Philadelphia (Cliff Lee) at Atlanta (Kris Medlen)

5:15 P.M. - Chicago (Travis Wood) at St. Louis (Lance Lynn)

7:10 P.M. - Colorado (Collin McHugh) at Los Angeles (Clayton Kershaw)

Dodger Stadium NHL outdoor rink introduced

By Eric Stephen @ericstephen on Sep 26 2013, 5:40p 21

Stay connected for news and updates Follow @truebluela

The Kings will host the Ducks in an outdoor NHL game at Dodger Stadium on Jan. 25, 2014.

Dodger Stadium hosted members of the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks on Thursday in preparation for their outdoor game to be held at the venue on Jan. 25, 2014. It is the first outdoor NHL game in California.

"Since we came in to take over the Dodgers, about a year and a half ago now, we have worked very hard to restore the brand and maybe polish it up a little, then get on with the all-important work of extending our brand," Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten said during Thursday's press conference. "Whenever we can have unique events brough to historic, iconic, one of a kind in the whole world Dodger Stadium, we're very excited to do that."

The 7 p.m. PT game will be a home game for the Kings.

"In Southern California, it works. It's been 20 years of Ducks hockey, 47 years of Kings hockey," NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said. "We're here because if you look at USA Hockey's figures, the state of California has the seventh-highest number of people playin hockey in the country, and registrations at an all-time high."

More NHL: Outdoor game announced Kings coverage Ducks coverage

The ice rink will run from first base to third base, just above the pitchers mound.

The press box view of the Dodger Stadium rink actually won’t be too bad for Kings-Ducks. (cc: @atvn) pic.twitter.com/PSmbIYaPzc

— James Santelli (@JamesSantelli) September 26, 2013

"No one is going to have the shot that we have, of that great NHL sheet of ice in front of our bleachers, our palm trees and our San Gabriel mountains," Kasten said.

NL West Weekly Report: The Dodgers' stuck a fork in the division

By David Lauterbach

A recap of what happened in the NL West from Sept. 19-25: The Dodgers clinched the division title.

The Dodgers' entered the week with their magic number at two. Last Thursday night, that number hit zero when Los Angeles defeated Arizona to clinch its first division title since 2009. Let's take a look at what else happened this week.

TEAM RECAPS:

Diamondbacks: Arizona was 3-4 this week. The Diamondbacks started off the week with a 7-6 loss at home to the Dodgers that officially eliminated them from division race. The Dbacks then won two of three against the Rockies before dropping two of three against the Padres.

Rockies: Colorado was 3-3 this week. The Rockies started off the week with a 7-6 win over the Cardinals to split a four game series. Colorado then lost two of three against Arizona before splitting a two game series against Boston.

Giants: San Francisco was 3-3 this week. The Giants started off the week with 2-1 win over the Mets at Citi Field. San Francisco then traveled to Yankee Stadium where it lost two of three. The Giants finished the week by splitting two games with the Dodgers.

Padres: San Diego was 3-4 this week. The Padres started off the week with a 10-1 loss to the Pirates. San Diego then lost two of three against Los Angeles before winning two of three against the Arizona.

Dodgers: Los Angeles was 4-2 this week. The Dodgers started off the week with a 7-6 win over the Diamondbacks to clinch the division. Los Angeles then won two of three in San Diego before splitting two games in San Francisco.

National League West Standings

Team W-L Pct GB

Los Angeles - CLINCHED 91-67 .576 ---

Arizona 80-78 .506 11

San Diego 74-84 .468 17

San Francisco 73-85 .462 18

Colorado 72-87 .453 19½

WHAT'S IN STORE FOR THESE TEAMS IN THE FINAL FEW DAYS OF THE REGULAR SEASON:

Diamondbacks: One game against the Padres and three against the Nationals

Rockies: Off day and then three against the Dodgers

Giants: One game against the Dodgers and three against the Padres

Padres: One game against the Diamondbacks and three against the Giants

Dodgers: One game against the Giants and three against the Rockies

OVERALL PLAYER OF THE WEEK:

Rockies' first baseman Todd Helton. The veteran hit .423 in six games for Colorado this week. Helton totaled six runs, five doubles, two homers, nine RBIs (which led the division), one walk, and six strike outs this week. The former first round draft pick also hit a home run in his final game at Coors Field.

BEST INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK:

Dodgers' starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw. The lefty defeated the Padres 4-0 on Saturday September 21st. Kershaw threw seven innings of shutout ball and gave up just three hits. The 2011 NL Cy Young winner also struck out 10 and walked two. The impressive start lowered his ERA this season from 1.94 to 1.88.

OVERALL TEAM OF THE WEEK:

The Los Angeles Dodgers. LA had the best record in the division this week at 4-2, but more importantly, they clinched the 12th NL West crown since divisional play began in 1969.

WORST INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK:

Rockies' starting pitcher Jhoulys Chacin. The righty gave up seven runs over four innings against the Red Sox on Wednesday September 25th. The poor start raised his ERA from 3.21 to 3.47.

Dodgers vs. Giants: Tim Federowicz starts behind the plate, Pablo Sandoval scratched

By Eric Stephen

A.J. Ellis is likely to get two consecutive games off, beginning Thursday night in San Francisco.

The final road game of the season is here, and the Dodgers will send out what is mostly their likely playoff lineup against the Giants on Thursday night in San Francisco. Only catcher A.J. Ellis gets the night off in the series finale at AT&T Park.

Starting Lineups

Dodgers Giants

RF Puig CF Pagan (S)

LF Crawford (L) LF Blanco (L)

SS Ramirez 1B Belt (L)

1B Gonzalez (L) C Posey

CF Kemp RF Pence

3B Uribe 2B Abreu (S)

2B Ellis SS Crawford (L)

C Federowicz 3B Noonan (L)

P Volquez P Lincecum (L)

Ellis will likely get two days in a row off, as Tim Federowicz is expected to catch Clayton Kershaw on Friday night at Dodger Stadium. Before last weekend in San Diego manager Don Mattingly said Tim Federowicz would catch Kershaw and Zack Greinke in one of their final two starts just to gain more experience and familiarity in catching them should he need to catch during the postseason.

Ellis caught Kershaw on Saturday against the Padres, with Federowicz catching Greinke on Sunday.

Federowicz is hitting .282/.316/.380 with four doubles and a home run in 23 games, including 20 starts, since the All-Star break.

Pablo Sandoval was originally in the starting lineup for the Giants but was scratched with the flu, per Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle. Nick Noonan, who made a diving stop and throw to rob Hanley Ramirez of a single to end Wednesday night's game, starts at third base for Sandoval.

Game info

Time: 7:15 p.m.

TV: Prime Ticket

Clayton Kershaw wins 2013 Roy Campanella Award

By Eric Stephen

The left-handed pitcher captured the eighth annual award on Thursday.

Dodgers ace pitcher Clayton Kershaw on Thursday was named the winner of the 2013 Roy Campanella Award, an honor given annually to the player deemed most inspirational on the team. The award, which has been given out since 2006, is voted on by Dodgers players and coaches.

The award is given annually to the player who best exemplifies the "spirit and leadership" of Campanella, the former Brooklyn Dodgers catcher who won three MVP awards (1951, 1953, 1955) and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1971.

More Kershaw awards: 2011 NL Cy Young 2012 Roberto Clemente 2013 Branch Rickey

The award will be presented to Kershaw on the field at Dodger Stadium before Saturday night's game against the Rockies. Campanella's daughter, Joni Campanella Roan, will give Kershaw the award.

Roy Campanella Award winners

Year Player

2006 Rafael Furcal

2007 Russell Martin

2008 James Loney

2009 Juan Pierre

2010 Jamey Carroll

2011 Matt Kemp

2012 A.J. Ellis

2013 Clayton Kershaw

Kershaw is 15-9 with a major-league-best 1.88 ERA this season, and leads the National League with 224 strikeouts. With one more start remaining on Friday, Kershaw will become the first pitcher to lead the major leagues in ERA for three straight seasons since Greg Maddux from 1993-1995.

In addition to his on-field excellence, Kershaw and his wife Ellen head Kershaw's Challenge, which supports charities in Los Angeles and Dallas in addition to abroad. In partnership with Arise Africa, Kershaw built an orphanage called "Hope's Home" in Lusaka, Zambia.

Kershaw won the 2012 Roberto Clemente Award and the 2013 Branch Rickey Award, both honors for his work on and off the field.

In conjunction with the award the Dodgers will for a fourth consecutive year make a financial contribution to Roy and Roxie Campanella Scholarship Program to the physical therapy department of the college of health and human development at Cal State Northridge.

Dodgers vs. Giants: Road schedule ends in San Francisco

By Eric Stephen

The Dodgers started out the season 4-10 on the road against the National League West, but have gone 16-7 within the division away from home since.

The Dodgers close out the road portion of their regular season schedule on Thursday night with the series finale against the Giants at AT&T Park in San Francisco. The Dodgers have been quite successful away from home this season and with a win on Thursday would tie the 10th best road record for the club since moving to Los Angeles in 1958.

Best road records, LA Dodgers

Year Road W-L Playoffs?

1974 50-31 yes

1963 49-32 yes

1988 49-32 yes

1970 48-32 no

1962 48-34 no

1965 47-34 yes

1971 47-34 no

1977 47-34 yes

1985 47-34 yes

2002 46-35 no

2013 45-35 yes

1973 45-35 no

1982 45-36 no

2009 45-36 yes

Much like the 2013 season as a whole, the bulk of the wins came during the Dodgers' 53-13 stretch from June 22 to Sept. 3. The Dodgers were 29-5 on the road during that stretch, including a 15-game road winning streak that was the longest in the National League since the 1957 Cincinnati Reds.

The Dodgers are 45-35 away from home this season, one of 14 LA Dodger teams to reach 45 road victories. Eight of the 14 teams made the playoffs, and in three other years (1962, 1971, 1982) they were eliminated on the final day of the season.

There is an outside chance, if the Dodgers win Thursday night then get swept by the Rockies at Dodger Stadium (where the team is 46-32), that the 2013 Dodgers could have a road record at least match their home record for the seventh time since moving to Los Angeles, something done in 1971, 1972, 1982, 1988, 1995 and 2002.

Edinson Volquez takes the mound in Thursday's road finale, still looking for his first win as a Dodger. Volquez actually hasn't pitched that badly for the Dodgers, with a 4.30 ERA, 22 strikeouts and five walks in 23 innings. Of course he has also allowed five home runs, but at the very least he seems improved from the pitcher with a 6.01 ERA while pitching half his games in Petco Park.

Since Volquez was really only signed to provide extra rest for the starting rotation in September, he faced long odds of even sniffing the Dodgers' postseason roster. But with the final bullpen spot* likely a battle with Carlos Marmol, Chris Capuano, Brandon League, Volquez at least has a puncher's chance of pitching in October.

*I consider Kenley Jansen, Brian Wilson, Ronald Belisario, Paco Rodriguez, J.P. Howell and Chris Withrow to be locks for the playoff bullpen.

He'll have to improve on his season numbers versus the Giants in his final regular season start if Volquez will even be considered for the playoff roster, though. Volquez is 0-1 with a 6.65 ERA in four starts this season against San Francisco, and the Giants are hitting .322/.351/.506 against him. In 10 career starts against the Giants he is 2-2 with a 5.92 ERA.

One night after Barry Zito beat the Dodgers in his Giants farewell, free-agent-to-be Tim Lincecum takes the hill for San Francisco in his final regular season start.

Game info

Time: 7:15 p.m.

TV: Prime Ticket

1988 Dodgers Week 25 review: Magic number down to 1

By Eric Stephen

The Dodgers pitched two shutouts against the Astros, won once against the Padres and took two of three games against the Giants during the week, and clinched at least a tie for the National League West.

The Dodgers had a busy week, with eight games in seven days. They got two more shutouts from Orel Hershiser — one in Houston, another in San Francisco — and won five of their eight games during the week. They had a chance to clinch the National League West on Sunday but settled for ending the week with a magic number of one to clinch their first division title in three years.

Dodger Batter of the Week: Second baseman Steve Sax set the table all week, hitting .345 (10-for-29) with two doubles, three walks and four stolen bases. He narrowly beat Mike Marshall, who slugged two home runs and three doubles during the week.

Dodger Pitcher of the Week: Two more shutouts make this an easy choice. Orel Hershiser takes the honors this week after extending his scoreless streak to 49 innings. Honorable mention goes to Tim Belcher, who allowed two runs in 17 innings and pitched a shutout of his own on Tuesday in Houston.

Week 25 Record: 5-3

30 runs scored (3.75 per game)24 runs allowed (3.00 per game).601 pythagorean winning percentage

Seasonal Record: 91-64

612 runs scored (3.92 per game)526 runs allowed (3.37 per game).569 pythagorean winning percentage (88-67)

Potent potables: With the Dodgers on the precipice of winning the NL West, the club has decided to temporarily lift its ban on alcohol in the clubhouse for special occasions, such as celebrating a division win. "It was no big deal," Dodgers player representative Dave Anderson told Sam McManis of the LA Times. "We hope we get to do it three times."

Transactions:

Thursday: The Dodgers signed all of Tommy Lasorda's coaching staff — hitting coach Ben Hines, pitching coach Ron Perranoski, first base coach Manny Mota, third base coach Joey Amalfitano, bullpen coach Mark Cresse, Bill Russell and Joe Ferguson — to contracts for the 1989 season.

Game Results:

Monday, Sept. 19: Dodgers 1, Astros 0

Tuesday, Sept. 20: Dodgers 6, Astros 0

Wednesday, Sept. 21: Game 1 - Padres 9, Dodgers 3 | Game 2 - Dodgers 6, Padres 5 (10)

Thursday, Sept. 22: Padres 5, Dodgers 4

Friday, Sept. 23: Dodgers 3, Giants 0

Saturday, Sept. 24: Dodgers 7, Giants 3

Sunday, Sept. 25: Giants 2, Dodgers 0

Upcoming Week: The Dodgers run the Don Mason gauntlet, finishing up their regular season with three games in San Diego and three at home against the Giants. The Dodgers will activate Fernando Valenzuela, who has been on the disabled list since July 31 with a strained left shoulder, to start Monday night in San Diego.

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun

26at SD7:05pm

27at SD7:05pm

28at SD7:05pm

29Off

30vs. SF7:35pm

1vs. SF1:10pm

2vs. SF1:10pm

Valenzuela v.Rasmussen (L)

Leary v.Show (R)

Hershiser v.Hawkins (L)

Tudor v.Cook (L)

Belcher v.Reuschel (R)

Leary v.Robinson (R)

Previous 1988 weeks in review: April 4-10 | April 11-17 | April 18-24 | April 25-May 1 | May 2-8 | May 9-15 | May 16-22 | May 23-29 | May 30-June 5 | June 6-12 | June 13-19 | June 20-26 | June 27-July 3 | July 4-10 | July 11-17 | July 18-24 | July 25-31 | Aug 1-7 | Aug 8-14 | Aug 15-21 | Aug 22-28 | Aug 29-Sept 4 | Sept 5-11 | Sept 12-18

Week 25 Stats

Player PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SB/CS BA/OBP/SLG OPS

Marshall 25 25 3 8 3 0 2 4 0 1/0 .320/.320/.680 1.000

Sax 32 29 3 10 2 0 0 3 3 4/0 .345/.406/.414 .820

Shelby 29 28 2 6 1 0 2 4 0 0/0 .214/.207/.464 .671

Hatcher 17 16 1 3 0 0 1 4 1 0/0 .188/.235/.375 .610

Scioscia 7 7 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0/0 .286/.286/.286 .571

Griffin 30 28 4 7 0 0 0 2 2 0/0 .250/.300/.250 .550

Hamilton 31 29 3 4 1 0 1 2 0 0/1 .138/.167/.276 .443

Gibson 17 15 1 1 0 0 0 2 1 1/0 .067/.118/.067 .184

Davis 2 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0/0 .500/.500/.500 1.000

Stubbs 18 15 2 5 1 0 1 2 2 0/0 .333/.389/.600 .989

Dempsey 21 18 3 6 2 0 0 2 3 0/0 .333/.429/.444 .873

Woodson 14 14 2 5 1 0 0 0 0 0/0 .357/.357/.429 .786

Devereaux 10 9 1 2 1 0 0 1 1 0/0 .222/.300/.333 .633

Sharperson 7 7 1 2 0 0 0 2 0 0/0 .286/.286/.286 .571

Gwynn 4 4 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0/0 .250/.250/.250 .500

Anderson 4 4 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0/0 .250/.250/.250 .500

Gonzalez 5 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0/0 .000/.200/.000 .200

Heep 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0/0 .000/.000/.000 .000

Reyes 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0/0 .000/.000/.000 .000

Pitchers 16 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0/0 .000/.077/.000 .077

Totals 295 272 30 64 12 0 7 29 15 6/1 .235/.275/.357 .632

Pitcher G W-L Sv IP H R ER BB K ERA WHIP FIP*

Hershiser 2 2-0 -- 18 9 0 0 2 7 0.00 0.611 2.28

Belcher 2 1-1 -- 17 13 2 2 4 10 1.06 1.000 2.07

Leary 1 0-0 -- 7 7 4 2 2 6 2.57 1.286 3.89

Tudor 1 0-0 -- 4 8 2 2 0 2 4.50 2.000 8.39

Brennan 1 0-0 -- 2⅔ 4 4 4 1 4 13.50 1.875 1.01

Martinez 1 0-1 -- 1 3 6 6 4 1 54.00 7.000 12.89

Starters 8 3-2 -- 49⅔ 44 18 16 13 30 2.90 1.148 3.07

Holton 2 0-0 -- 5 4 0 0 2 4 0.00 1.200 2.49

Crews 2 0-0 -- 4 3 1 0 1 4 0.00 1.000 0.89

Orosco 2 0-0 1 3⅔ 3 1 0 3 2 0.00 1.636 4.25

Howell, K 1 0-0 -- 2 1 0 0 0 0 0.00 0.500 2.89

Howell, J 1 1-0 -- 1 0 0 0 0 3 0.00 0.000 (3.11)

Pena 2 0-1 -- 3⅓ 1 1 1 0 4 2.70 0.300 4.39

Horton 3 1-0 -- 3⅓ 4 3 3 2 3 8.10 1.800 6.79

Relievers 8 2-1 1 22⅓ 16 6 4 8 20 1.61 1.075 3.20

Totals 8 5-3 1 72 60 24 20 21 50 2.50 1.125 3.11

*FIP is estimated

2013 World Series odds: Dodgers, Red Sox co-favorites

By Eric Stephen

If the favorites per Bovada advance to the World Series, we will see a rematch of the 1916 Fall Classic.

A September swoon has led to less money bet on the Dodgers to win it all, and as a result the team's World Series odds have taken a hit. The Dodgers have gone from favorites to co-favorites now with the Red Sox at 4/1 odds to win the 2013 World Series, per the folks at Bovada.

The Dodgers have been favorites to win it all since mid-August, near the end of a remarkable 53-13 run that saw the Dodgers play .803 baseball for over 10 weeks. But 12 losses in their last 20 games have put a damper on that somewhat. The club had 15/4 odds to win the World Series on Sept. 18.

Dodgers World Series odds: Aug. 16: 9/2 Sept. 4: 10/3 Sept. 18: 15/4

Outside of the Dodgers and Red Sox, the Tigers are 5/1 to win the World Series, with the Braves 7/1, the Athletics and Cardinals at 15/2, and Reds and Pirates at 14/1. The Rays have 16/1 odds to win it all, followed by the Indians at 20/1 and Rangers at 22/1.

The Dodgers are the favorites to win the National League pennant, with 7/5 odds. The Braves and Cardinals both have 13/4 odds to win the pennant, while the Pirates and Reds each have 13/2 odds.

The Red Sox are a 19/10 favorite to win the American League pennant, followed by the Tigers at 9/4. The Athletics have 7/2 odds to win the AL pennant, followed by the Rays at 17/2, the Indians at 10/1 and the Rangers at 12/1.

The NLDS begins on Thursday, Oct. 3.

Yasiel Puig, Clayton Kershaw among MLB most popular jerseys

By Eric Stephen

Between Yasiel Puig, Clayton Kershaw and Hyun-jin Ryu, the Dodgers have three of the 17 most popular jersey sales since the All-Star break. The Yankees are the only other team with three players in the top 20.

Yasiel Puig may be a rookie, but he is one of the most popular players in baseball. Puig's jersey was the third-most sold after the All-Star break on MLB.com/shop, Major League Baseball Announced on Thursday.

Puig trailed only Mariano Rivera of the Yankees and Matt Harvey of the Mets in second-half jersey sales. Clayton Kershaw had the sixth most popular jersey since the All-Star break, and Hyun-jin Ryu was 17th.

At the All-Star break Puig had the 10th most popular jersey since the beginning of the season, a remarkable achievement since he was wasn't called up until June 3. Here are the top 20 jersey sales since the All-Star break, per MLB:

1. Mariano Rivera, Yankees

2. Matt Harvey, Mets

3. Puig, Dodgers

4. Manny Machado, Orioles

5. Buster Posey, Giants

6. Kershaw, Dodgers

7. Yadier Molina, Cardinals

8. Andrew McCutchen, Pirates

9. Yoenis Cespedes, Athletics

10. Mike Trout, Angels

11. Dustin Pedroia, Red Sox

12. Derek Jeter, Yankees

13. David Wright, Mets

14. Miguel Cabrera, Tigers

15. Bryce Harper, Nationals

16. Chris Davis, Orioles

17. Ryu, Dodgers

18. David Ortiz, Red Sox

19. Robinson Cano, Yankees

20. Paul Goldschmidt, Diamondbacks

In the first-half in addition to Puig, Ryu was 11th, Matt Kemp 15th and Kershaw 16th.

Dodgers fan fatally stabbed outside AT&T Park

By Eric Stephen

Jonathan Denver, the son of a Dodgers security guard, was killed in a confrontation after Wednesday night's game between the Dodgers and Giants.

The rivalry between the Dodgers and Giants took an ugly turn as a Dodgers fan was fatally stabbed outside of AT&T Park after Wednesday night's game. The fan was identified as 24-year-old Jonathan Denver, per CBS San Francisco:

Denver was walking away from the stadium with his father and brother when a verbal disagreement led to a physical confrontation involving a knife, police said.

He was stabbed during the fight and transported to the hospital where he succumbed to his injuries, police said.

The fight took place at approximately 11:30 p.m. PT, per Kurtis Alexander and Henry K. Lee of the San Francisco Chronicle:

Officers responded to reports that 10 people, including both Dodgers and Giants fans, were involved in a fight, with one man armed with a knife and a second man armed with a bat. Further details of how the confrontation occurred have not been released.

Three people were detained in connection with the stabbing, per multiple reports. Two men were arrested, per the LA Times.

Denver is the son of a Dodgers security guard. The Dodgers released a statement on Thursday afternoon:

The Dodgers are shocked and saddened to learn of the death of Jonathan Denver, who is the son of one of our security guards.

There is no rational explanation for this senseless act which resulted in Jonathan's death. The pain that this has caused his family and friends is unimaginable. Words are not enough to describe our sadness. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family during this extremely difficult time.

The Giants also released a statement on Thursday:

We were deeply saddened to learn of last night's horrific incident that occurred several blocks from the ballpark and resulted in the tragic death of 24-year old Jonathan Denver. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family during this difficult time.

While details are still emerging, we want to be clear that there is absolutely no place in our community for this type of senseless violence.

The Giants are working with the San Francisco Police Department to step up enforcement in and around the ballpark tonight and throughout the rest of this final home stand. We will also observe a moment of silence in memory of Mr. Denver before tonight's game.

LAIST

Here Comes Outdoor Hockey at Dodger Stadium

By: Jimmy Bramlett

Thursday afternoon at Dodger Stadium the Kings and the Ducks came together to formally unveil the Los Angeles version of the Stadium Series. With the infield marked by barriers where the ice will set up, officials from the NHL, the Dodgers and both teams looked forward to the game scheduled on January 25.

Dodger president Stan Kasten was really excited about the event. "What will distinguish this event from all the other events in the Stadium Series is no one is going to have the shot we're going to have," he said. "No one is going to have the shot of that great NHL sheet of ice in front of our bleachers, our palm trees and our San Gabriel Mountains."

The Kings-Ducks game will launch the Stadium Series that includes two games at Yankee Stadium: New Jersey Devils vs. New York Rangers on Jan. 26 and New York Islanders vs. New York Rangers on Jan. 29. The Chicago Blackhawks and Pittsburgh Penguins will close the series out on Mar. 1 at Soldier Field in Chicago.

In prior years the NHL hosted two outdoor games: the Winter Classic on New Years Day and the Heritage Classic. A lot of fans worried that having six outdoor games would tarnish the novelty of the concept, however NHL commissioner Gary Bettman disagreed.

"The reaction of the fans — the intensity, the emotion, the excitement — is off the charts," Bettman said. "What we're hearing from our fans, from our clubs and from the markets in which we play is they can't get enough of these. Teams that have had a game don't want to wait 10 or 15 year to get another one, and teams that haven't been in one want to be in one.

"The number of games is dictated more by what we can handle logistically because the level of interest is off the charts."

When the Kings broke their playoff drought in 2010, Bettman was asked about the possibility of getting an outdoor game here in Los Angeles. He sheepishly danced around the question back then. Three years later, reality is here. What changed?

"Dan Craig, our expert ice maker, has repeatedly told me that he could make it work, that it won't be a problem, that the ice will be good," Bettman said.

The average temperature in Los Angeles in January is 68 degrees, though it has been known to get as high as the 90s. That would probably be considered the worst case scenario, so I suppose we'll see what happens if that is the case.

A note of advice when purchasing tickets for the game. Avoid field level and field box seats close to the field. The view isn't that great. The best seats will probably be in the loge section or in the back of the field level.

Dodger Fan Stabbed to Death Near AT&T Park [UPDATED]

By: Jimmy Bramlett

Our sister site SFist has the story on a Dodger fan getting stabbed to death several blocks away from AT&T Park after the Giants 6-4 victory.

Jonathan Denver, 24, was walking away from the ballpark with his father and brother, all wearing Dodger clothing, when an verbal altercation began near Third and Harrison streets. A knife and a bat were then produced, and Denver was stabbed to death at around 11:30 p.m. — less than 90 minutes after the game ended.

Authorities have not revealed additional details as to what sparked the fight or confirmed whether Denver and his family had attended the game. But it's pretty safe to assume that a group of three guys walking away from AT&T Park in the SoMa district of San Francisco in Dodger blue had attended a Giants and Dodger game.

So I guess it's safe to assume the wave of hysteria over the safety at Giants games in San Francisco to begin right about now?

After the Giants fan Bryan Stow was beaten in the Dodger Stadium parking lot in 2011, people everywhere started saying how unsafe Dodger Stadium was, how the gang culture had taken over the Ravine and all kinds of thinly veiled racist comments.

Combine this with another Dodger fan being assaulted in the bathroom at AT&T park in 2012, can we now hop on the wave of Giants fans being every bit as bad as Dodger fans?

So let's start a similar outcry. Where was the police presence a mere blocks from the ballpark? Is the intersection well lit? What will San Francisco, both the city and the team, do about their thug fans?

UPDATE 2:50PM: The Dodgers have issued a statement about Denver's death, and reveal his connection to the ball team:

“The Dodgers are shocked and saddened to learn of the death of Jonathan Denver, who is the son of one of our security guards. There is no rational explanation for this senseless act which resulted in Jonathan's death. The pain that this has caused his family and friends is unimaginable. Words are not enough to describe our sadness. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family during this extremely difficult time.”

Dodgers Yasiel Puig and Clayton Kershaw Among Top Second Half Jersey Sales

By: Jimmy Bramlett

Major League Baseball issued their list of top jersey sales since the All Star Break in mid-July, and Dodgers Yasiel Puig and Clayton Kershaw were among the head of the class.

While the departing Mariano Rivera of the Yankees topped the list for obvious reasons, the list was filled with emerging stars. The Angels Mike Trout was tenth on the list and Dodgers starter Ryu Hyun-Jin was 17th.

According to the press release:

Players representing 13 different Clubs make up the top 20 (including nine different Clubs in the top 10), with only the Dodgers (Puig, Clayton Kershaw and Hyun-Jin Ryu) and the Yankees (Rivera, Derek Jeter

and Robinson Cano) having as many as three players on the list. The top 20 includes 16 players who were All-Stars this year, nine infielders, five outfielders, four pitchers and two catchers.

The list as follows:

1. Mariano Rivera, New York Yankees2. Matt Harvey, New York Mets3. Yasiel Puig, Los Angeles Dodgers4. Manny Machado, Baltimore Orioles5. Buster Posey, San Francisco Giants6. Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers7. Yadier Molina, St. Louis Cardinals8. Andrew McCutchen, Pittsburgh Pirates9. Yoenis Cespedes, Oakland Athletics10. Mike Trout, LA Angels of Anaheim11. Dustin Pedroia, Boston Red Sox12. Derek Jeter, New York Yankees13. David Wright, New York Mets14. Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers15. Bryce Harper, Washington Nationals16. Chris Davis, Baltimore Orioles17. Hyun-Jin Ryu, Los Angeles Dodgers18. David Ortiz, Boston Red Sox19. Robinson Cano, New York Yankees20. Paul Goldschmidt, Arizona Diamondbacks

CBSSPORTS.COM

Suspect arrested in stabbing death of Dodgers fan in San Francisco

By Dayn Perry | Baseball Writer

Police in San Francisco have arrested a suspect in connection with the stabbing death of 24-year-old Dodgers fan Jonathan Denver mere blocks from AT&T Park and not long after the Dodgers-Giants game on Wednesday.

CBS Bay Area reports that Michael Montgomery, age 21 and a resident of Lodi, Calif., will be booked on homicide charges as soon as Thursday night. San Francisco police Chief Greg Suhr says that one other suspect is being questioned and another is still being sought.

Some details on what unfolded, again courtesy of CBS Bay Area:

Denver, who was wearing Dodgers clothing, was with his father, brother and two other people at the time. They had left the game in the eighth inning and had gone to a nearby bar, San Francisco police Chief Greg Suhr said at a news conference Thursday morning.

After exiting the bar, the group encountered a group of Giants fans and there was “a back-and-forth” about the teams' rivalry, Suhr said.

A minor fight erupted but was quickly broken up, the chief said.

Suhr said that what happened next remains unclear, but that one of the groups followed the other group and a second altercation ensued minutes later, during which Denver was stabbed. He was taken to San Francisco General Hospital, where he died.

Marty Montgomery, Michael's father, told the 'Lodi News-Sentinel' his son was attacked and he stabbed Denver in self-defense.

Montgomery's father also said his son told him Denver hit him over the head with a chair, and in order to defend himself, his son stabbed Denver.

According to the father, Denver yelled "Giants suck," at Montgomery's friend, who was wearing a Giants hat. Then Denver and others attacked his son and their friends without warning.

Denver's death comes some two years after Giants fan Bryan Stow was nearly beaten to death in the Dodger Stadium parking lot.

REUTERS

California man arrested in stabbing death of Dodgers fan

By Laila Kearney

SAN FRANCISCO

(Reuters) - A 21-year-old California man was arrested on Thursday in the stabbing death of a Los Angeles Dodgers fan just blocks from the San Francisco Giants baseball stadium in a fight between fans of the rival franchises.

Michael Montgomery of Lodi, California, was booked on suspicion of homicide, San Francisco police said. Police gave no information on a second man who was detained earlier on Thursday and it was not immediately clear if he remained in custody.

Jonathan Denver, the son of a Dodgers security guard, was stabbed by a Giants supporter on Wednesday night blocks away from AT&T Park, police said. Denver, 24, of the Northern California town of Fort Bragg, was taken to a hospital where he died of his wounds.

Denver, who was dressed in Dodgers gear, had been with a group of Dodgers fans who left a bar after Wednesday's game. At around the same time, a rival group left a nearby nightclub, and a shouting match ensued, police said.

"It started off with a back-and-forth: ‘Go Dodgers!' ‘Go Giants!' and it deteriorated from there," said San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr.

The death follows a 2011 attack on Giants fan Bryan Stow, who was badly beaten in a Dodger Stadium parking lot in an attacks that raised concerns about stadium security.

Stow, a paramedic and father of two, suffered brain damage. Two men are awaiting trial on charges stemming from that beating.

"The Dodgers are shocked and saddened to learn of the death of Jonathan Denver," the team said on its official Facebook page. "There is no rational explanation for this senseless act which resulted in Jonathan's death. The pain that this has caused his family and friends is unimaginable."

The deadly fight began just over an hour after the Giants' 6-4 win over the Dodgers, police said. It was not immediately clear which group started the fight, and a murder weapon had not been located, Suhr said.

San Francisco police planned to increase uniformed and undercover patrol operations at a game scheduled for Thursday night between the Giants and the Dodgers. Some police officers would be wearing Dodgers attire, Suhr said.

(Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis, Cynthia Johnston and Philip Barbara)

USA TODAY

Giants, Dodgers shocked over stabbing death of fan

Jorge L. Ortiz, USA TODAY Sports

SAN FRANCISCO - The memory of Bryan Stow's brutal beating has been rekindled, with an even more tragic twist.

A 24-year-old son of a Los Angeles Dodgers security guard clad in the team's gear was stabbed to death near AT&T Park late Wednesday night following a fight sparked by an argument over the Dodgers and their longtime rivals, the San Francisco Giants.

San Francisco Police Department Chief Greg Suhr identified the man as 24-year-old Jonathan Denver, who the Dodgers later confirmed is the son of one of their security guards. Sgt. Danielle Newman said Michael Montgomery, 21, of Lodi, Calif., was arrested on murder charges. Police were seeking information on two other suspects.

The fatal stabbing took place 2½ years after Stow, a paramedic from Santa Cruz and a Giants fan, was beaten unconscious during an attack in the Dodger Stadium parking lot on Opening Day 2011. He sustained permanent brain damage and remains under constant home supervision.

FAN KILLED: Altercation outside bar preceded fatal fight

"We've all heard about the Bryan Stow (attack) down in L.A. and you'd think people would learn from stuff like that,'' Dodgers second baseman Mark Ellis said. "If they're arguing about the teams, it's great to be a passionate fan, it's awesome. But to take it that far, it's crazy. You get alcohol involved and nothing good ever happens."

Suhr said Denver attended Wednesday's Dodgers-Giants game with his father, girlfriend, two brothers and a male friend, and they left in the eighth inning around 10 p.m. to go to a nearby bar.

Some 90 minutes later, they had a street confrontation with four Giants fans who did not attend the game but came into town for an event at a bar about half a mile from the ballpark. Suhr said the groups had an exchange about the teams' rivalry and it turned into a fight, but was broken up without serious injuries.

Shortly afterward, he added, the parties engaged in a second altercation that resulted in Denver's fatal stabbing on Stillman Street, located under a freeway overpass around the corner from several bars and restaurants. Police were looking for the murder weapon and seeking help from anybody who may have taken video of the events.

"There is no place at these games for violence,'' Suhr said in a news conference Thursday. "Nobody's life should be at stake, whether they're at the game, or six blocks away and an hour and a half after the game.

"That anybody got into any sort of beef over the Giants and the Dodgers and somebody lost their life, it is just senseless.''

Police presence at and around the ballpark, already enhanced under what the SFPD calls the "Rivalry Package,'' was boosted even more, with some officers dressed in Dodgers attire.

"I thought about not wearing my gear tonight, but then I thought that it'll probably be the safest night of the year, what with all the extra security," said Clay Brust, a 44-year-old lawyer from Reno who wore a Dodgers cap and brought his 11-year-old son to the game. "I've been to Raiders games, and those are scary. I've never seen it get bad in the Giants-Dodgers rivalry. There are verbal jabs, but they always end with joking."

Giants third base coach Tim Flannery, also a musician who has played benefits concerts and recorded an album to raise money for Stow's medical costs, has noticed a change in the ballpark culture.

"It's such a tragic, tragic piece of humanity that we even have to discuss something like this happening," Flannery said. "I don't consider this to be something that happened between fans—it's a hate crime. These aren't rivalries, these aren't fans—they're thugs. It comes from a place of anger and rage.

"There's no way I believe that fans come to a baseball game to fight. This is something thugs do. People of hate just use the game as a place to have that happen. To ruin lives over a nine-inning baseball game is just crazy.

"From my third-base coaching box, I've watched the rage in the stands escalate over the last five or six years. It's greater now than I've ever seen it. That's society. I really don't know what's going on."

The Giants issued a statement denouncing the violence and announced they would hold a moment of silence before Thursday night's game.

"We're here to provide entertainment and a release from people's everyday lives—not to incite violence," said Giants reliever Javier Lopez. "When you hear these stories, your heart just goes out to the victim."

Contributing: Jason Turbow

Bar altercation preceded fatal stabbing of Dodgers fan

Jorge L. Ortiz, USA TODAY Sports

SAN FRANCISCO - An altercation outside a bar between Giants and Dodgers fans preceded the fight that ultimately resulted in the fatal stabbing of a 24-year-old man who attended Wednesday night's game at AT&T Park, police said Thursday.

Two men have been arrested but not yet charged in the death of Jonathan Denver, who was clad in Los Angeles Dodgers garb when he was assaulted, said San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr.

Suhr said two other men are being sought in connection with the stabbing.

"There was a back-and-forth about the Giants-Dodgers rivalry, which deteriorated into a physical fight," said Suhr, who noted the alleged assailants did not attend the game.

Denver, who the San Jose Mercury News reported was a resident of Fort Bragg, Calif., attended the game with his father, girlfriend, two brothers and another male friend. They left the game - won by the Giants, 6-4 - in the eighth inning, around 10 p.m. local time, and went to a bar several blocks from AT&T Park.

It was in that area that they encountered the group of four Giants fans, who came to San Francisco for an event at the bar. Suhr said the group's vehicle was registered in Lodi, Calif.

Suhr said the initial fight outside the bar did not result in any injuries, but that one of the groups pursued an additional altercation that occurred in Stillman Alley, located under a freeway overpass around the corner from several bars and restaurants about a half-mile from AT&T Park.

It was then - around 11:30 p.m. - that Denver suffered his fatal stab wound. Suhr said police have not recovered the murder weapon.

"There is no place at these games for violence. Nobody's life should be at stake, whether they're at the game, leaving the game, whether it's six blocks away and an hour and a half after the game.

"The fact that anybody got into any sort of beef over the Giants and the Dodgers and somebody lost their life, it is just senseless."

Suhr said his department already has what he termed a "rivalry package" of protection for games such as the Giants and Dodgers, or the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys. At Thursday night's season finale, he said undercover officers will be clad in Dodger gear - and, to a lesser extent, Giants clothing - to try and identify potentially problematic fans.

STOW: Family fights for care two years after attack

Said the Giants in a prepared statement: "While details are still emerging, we want to be clear that there is absolutely no place in our community for this type of senseless violence. The Giants are working with the San Francisco Police Department to step up enforcement in and around the ballpark tonight and throughout the rest of this final home stand. We will also observe a moment of silence in memory of Mr. Denver before tonight's game."

It was on Opening Day in 2011 when Giants fan Bryan Stow was critically beaten in the Dodger Stadium parking lot, suffering a traumatic brain injury; he remains under constant supervision in his Northern California home.

Wednesday's incident came just three days after a teenage football fan was attacked at Candlestick Park during the San 49ers 27-7 loss to the Indianapolis Colts. Other violence broke out at the game on Sunday despite an increase in security. The stadium was also the site of two shootings, beatings and fights during a preseason game two years ago.

ABC NEWS

Dodgers: Slain Fan Was Son of Team Security Guard

By SUDHIN THANAWALA and TERRY COLLINS Associated Press

It just started as words between two groups of fans of bitter baseball rivals.

"The back and forth, 'Go Dodgers!' 'Go Giants!'" San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr said Thursday. "And it deteriorated from there."

The verbal sparring Wednesday night turned physical and a man, Jonathan Denver, was fatally stabbed hours after the Los Angeles Dodgers lost to the Giants in San Francisco. Denver's father, Robert Preece, worked security on game days at Dodger Stadium, the team said.

"There is no rational explanation for this senseless act," the Dodgers said in a statement. "The pain that this has caused his family and friends is unimaginable."

Meanwhile, the father of suspect Michael Montgomery, accused of stabbing Denver to death, said his son told him it was done in self-defense.

Police say Denver, 24, was with his father, older brother and two other people a few blocks from the Giants' stadium after leaving the ballpark in the eighth inning of the Giants 6-4 victory when their group exchanged words with some Giants fans. The Giants fans didn't attend the game and had left a nightclub.

San Francisco police said Michael Montgomery, 21, of Lodi, was arrested on suspicion of homicide. Suhr said Montgomery made some "incriminating statements" while in custody that led to his arrest.

Another person, whose name was not released, was also taken into custody. Police said they were still looking for two more suspects.

But Montgomery's father said late Thursday that his son was jumped during the fight, and he stabbed Denver in self-defense.

Marty Montgomery told the Lodi News-Sentinel that his son said by phone that Denver, who was wearing Dodgers apparel, yelled, "Giants suck," at Montgomery's friend, who was wearing a Giants hat, when Denver and others hit his son and their friends without warning.

Marty Montgomery said that during the fight, Denver hit his son over the head with a chair, and in self-defense, his son, Michael, stabbed Denver.

"It was a self-defense deal," Marty Montgomery said. "(Michael) got jumped. (Denver and friends) started swinging chairs and he stabbed (Denver). (Denver) mouthed off about the San Francisco hat. It wasn't even (Michael's) hat."

The father said he had been trying to reach his son on Thursday when his son called him and told him about the fight.

"He's freaking out," Marty Montgomery said. "He's like, 'I saw him die in his dad's arms.'"

Denver was born in Los Angeles County but was living in Fort Bragg, about 170 miles north of San Francisco, his friend Matt Gomes said late Thursday. "He was an amazing guy who made everybody happy and made them laugh. He was there for everybody," Gomes said.

Denver apparently was trying to help a buddy who was getting beat up during the fight, Gomes said. "He was defending his friend," Gomes said. "And then he got stabbed and died."

Gomes said he doesn't believe Denver, his family and friends started the fight.

Janet Alvarado, Denver's aunt, told KNBC-TV in Los Angeles that Jonathan Denver was a "gentle, sweet boy." Speaking from her home in Covina, she called his death senseless and said she had no idea how it happened.

"I wish I could tell you how this happened, why this happened. I have no clue why anyone would do this to any family," she said.

Wednesday's fatal stabbing was the second violent confrontation between Dodgers and Giants fans in the past several years to end in death or serious injury. Bryan Stow, a Northern California paramedic and Giants fan, suffered a traumatic brain injury after two men dressed in Dodgers gear attacked him following the teams' March 31, 2011, game in Los Angeles. They are awaiting trial on charges in the beating, which sparked outrage and brought stadium security changes around the state and country.

Stow's family said in a statement Thursday that they were "horrified and deeply saddened" by Wednesday's violence. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family."

Denver, who just started a job as a plumbing apprentice, did have two recent brushes with the law in Mendocino County, according to KGO-TV. He was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in July, and for public intoxication at the county fair this month.

Police said they didn't know if alcohol was a factor in Wednesday's stabbing.

The teams, which moved west from New York in the 1950s, have long been rivals and fans' emotions run high when the teams play in both cities.

The Giants won the World Series last year and in 2010, but will miss the playoffs this season. The Dodgers, on the other hand, were in last place just two months ago, but clinched the division last week.

———

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Lisa Leff, Jason Dearen and Haven Daley, and Sports Writer Janie McCauley in San Francisco; AP Sports Writer Beth Harris in Los Angeles; and researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York.