LOS ANGELES DODGERS CLIPS

MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2013

OC REGISTER

Dodgers' bats carry them to Game 3 victory

By Bill Plunkett

LOS ANGELES – The Dodgers’ postseason hopes are fueled by their pitching. But they turned to an alternative energy source Sunday night.

Matching the franchise record for runs in a postseason game, the Dodgers bounced back from a potentially disastrous start by Hyun-Jin Ryu to overwhelm the Atlanta Braves, 13-6, and take a 2-1 advantage in their best-of-5 National League Division Series.

The Dodgers will send Ricky Nolasco to the mound against Braves reclamation project Freddy Garcia looking to close out the series in Game 4 Monday night – with a chase to save a lot of air miles and line up a well-rested Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke for Games 1 and 2 of the NLCS (potentially at home if the Pittsburgh Pirates maintain their advantage in their NLDS against the St. Louis Cardinals).

“He just left some balls out over the plate, you know, and made some mistakes,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said of his rookie starter, Julio Teheran, who didn’t make it through three innings.

“And with this club (the Dodgers), if you do that, you’re going to be looking down at a gas tank with a lighted match.”Carl Crawford, Hanley Ramirez and Adrian Gonzalez burned the Braves for seven hits – including a double and a triple by Ramirez and a three-run home run by Crawford. They drove in seven of the Dodgers’ 13 runs (the most they had scored in a postseason game since beating the New York Yankees 13-8 in Game 2 of the 1956 World Series) and scored six.

In his first taste of postseason play, Ramirez has gone 7 for 13 in the first three games with four doubles, a triple and a home run while driving in six runs. His six extra-base hits in the series have already matched the franchise record for a postseason series, matching Steve Garvey in the 1978 NLCS against the Philadelphia Phillies and Duke Snider in the 1952 World Series against the Yankees.

“I just hope he keeps it up and we can ride his coattail all the way to the World Series,” Crawford said of Ramirez.The Dodgers needed the offense to compensate for Ryu’s poor performance. He lasted just three innings, retiring only eight of the 16 batters he faced and needing 68 pitches to do that. He compounded his problems with two defensive mistakes in a two-run third inning. Tardy in covering first on a potential double play, he missed the base entirely then allowed a run to score when he pointlessly flipped Chris Johnson’s dribbler home with no chance to get an out there.

“Both incidents in the third were completely my fault,” Ryu said through his translator. “Me covering first base, I just rushed and I missed the bag. The next play … just a thoughtless mistake there.”

It was Ryu’s last. Dodgers manager Don Mattingly pinch-hit for him as the Dodgers regained the lead for good with two runs in the bottom of the third. On the roster for just this kind of situation, left-hander Chris Capuano came out of the bullpen – and walked the first batter in each of the next three innings.

“He had a really great game plan,” Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis joked. “Walk the first guy every inning, a false sense of security for them, then get the rest of the guys out.”

Capuano pitched three hitless innings, settling things down while the offense kicked in.

“Those nine outs he got were the difference-makers tonight,” Ellis said.

The offense put the game away with four unearned runs in the fourth inning when reliever Alex Wood misplayed Crawford’s leadoff bunt. Two batters later, Ramirez ripped a triple off the wall in left-center.

“At the plate right now, I’m not thinking,” Ramirez said. “I’m just looking at the ball and hit it, whatever the pitch is. It’s an unbelievable feeling when it’s less thinking, just produce. Go out there and have fun and play hard.”

One game away from advancing to the championship series, left-hander J.P. Howell (who took his place in the relief relay with 11/3 shutout innings) said there is no chance the Dodgers take anything for granted at this point.

“It’s easy because we remember May,” Howell said. “We remember how terrible it was and we know how quickly that can happen.”

The MLB playoffs return to Los Angeles

By Pedro Moura

It's been a while since the Dodgers last hosted a postseason game.

Need proof? The last playoff game at Dodger Stadium -- before tonight's 5:07 p.m. start for Game 3 of Dodgers-Braves -- was Oct. 16, 2009. The starters in that game were Vicente Padilla for the Dodgers and Pedro Martinez for the Phillies.Precisely one player who appeared for the Dodgers in that game is on this year's playoff roster -- and, he, Andre Ethier, isn't even starting tonight because of an ongoing ankle issue.

Tonight's Dodgers lineup looks exactly the same as it did for the first two games, with the lone exception of left-hander Hyun-jin Ryu batting ninth and on the mound. Ryu's start is a bit of an uncertainty, with his Friday bullpen session causing some consternation, as the Korean left-hander is famous for not throwing in between starts.

But both he and Dodger manager Don Mattingly insisted Saturday that everything's fine. We shall see in a couple hours; if Ryu can't work his way into the middle of the game, it's likely Mattingly will turn to left-hander Chris Capuano for a couple innings of relief.

Another option for long relief is right-hander Ricky Nolasco, but he's scheduled to start tomorrow in Game 4. The key word there is scheduled, because the Dodgers could -- and likely will -- turn to ace Clayton Kershaw to start that game on short rest if they lose tonight.

Nobody's saying for certain, and we may never know what their plan would be. But Nolasco said he'd understand if the Dodgers gave the ball to Kershaw instead of him.

"This isn't about me," Nolasco said. "This is about the team. Whatever decision they make is going to be the best decision for the team."

Crawford's impact felt during postseason

By Pedro Moura

LOS ANGELES – The Dodgers didn't have a fantastic April, but their 13-13 month would have been much worse had it not been for the unexpected production of left fielder Carl Crawford.

Through three postseason games in October, the rest of the Dodgers are hitting just fine, but Crawford's production continues to have a sizable impact. It was his three-run homer in the second inning of Sunday's 13-6 Game 3 win over the Atlanta Braves that put the Dodgers ahead after a sluggish start.

“That's definitely a big one for me, to take the lead right there and get the team some momentum,” Crawford said. “That was at a point in the game where we could have fell back and gotten into a big hole.”

Crawford has already reached base six times this series, counting his fourth-inning bunt-hit attempt Sunday that led to an Atlanta error. But his home run was his biggest yet, and his fourth postseason home run in 92 at-bats.

“That's a huge hit for us,” Manager Don Mattingly said. “Carl's swinging the bat great.”

Then, with the Dodgers up six runs in the eighth inning, Crawford chased after a Brian McCann foul ball all the way into the stands, falling headfirst into the seats after corralling it.

After a few seconds and a collective gasp from the sellout crowd at Dodger Stadium, he got up and stayed in the game.

“I honestly didn't think that ball was going into the stands,” Crawford said. “It kept floating, it seemed like. I didn't see the wall coming. Next thing you know, I felt my feet coming from up under me, and I felt myself flipping over. The good thing is I held onto the ball. That's all that matters.”

On the mound for Crawford's catch was left-hander J.P. Howell, his teammate for five years and two playoff runs in Tampa Bay. Howell lifted up both his hands and ran out near the outfield grass to thank Crawford for his body-disregarding efforts.

“His presence is amazing,” Howell said. “He's been here before. He's been in a World Series.”

Crawford made the final out against Braves closer Craig Kimbrel in the Dodgers' Game 2 loss in Atlanta, and that weighed heavily on his mind heading into Game 3. He was pleased with the way he responded.

“I struggled in Game 2,” he said. “So it was nice to be able to come back and bounce back and have a strong outing tonight.”

As for the ramifications of his dive into the seats, Crawford said he wasn't sure yet how'd his body would react. He has been bothered by a back injury for much of the last month.

“I'm on all kinds of medication right now,” Crawford said, laughing. “So I won't feel it until tomorrow. I'll have an answer for you then.”

Ryu, Dodgers say he has no injury

By Bill Plunkett

LOS ANGELES – The Dodgers insisted before and after Game 3 that their left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu is not pitching hurt and that bullpen session in Atlanta with medical director Stan Conte and team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache watching was not a sign of concern.

In between, Ryu certainly looked like a pitcher compromised in some way.

Against the Atlanta Braves on Sunday, Ryu lasted just three innings, even struggling to get that far. He threw 68 pitches, retired just eight of the 16 batters he faced and was pinch-hit out of the game in the fourth inning.

“He was fine,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said after the game when questioned about Ryu’s health status. “If there had been anything physically wrong, we wouldn’t have let him pitch today.”

Ryu responded just as definitively.

“There was absolutely no injury whatsoever,” he said through his translator. “Of course, there was anxiety and I was a little bit nervous taking the mound.

“I think in the earlier part of the game when I had the count going my way, I think I should have honed in and focused a little more. I think that’s the mistake that I made.”

Ryu had first-inning issues all season, allowing 17 runs in the first inning of his 30 regular-season starts for a 5.10 ERA in that inning - and a 2.61 mark after. He gave up two in the first Sunday but didn’t get much better after that.

“They had a great game plan against him,” Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis said of the Braves. “This was the third time they’ve faced him. They made him bring the ball over the plate. They didn’t expand the (strike) zone.

“I didn’t see anything physical with Hyun-Jin. From my perspective, it was a lot more about execution than any physical issue. … Hopefully, he gets a chance to right the ship and get out there again.”

Mattingly said there is no reason to think Ryu would not be in the rotation for a potential NLCS if the Dodgers advance.

“We hope,” Mattingly said. “If we can put another win on the board, then he gets another opportunity. We don’t turn our backs on guys that have had great seasons for us after one game.”

NOLASCO START

Dodgers right-hander Ricky Nolasco will not take much positive momentum into the first post-season start of his career Monday night. Over his final three starts of the regular season, Nolasco gave up 19 runs on 24 hits in 12 innings.

Two of those three starts were against the San Francisco Giants - “a bad matchup for Ricky,” Mattingly has emphasized, expressing confidence in Nolasco.

“I think Ricky is a matter of basically how he uses his breaking ball and if he's going to have command and be able to get the fastball where he wants, because he's a guy that basically is going to use a couple different breaking balls,” Mattingly said. “He can change speeds on it and can change the shapes on it a little bit and be able to use that to get him ahead in the count and get back in the count.”

The Braves don’t look like a very good matchup for Nolasco, either. He is 6-10 with a 5.11 ERA against them in his career after facing them frequently in the NL East as a Miami Marlin.

Nolasco will have plenty of support in the stands, though, with family and friends just a short drive away. Growing up in Rialto, Nolasco and his family were all Dodgers fans who attended games frequently - but not in the postseason, according to the right-hander.

“Not really, man,” Nolasco said Sunday. “We probably didn't make those games in the postseason. Tickets were probably too expensive back then. We definitely watched them on TV though.”

RAMIREZ BACK

Dodgers shortstop Hanley Ramirez has already matched the franchise record for extra-base hits in a postseason series with six in the first three games of this NLDS. And he credited the medical staff for all the work they do on his back, hamstrings and shoulders to get him ready each day.

Asked which parts of his body are hurting now, Ramirez joked, “That’s a secret.”

Mattingly played Ramirez in consecutive games just once in the final three weeks of the regular season after he received a cortisone injection for an irritated nerve in his back (and not even two full games that time). The playoff schedule won’t require him to play more than two days in a row except for the middle three games in a best-of-7 League Championship Series or World Series if the Dodgers advance.

But Mattingly recognizes that Ramirez’s back issues could become a problem again at any point and said the shortstop has been told to take it easy when appropriate.

“I don’t think we’re ever going to go, ‘Hey, Hanley feels great. We’re not worried about him,’” Mattingly said. “Every day he’ll be getting loosened up and heated up. And hopefully through the course of a game, he stays solid.

“We’re talking about a nerve in his back. It could be anything (that causes a problem). He could sleep wrong. We’ve been cautious. We’ve done everything we could. Now it’s time to just say, ‘Let’s go.’”

NOTES

Sunday’s game drew a sellout crowd of 54,646, the largest at Dodger Stadium - or anywhere in MLB - this season. Dodgers legend Sandy Koufax was among those in attendance for Game 3 Sunday. … A.J. Ellis was hit in the left elbow by a pitch during the eighth inning Sunday but said he will be fine for Game 4 on Monday. “The elbow’s good,” he said. “Got some ice on it now, get the swelling out for tomorrow.”

Whicker: Dodgers' 25th man delivers

By Mark Whicker

LOS ANGELES – His first victory of the postseason came last Thursday. It might have been the first time he ever got a W in the morning.

“I didn’t know what was going to happen,” Chris Capuano said. “We had a lot of guys they could have picked from. Carlos Marmol was throwing the ball fantastic. You still had Brandon League and Edinson Volquez. We just had a lot of power arms. So I just kept working and hoping.”

Don Mattingly reached past the electricity of all those arms and picked Capuano for the 25th seat on the playoff bus. For those of us who have judged the Dodgers manager in hindsight, maybe this was a reason to honor his foresight.

Capuano walked into a grease fire of a baseball game and extinguished it. The Dodgers led 6-4 when he rescued an addled Hyun-jin Ryu. Three innings later, it was 10-4, in the Dodgers’ favor, and it wound up 13-6, and now the Dodgers have a 2-1 division series lead and the chance to clinch it Monday.

That does not mean all is settled. Ryu struggled with his pitches and his judgment. Catcher A.J. Ellis took a Jordan Walden heater on the tip of his left elbow. Paco Rodriguez, presented with a nine-run lead going into the ninth, couldn’t finish, and now his bedraggled September has followed him into the month that counts.

But the questions would have turned into a pudding of panic if not for Capuano’s three hitless, scoreless innings against the Braves.

It was exactly the situation Mattingly sketched for Capuano. A starter got into unexpected trouble, and the Dodgers needed innings, and he is a starter by trade. In fact, he was part of that eight-man rotation the Dodgers had in spring training. You may be excused for not remembering.

Capuano did make four relief appearances this season, two of them coming in the final week when he was finishing up rehab from a groin injury.

Before that, he had not come from a bullpen since 2010. He has had two Tommy John surgeries, but he also has posted two 200-inning seasons in his prime and was 18-12 for the Brewers in 2005. Which shows you something about the playoffs. Capuano was admittedly more nervous Sunday than a network censor at the MTV Awards.

“You sure don’t want three leadoff walks, because that can really come back to bite you,” Capuano said.

That’s what he gave the Braves, in the fourth, fifth and sixth. But he also struck out three Braves and allowed them to get one ball to the outfield.

“A.J. kept coming to the mound and telling me to be aggressive, not to worry about those walks,” he said. “But it was tough. I know how to handle my emotions as a starter. But when you’re in the bullpen, it just takes it to a different level. When the phone rings your heart starts pounding.”

It had not been a highlight-reel season. Capuano went seven innings only once. He did not have victories in consecutive starts. But the Dodgers and Capuano had one nugget of information they leaned on. Capuano Is 5-3 with a 2.61 lifetime ERA against the Braves, including an excellent start in a 3-1 loss May 18.

“I grew up in Massachusetts but I probably watched the Braves as much as I watched the Red Sox,” Capuano said. “The Braves were always on TV, and they had Tommy Glavine and Greg Maddux and guys I really identified with.”

Capuano’s shutdown of Atlanta in the fourth let everyone breathe, and then Hanley Ramirez tripled home Carl Crawford in the fourth, and the inning snowballed on lefty rookie Alex Wood.

Ramirez is obviously chasing some postseason hardware. He doubled, tripled and singled here. The single was his seventh hit of this series, and yet it was his first single – everything else had been at a wall or over it. Even Saturday, Atlanta manager Fredi Gonzalez was marveling at the one-handed, wrong-footed home run that Ramirez popped at Turner Field in Game 2.

“I think everybody you play, you dislike them before you meet them,” Capuano said, smiling. “We had heard things about Hanley, and we knew he looked flashy and maybe I wondered what kind of teammate he’d be. But he’s proven everybody wrong since he’s been here.”

Ramirez talked about his hunger to make the playoffs and his drive to make something happen. Capuano has a little bit of that going, too.

“I started in 2003 and I never knew if I’d get this opportunity,” Capuano said.

Didn’t know it until four days ago, in fact, but it didn’t matter what seat Capuano was assigned on the bus. They all get there together.

Simers: Young Braves fans in for long night

By TJ Simers

LOS ANGELES – I feel badly for the children of Atlanta.

Monday night's Dodgers clincher here will start at 9:37 p.m. Atlanta time.And it's a school night.

Instead of going to bed, the kids of Atlanta should be allowed to watch TV. They should see how human, how inept and how crummy their heroes can be when appearing on the big stage.

It's a night to improve the self-esteem of every kid in Atlanta. Every youngster who has ever dreamed of being a big leaguer could now see they aren't all that far off from making it.

They can start back on a fly ball like Atlanta's left fielder and have it fall in front of them. They can try to turn a double play and throw the ball wildly to first base, allowing the runner to advance to second. As they know now anyone can throw wild pitches.

They can play just like the Braves.

Dodgers outfielder Carl Crawford bunts, for example, the ball rolling so weakly to Atlanta pitcher Alex Wood he doesn't even need a glove. Happens in every Little League game, but it's too much for Wood.

Never again, though, should a kid cry because he's playing like Wood. As folks like to say: “There is always someone out there worse off than you, or playing for the Braves.”

The only difference between the kids of Atlanta playing Little League baseball and the Braves is that the kids get ice cream win or lose. And the Braves get beer. So everyone goes home happy.

The Dodgers are also a great example for the youngsters. They are jumping all over each other because they are just having fun. Juan Uribe hit a home run, and then exchanges kicks with Hanley Ramirez like everyone else shakes hands upon returning to the dugout.

Then Ramirez and Uribe do some kind of dance thing, and this is after Ramirez has already doubled, tripled and electrified the place with his enthusiasm. He will later single as well, and while he has one year remaining on his Dodgers contract, the moneybags who own the Dodgers shouldn't let Ramirez think for even a second he's going anywhere else.The Dodgers already have Adrian Gonzalez signed through the 2018 season. Who would you rather have signed through the 2018 season, Gonzalez or Mike Scioscia?

Sorry, kids, I shouldn't be so mean, but Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti picked up Ramirez, Crawford and Gonzalez at the midpoint of last season and the trio is manhandling the Braves. Who would you rather have as GM, Colletti or Jerry Dipoto?

Sorry, kids, to sound so giddy, but it is 10-4 after four innings in favor of the Dodgers and the mercy rule might come into play.

It also goes to show you there's nothing demeaning about playing T-ball, the Dodgers treating Atlanta's pitchers like the ball is just sitting there to be whacked.

I repeat: Juan Uribe hit a homer.

The Dodgers had their goofs as well. The starting pitcher missed tagging first to complete a double play and tried to get a force at home with no force in play.

This is known as comic relief and what makes the Dodgers so entertaining. They can make mistakes, but everyone knows they will overcome.

It's now 13-4, the Dodgers tying a franchise record for most runs scored in the postseason dating to 1956. Maybe now would be a good time to cover your child's eyes if they are still awake in Atlanta.

It's just a darn shame these games are on so late. In addition to comic relief, Crawford showed every kid you should never give up on a ball, going head over heels into the stands to make a spectacular grab.

If it wasn't so late they might still be watching in Boston, and those folks never appreciated anything Crawford did. Maybe they'd feel badly about that now. Sorry, my mistake. The people of Boston have no feelings.

Dodgers fans are trying to do the Tomahawk Chop in the top of the fifth and again in the eighth, and maybe they shouldn't be such bad sports. But it's better than doing the wave and teaching kids elsewhere how to misbehave.

There's a risk, of course, in letting the little ones stay up. They start watching Yasiel Puig and it won't be long before they start begging their parents to move to Los Angeles so they can watch the Dodgers all the time. And we don't want that.

Baseball, of course, might not be right for everyone.

But I still think it can be inspiring.

After watching Don Mattingly work in Game 2, any kid who fails now as a Little Leaguer can still dream of growing up to be a manager. You don't really have to know what you're doing.

Or better yet, write about baseball for a living.

On deck: Braves at Dodgers, Mon., 6:30 p.m.

By Pedro Moura

When: 6:30 p.m.

Where: Dodger Stadium

TV: TBS

Did you know: Only two players in MLB history have recorded six extra-base hits in their first three postseason games: Jim Edmonds with the 2000 St. Louis Cardinals and the Dodgers’ Hanley Ramirez.

Numbers game: 25 – Both Game 3 starters, the Dodgers’ Hyun-Jin Ryu and the Braves’ Julio Teheran, pitched three innings or fewer, for only the 25th time in MLB postseason history.

THE PITCHERS

RICKY NOLASCO (13-11, 3.70)Nolasco struggled mightily closing out the regular season, giving up 17 runs in his final 13 innings. But before that he was lights-out for the better part of two months, posting a sterling 1.64 August ERA and a 3.00 July mark. He has never pitched in the postseason but has logged a lot of experience against the Braves, having been in the NL East from 2006 until his July trade to the Dodgers. But most of that experience has been bad, and Nolasco has said Braves catcher Brian McCann gives him the most trouble of any hitter in the majors.

vs. Braves: 6-10, 5.11

at Dodger Stadium: 4-3, 3.80

Loves to face: B.J. Upton, 3 for 16 (.188), 1 BB, 6 SO

Hates to face: Brian McCann, 20 for 58 (.345), 8 HR, 23 RBI

Never pitched in postseason

FREDDY GARCIA (4-7, 4.32)

Eight years ago, Garcia started and won the World Series-clinching game for the Chicago White Sox. Since then, he has pitched for the Phillies, Tigers, Yankees, Orioles and now the Braves, with another stint in Chicago mixed in and a failed attempt to make the Padres out of spring training. He started just three games for Atlanta this season after coming over from Baltimore in August, but impressed Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez down the stretch and earned the start over left-hander Paul Maholm.

vs. Dodgers: 1-1, 2.89

at Dodger Stadium: 1-1, 2.57

Loves to face: Juan Uribe, 1 for 8 (.125), 1 2B, 2 SO

Hates to face: Hanley Ramirez, 3 for 8 (.375), 1 2B, 1 HR, 2 RBI

Postseason experience: 6-3, 3.28

DODGERS.COM

Dodgers take control with Game 3 rout of Braves

By Ken Gurnick

LOS ANGELES -- The Dodgers can go for the clinch Monday night in Game 4 and are still considering firing their most lethal weapon, ace Clayton Kershaw on three days' rest, even after Sunday night's wild 13-6 Game 3 win over the Braves.

Taking a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five National League Division series, the club still has fourth starter Ricky Nolasco listed as the probable, but Kershaw's abbreviated bullpen session Saturday sets him up to take over. That's more likely after Hyun-Jin Ryu's three agonizing innings Sunday required six innings from the bullpen.

Even on short rest, the Dodgers expect more and better innings from Kershaw than anybody, and they still would have Zack Greinke on normal rest if a Game 5 is necessary. Game 4 is Monday at 6:30 p.m. PT on TBS. A win in either Game 4 or 5 puts the Dodgers in the League Championship Series.

"We get a chance to close the door tomorrow," said manager Don Mattingly, who never said Kershaw was pitching Game 4, but never said he wasn't.

"The biggest thing was getting the win today. That's kind of been the plan the whole time is kind of win every day. I'd like to be able to close us out tomorrow. I didn't know there was any debate [about who starts Game 4], really. Lot of questions, right? You never know what happens. Twists and turns of this game."

What better way to do that -- and avoid a trip back to Atlanta for a Game 5 -- than to start Kershaw?

When asked after Game 3 if he was pitching Game 4, Kershaw smiled and walked away.All of this comes in the wake of left-hander Chris Capuano's rescue job in Game 3. Capuano made the roster in part because of concerns over the health of third starter Ryu. And when Ryu was lifted after three innings Sunday, Capuano was ready. He pitched three hitless and scoreless innings of relief in his postseason debut.

That stopped Atlanta's momentum and allowed the Dodgers' offense to take over the game. Carl Crawford and Juan Uribe homered. Hanley Ramirez tripled and doubled, tying the NLDS record and the franchise record (Steven Garvey, Duke Snider) for the most extra-base hits in a postseason series (six). Yasiel Puig had three hits and outcheered cheer-squad captain Matt Kemp.

The 13 runs tied a franchise postseason record, set in the 1956 World Series against the Yankees. Ten of the runs scored on two-out hits. Five Dodgers had multiple hits and five had multiple RBIs.

Crawford added to the highlight reel for the first out in the eighth inning, when he made a running catch against the short railing in left field and tumbled over the wall and into the stands. He wasn't injured.

Catcher A.J. Ellis was hit on the left elbow by a 96-mph Jordan Walden fastball but stayed in the game. X-rays were negative and he said he expected to play Monday night.

Ryu and Mattingly insisted after the game that the pitcher was fine physically.

"There was absolutely no injury whatsoever; and, of course, there was anxiety and I was a little bit nervous taking the mound," Ryu said. "I know myself better than anyone else if I'm not hurt. Doesn't matter what people say. I'm not hurt, so it wasn't a distraction at all."

"If there had been anything physically wrong," Mattingly said, "we wouldn't have let him pitch today."

Whatever the reason for Ryu's ineffectiveness, Capuano restored order. The only thing keeping Capuano and the bullpen from six scoreless innings was another distressing outing by Paco Rodriguez, taken deep by personal tormentor Jason Heyward and unable to keep Mattingly from calling on Kenley Jansen with a seven-run lead for the final out.

Ryu allowed four runs on six hits in three innings. Braves starter Julio Teheran was worse, charged with six runs on eight hits in 2 2/3 innings. Capuano made 46 pitches, the most since he went seven innings in an Aug. 31 start against San Diego.

Capuano said he was as nervous as he's ever been in 10 Major League seasons and proved it by issuing leadoff walks each of the three innings, then pitching out of each mess.

"It was a brilliant game plan -- walk the leadoff guy every inning, a false sense of security for them," deadpanned Ellis. "I should have just put up my hand for four wide ones."

Capuano replacing Ryu is poetic justice of sorts, as Ryu was signed in the offseason essentially to replace Capuano in the rotation, even though Capuano had a career-best 3.72 ERA last year. His 198 1/3 innings, second highest on the Dodgers staff, were his highest total since 2006. He also ranked second on the club with 12 wins and 162 strikeouts.

Capuano spent this season, though, as a sixth starter in a five-man rotation, bouncing from rotation to relief to emergency starter. He also bounced onto and off the disabled list with a strained left calf muscle suffered running in from the bullpen in one of the Zack Greinke brawls; a strained a left lat muscle suffered trying to brace himself as he was falling off the mound after reaching for a grounder; and in September a strained a left groin muscle that responded fast enough from a PRP injection that he was available for this series.

He said the key at-bat for him was in the sixth inning. He walked Andrelton Simmons on four pitches, then fell behind Elliot Johnson 3-0 before getting Johnson to ground into a double play."It's a lonely feeling to throw seven straight balls and you have to regroup as a pitcher," he said. "That was huge -- a great feeling."

The Braves scored twice against Ryu in a 22-pitch first inning. But the Dodgers took a 4-2 lead in the second inning, three of them on Crawford's three-run homer. He had only one home run after April.

But with that lead, Ryu went right back to struggling in the top of the third inning, even made a pair of defensive misplays, and the Braves tied the game.

Then Teheran copied Ryu and let the Dodgers quickly score in the third on a double by Ramirez and a single by Gonzalez. Braves third baseman Chris Johnson made a nice backhand of Puig's sharp bouncer and threw to second, where Gonzalez obliterated pivotman Elliot Johnson, whose relay went wide of first and Puig just beat the throw down to second base. That allowed Skip Schumaker to deliver a clutch two-out RBI single that scored Puig.

Another single by Ellis knocked out both pitchers, as Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez replaced Teheran with Alex Wood and Mattingly batting for Ryu with Michael Young, who struck out.

The Dodgers put the game out of reach with a four-run fourth on an RBI double by Ramirez, an RBI single by Puig and Uribe's fourth career postseason home run.

Healthy Hanley feasting on October pitching

By Paul Casella

LOS ANGELES -- Despite an ongoing sciatic-nerve issue in his back, Hanley Ramirez wanted to play every game down the stretch. Manager Don Mattingly refused to let that happen.

As it turns out, the Dodgers' skipper had a pretty good reason.

"I'm glad, again, when we were going down the stretch and he was wanting to play some of those games and we were trying to hold him off," Mattingly said. "I just kept telling him, 'I want the whole world to see you. I want the whole world to see how good you are.' I want him to show everybody how good he is. And it's been good so far."

Ramirez ultimately missed 11 games in the final month of the regular season and, though he fought it every step of the way in September, it's taken just one week into October for him to come around on Mattingly's theory.

"I think those guys -- those trainers, they're keeping me on the field," Ramirez said. "I've been feeling great. What Donnie did at the end of the regular season, gave me those days off, that helped me a lot."

The Dodgers' shortstop on Sunday night turned in his second straight three-hit, multi-RBI performance, helping the Dodgers to an 13-6 rout in Game 3 and, in turn, a 2-1 series lead. Ramirez is now hitting .538 (7-for-13) with a home run, a triple, four doubles and six RBIs in the National League Division Series.

"You can just see it. He's so driven right now," hitting coach Mark McGwire said. "I know what that's like when you get in that mindset and nothing else matters except for what your goals are. It's almost like he has blinders on. You see a little bit right now, and if we get to the next level and the next level, we'll see what he's all about."

After Ramirez flied out in his first at-bat Sunday, the Braves were unable to retire him again over his final four plate appearances.

His offensive onslaught this time around started in the third inning. An inning after the Dodgers had tagged starter Julio Teheran for four runs, Ramirez wasted no time starting another rally. He roped a leadoff double to left field, then came around to score on Adrian Gonzalez's RBI single, putting Los Angeles ahead for good -- but Ramirez was only getting started.

One inning later, he came through yet again as the Dodgers piled on. With Carl Crawford on first base and one out, Ramirez connected for a run-scoring triple, his first three-base hit since July 7.

"He's been incredible all year," Gonzalez said. "He's the reason we turned it around. Every time he's in the lineup for us, he has big hits. For us, it's just about having him in the lineup."

And for Ramirez, that has been the biggest issue over the past couple of seasons. He has battled countless injuries, and this season has been no different.

It all began before the regular season started with Ramirez injuring his right wrist in the World Baseball Classic and missing almost the entire month of April. In just his fourth game back, he strained his left hamstring, costing him another full month of playing time.

Midway through September, Ramirez again tweaked the hamstring, all the while battling the sciatic-nerve issue in his back.

"He is as tough a ballplayer as I've ever been around, for what he goes through physically to get ready to play," catcher A.J. Ellis said. "He puts his body out there. He plays so hard. He plays with such passion, such energy. The work that he does to get ready to play every night is remarkable, just so he can be on the field for us."

For Ramirez, this chance to play on baseball's biggest stage has been the driving force through it all. After spending the first eight years of his big league career watching the postseason on television at home in Miami with his family, Ramirez is finally getting his chance in October.

"I remember telling them last year that I want to be there. It's a different feeling, you know, the fans, the energy, it's unbelievable. It makes you pumped," Ramirez said. "My family got my back and said, 'Next year, you're going to be there,' and they were right. We're here now."

Not only is Ramirez here, but he is seemingly unstoppable right now. Through just three games, he has tied the Dodgers' postseason record for extra-base hits in a single series with six and also matched the Major League record for a Division Series.

Though Ramirez said he does not like to talk about himself and instead wants to divert the attention to the other 24 players on the roster, his teammates had no trouble expressing the impact he's having on this series.

"There's no way to pitch him. There's no way to game plan for him," Ellis said. "He hits all different types of pitches. He hits all different speeds. He hits all different types of pitchers. He's locked in and he's been locked in the entire season, unlike anyone I've ever been around. I'm so happy I get to watch him hit and not sit back and call pitches against him. It's dangerous what he's doing at the plate right now."

Crawford steps up in big way for Dodgers

By William Boor

LOS ANGELES -- In the first two games of the National League Division Series, Carl Crawford was 2-for-9 with four strikeouts.However, after a grueling regular season when success is measured over a six-month span, the postseason comes down to a few brief series where things can change in just one game.

For Crawford, the Dodgers' 13-6 win over the Braves in Game 3 of the NLDS on Sunday night was that game.

"I had a good night at the plate, drove in some runs," Crawford said. "Struggled in Game 2, so it was nice to come back, be able to bounce back and have a strong outing."

The 32-year-old outfielder went 2-for-5 with a three-run home run and scored three times.

After striking out to end Game 2, Crawford wasted no time getting back on track as he led off the first with a single. However, his true impact on the game came an inning later.

With two on and two outs, Braves pitcher Julio Teheran left a slider over the plate, and Crawford hit it into the Atlanta bullpen.

"Carl swings the bat great," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. "That's a huge home run he hits for us."

The blast was Crawford's fourth career postseason home run, and although he shied away from ranking them, he acknowledged the impact it had on the game. The homer, one of 14 Dodgers hits, gave the team an early 4-2 lead and sent the 54,646 fans into a frenzy.

"All playoff home runs are big for me," Crawford said. "That's definitely a big one for me. To take the lead right there and get the team some momentum going into the rest of the game, it was huge for us. That was at a point in the game where we could have fell back and gotten into a big hole. It was good to hit that home run right there."

It's easy to look at the three RBIs and the home run to see Crawford's impact, but Dodgers reliever J.P. Howell said Crawford's leadership and 12 years of Major League experience are also vital in October.

"That's a veteran guy that's come here and helped the whole team out," Howell said. "His presence is amazing. He's been here before, he's been in the World Series, he's been on great teams and he's spreading his knowledge and his comfort feeling -- how he feels when he's playing -- to everybody else."

While Crawford's bat had more say on the game than his glove, he did provide a memorable defensive highlight in the eighth.

Braves catcher Brian McCann led off the inning and hit what seemed to be a foul ball into the first few rows of stands down the left-field line. Crawford, however, raced over and caught the ball while tumbling head over heels into the the first row.

"I honestly didn't think the ball was going to go into the stands," Crawford said. "It kept floating it seemed like, and I didn't see the wall coming. Next thing I know, I felt my feet coming up from under me and felt myself flipping over. Good thing is, I held onto the ball, and that's all that matters."

Tip of the Cap: Lefty delivers for Dodgers in relief

By Austin Laymance

LOS ANGELES -- Chris Capuano gave the Dodgers exactly what they needed Sunday with three scoreless innings in relief of starter Hyun-Jin Ryu, earning the win in Game 3 of the National League Division Series.

After the Braves got to Ryu for four runs in three innings, Capuano got nine important outs to turn things over to a rested Dodgers bullpen in Los Angeles' 13-6 victory.

"He kind of basically just put the game in order," manager Don Mattingly said.Making his first career postseason appearance, Capuano walked the first batter he faced in all three innings. But he was able to keep Atlanta from capitalizing.

"That's as nervous as I've been since I first stood on a big league mound 10 years ago," said Capuano, who struck out three and didn't allow a hit. "My heart was pounding the whole time. I had three leadoff walks, but fortunately I was able to pitch around them."

Capuano's biggest escape came in the sixth. The left-hander fell behind Elliot Johnson, 3-0, but battled back and got the second baseman to ground into a double play. Capuano then struck out pinch-hitter B.J. Upton to escape the inning and help preserve the rest of the bullpen.

"That was a big turning point for us," catcher A.J. Ellis said. "He made big pitches all night. Those nine outs he got were difference-makers."

Dodgers' bats get it done without Kemp, Ethier

By Anthony Castrovince

LOS ANGELES -- Three at-bats for Michael Young, back on Aug. 12. That was the full extent of the Dodgers' collective experience against Julio Teheran.

And so, in the two days leading up to Game 3, they flipped through the contacts on their smartphones and did a little long-distance dialing to their forgotten friends spending October on beaches or golf courses or cushiony couches.

The word relayed back to the Dodgers dugout was consistent and conclusive: Teheran has a live arm, but he makes mistakes in the strike zone. Wait for them.

"You can't miss his mistakes," Adrian Gonzalez would say after the Dodgers had trashed Teheran and taken Game 3.They didn't miss much in this superb Sunday showing.

The Dodgers took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series with the Braves by bashing their way to the franchise's most runs in a postseason performance since the 1958 leap to Los Angeles. Their 13-6 victory at Dodger Stadium was another reminder of how lethal this lineup can be, even with Matt Kemp on crutches and in a walking boot and Andre Ethier recovering from shin splints and limited to pinch-hitting duty.

Funny how good a lineup can look when it has Hanley Ramirez batting .538 with a 1.231 slugging percentage, Gonzalez hitting .357 and Yasiel Puig hitting .462. That's the smallest of samples, certainly, but October is all about making the most of your samples, and the Dodgers are doing it.

Of course, the Dodgers don't always look like this, and therein lies the problem. They've rarely been dealing from a full deck this season (the supposed conundrum of having four worthy outfielders -- Kemp, Ethier, Puig and Carl Crawford -- on an NL club is negated by the fact that only twice all year has Don Mattingly had all four available to him, and Kemp got hurt in both of those games), and it's no coincidence that their wild 42-8 run came in correlation not just with Puig's arrival but with a less-invasive injury report.

The Dodgers aren't exactly a beacon of health right now. Ramirez has a banged-up back and, when asked what other body parts are ailing him right now, coyly answered, "That's a secret."

It's no secret, though, that Hanley at his height can carry a lineup.

Certainly, the Clayton Kershaw /Zack Greinke pairing atop the rotation is one reason to love the Dodgers' chances of turning 2013 into a season of dreams. But it's a night like this that reminds you of the inning-to-inning, night-after-night value of veteran hitters with astute approaches and a relentless pursuit of runs. You think Fredi Gonzalez hasn't thought

to himself a time or two this series how much he would have loved to have this version of Hanley -- focused, motivated, happy and hammering the ball -- in his lineup regularly back in their shared Florida days?

"He's scary when he comes to the plate," Gonzalez said the other day, "because he can split a gap or he can run you out of the ballpark. He can steal you a base. He's a very talented player."

And the Dodgers, even at something less than full strength, have a very talented and multi-faceted lineup."It's a very veteran ballclub," hitting coach Mark McGwire said. "So we know how to hit."

That doesn't always show. In Game 2, the Dodgers got the leadoff man aboard four times and wasted each of those opportunities. It came back to bite them big time in a 4-3 loss.

"We can get a little pull-happy," McGwire said. "It gets us in trouble. Me and [assistant hitting coach] John Valentin just try to beat it in their heads every day that we've got to use the middle of the field. When we do that, good things happen."

They happened in Game 3, just not immediately. The Braves took a 2-0 lead against Hyun-Jin Ryu, who was neither sharp nor stable in his first postseason performance. And once again, the Dodgers left the leadoff man Crawford stranded after he singled in the first.

But they cracked Teheran in the second, when singles from Puig and Juan Uribe and a walk for A.J. Ellis loaded the bases, setting up a sac fly from Ryu (an underrated hitter in his own right) and the big blow -- Crawford's three-run homer into the right-field seats. The Dodgers led, 4-2.

Ryu's trouble on the mound and in the field allowed the Braves back in the ballgame as they tied it in the third. But the bottom of the inning, sparked by Ramirez's leadoff double, would be the undoing of Teheran and the Braves. Adrian Gonzalez ripped an RBI single to left to regain the lead. Later, with two out, Skip Schumaker came through with an RBI single of his own. Fredi Gonzalez was finally forced to go to his bullpen, much earlier than anticipated. It's a deep 'pen, but not this deep. The Dodgers tacked on four more in the fourth off Alex Wood on Hanley's RBI triple, Puig's run-scoring single and Uribe's two-run shot to the seats. Any runs from there were merely L.A. extravagance.

Looking back, the two extra-base hits off Teheran -- the Crawford homer that sealed the second and the Ramirez double that ignited the third -- both came in two-strike counts. Those are the moments when the experience and innate ability of this lineup shines through. And led by Ramirez, for whom greatness has always been within reach ("I think he just had a point to prove to a lot of people," McGwire said), they have faced a pitching staff that had the best ERA in the game this season and nonetheless bashed their way to within a game of the NL Championship Series.

The Dodgers haven't always made it look this easy. But when they do their homework and stick to their gameplan, they don't have to be at full strength to be at full blast.

Braves hope Garcia can keep playoffs going

By Anthony Castrovince

LOS ANGELES -- The Atlanta Braves, a 96-win ballclub that had the best staff ERA in baseball, suddenly find themselves in the unlikely situation of having their entire season in the hands of Freddy Garcia.

Baseball's weird, isn't it?

Garcia, a September callup who nearly hung 'em up when his career seemingly flat-lined over the past calendar year, will be on the mound when the Braves try to salvage this National League Division Series and their season in Game 4 on Monday night at Dodger Stadium (9:30 p.m. ET, TBS).

He'll be facing a Dodgers team that is tantalizing close to an NL Championship Series berth, in front of an enraptured Los Angeles audience that believes in the magic and the Magic and the "World Series or bust" mentality that has taken over here.

This is serious enough business that, in the immediate aftermath of their 13-6 victory in Game 3, the Dodgers did not seem to be completely ruling out the possibility of bringing back Clayton Kershaw on three days' rest -- in lieu of Ricky Nolasco -- in an attempt to close this thing out at home and rest up for the next round.

"You never know what happens," Mattlingly said. "Twists and turns of this game."

Twists and turns, indeed. Three and a half months ago, Garcia was designated for assignment by the Orioles. A little more than a month ago, he was getting roughed up in a start at Triple-A Gwinnett.Tale of the Tape: NLDS Game 4

RICKY NOLASCODODGERS

FREDDY GARCIABRAVES

2013 regular season

Overall: 34 G (33 GS), 13-11, 3.70 ERA, 46 BB, 165 K Overall: 17 G (13 GS), 4-7, 4.37 ERA, 17 BB, 46 K

Key stat: 17 ER in last three starts Key stat: 1.83 ERA since entering Atlanta rotation

At Dodger Stadium

2013: 7 G (6 GS), 4-2, 2.48 ERACareer: 9 G (8 GS), 4-3, 3.80 ERA

2013: Did not pitchCareer: 2 GS, 1-1, 2.57 ERA

Against this opponent

2013: 1 GS, 1-0, 2.57 ERACareer: 24 G (23 GS), 6-10, 5.11 ERA

2013: Did not pitchCareer: 4 GS, 1-1, 2.89 ERA

Loves to face: Justin Upton, 3-for-14, 4 KHates to face: Brian McCann, 20-for-58, 8 HR, 23 RBI

Loves to face: Juan Uribe, 1-for-8, 2 KHates to face: Carl Crawford, 7-for-26, 3 XBH

Game breakdown

Why he'll win: Channels adrenaline in first playoff start for hometown team

Why he'll win: Has turned back the clock since September callup

Pitcher beware: Fastball velocity has dipped of late Pitcher beware: Home runs can come in bunches on off nights

Bottom line: Lock in command early, battle to avoid the big inning

Bottom line: Keep the ball down, channel 2005 World Series form

But because they shifted Alex Wood to the bullpen and had Paul Maholm go down with an elbow injury, the Braves found themselves with a starter shortage as they entered October. Their only alternative, in the immediate, would be to pitch Kris Medlen on three days' rest after his less-than-stellar performance in Game 1, and Fredi Gonzalez had no plans to do so.

"I don't think it would be a good decision to bring them back short on a day, our guys," Gonzalez said. "So that's one of the factors in the decision-making process."The good news for the Braves? Plenty of positives came out of Garcia's three September starts for Atlanta, during which he went 1-1 with a 1.83 ERA, allowing four runs on 18 hits with 16 strikeouts and four walks.

Beyond that, Garcia is the only member of this starting staff, which lost Tim Hudson in July, with something resembling a postseason pedigree. This will be his 11th start on this stage, on which he's gone 6-3 with a 3.28 ERA in past performances for the Mariners, White Sox and Yankees.

"You start looking at the rotation and see how young they are and how inexperienced they are, then you look at Freddy Garcia's experience, you look at his postseason starts and postseason innings, so you give him an opportunity to do that," Gonzalez said. "I think he knows how to maneuver himself through a Major League lineup. He's shown that this year."

So has Nolasco, the Southern California native the Dodgers added early in the summer swap season to deepen their stout starting staff. But if Nolasco gets the nod, he comes into this game with his own question marks. He struggled down the stretch, posting an 11.77 ERA over his last four outings, including one relief appearance. He was roughed up to the tune of a .391 average against.

"My mechanics, no matter the results my last couple starts or whatever it was, felt good, arm's felt good," he said. "Just a couple things here and there, so I'll be fine and ready to go."

Or maybe not. Mattingly was vague enough about the matter that the thought of Kershaw coming back was not inconceivable.

Whatever the case, the Dodgers are itching to get this done. The Braves proved resilient and feisty in Game 2. In Game 4, they'll have to be both of those things again, and they'll need Garcia to exceed expectations.Braves: The defense rests

Gonzalez has taken a bit of a defensive risk in his October outfield, giving Evan Gattis the starts in left. But B.J. Upton's sagging bat left him with little choice. Gattis misplayed another ball Sunday night, and so there remain concerns about the trade-off.

Asked if it's difficult to decide between the best defensive outfield and the best offensive one, Gonzalez said he believes he has the best of both worlds.

"We could play the best offensive outfield early in the game, and then we have the capability of improving defensively with B.J. or [Jordan] Schafer, depending on which way we want to go," he said. "I think that Gattis, you know he's going to get four at-bats. You don't know if he's going to get the ball hit to him in the first seven innings. So that's the theory that we go with him in the outfield."

Dodgers: What to leave in, what to leave out

Advance scouting is an essential element of the postseason, when no bit of statistical minutia or player tendency is too small for a scout to pass along, just in case. Perhaps the most impactful piece of advance work came in 1988, when scout Mel Didier, who had scouted the A's in the weeks leading up to October, made a note of Dennis Eckersley's tendency to throw a backdoor slider to lefties in 3-2 counts.

One of the most famous home runs in World Series history was a direct result of that notation, because Kirk Gibson put it into practice in Game 1.

Of course, not all scouting tips prove to be that helpful, which is why Mattingly and his staff have to decide what's worth focusing on and what's best left unsaid.

"We have to be able to take that in and decide what we give to the players," Mattingly said. "You don't want them getting out of their norm, per se."

Worth noting

• In Game 3, the Dodgers tied a franchise record for most runs in a postseason game (13), set on Oct. 5, 1956, in Game 2 of the World Series against the Yankees.

• Hanley Ramirez has already tied Steve Garvey (1978 NLCS vs. the Phillies) and Duke Snider (1952 World Series vs. the Yankees) for most extra-base hits by a Dodger in a postseason series, with six.

• The Braves scored their first seven runs of this series with two out.

• Jason Heyward's two-run homer in the ninth in Game 3 was his first career postseason homer.

Dodgers could turn to Kershaw on short rest

By Ken Gurnick and Austin Laymance

LOS ANGELES -- The Dodgers list Ricky Nolasco as their starter for Game 4 of the National League Division Series, but Clayton Kershaw is an option to pitch on short rest Monday with the club one victory from advancing to the Championship Series.

"I'd like to be able to close this out tomorrow," manager Don Mattingly said Sunday after a 13-6 win over the Braves in Game 3. "You never know what happens. Twists and turns of this game."

If Dodgers management decides to go with Kershaw in Game 4 at Dodger Stadium, live on TBS at 6:30 p.m. PT, Nolasco said he would understand the decision.

"This isn't about me, this is about the team," Nolasco said before Game 3. "Whatever decision they make is going to be the best decision for the team. So I'm with whatever. They're the ones who get paid to make those decisions. So I'll be here ready to take the ball whenever they ask me to pitch."

Nolasco has never pitched in the postseason. The right-hander won eight of his first 11 starts with the Dodgers after being acquired from the Marlins in July, but he allowed 17 runs in 12 innings over his final three starts of the regular season. He has not started since Sept. 25, with one inning of relief Sept. 29.

Kershaw threw a shortened "touch-and-feel" bullpen session Saturday, keeping open the possibility to start Game 4 against the Braves. The former NL Cy Young Award winner has never pitched on three days' rest. He made 124 pitches over seven innings of one-run ball to win Game 1 Thursday in Atlanta.

Zack Greinke would be available to start Game 5 on Wednesday on regular rest, should Kershaw get the ball in Game 4 and the series shift back to Atlanta. Greinke, who went six innings and took the loss Friday in Game 2, threw in the bullpen Sunday.

LA TIMES

Dodgers come home for a joy ride

By Bill PlaschkeIt's called a Ravine, but on this night it was an ocean, thousands of flapping blue towels washing over the visiting Southerners in giant roaring waves of Dodger.

Hanley Ramirez blasting, Carl Crawford tumbling, Chris Capuano dealing, Yasiel Puiging, the old house alive and roaring, run after run after run.

"Sends chills up your body," said A.J. Ellis.

Postseason baseball returned to Dodger Stadium for the first time in four years Sunday, and the ensuing mixture of quaint tradition and relentless play resulted in four hours of joyful swagger that could be defined in a single declarationWelcome home.

Welcome home, October hardball, as the Dodgers crushed the Atlanta Braves, 13-6, in Game 3 of the National League division series.

Welcome home, championship hope, as the Dodgers moved to within one win of returning to the National League Championship Series for the first time since 2009, and five wins of their first World Series in 25 years.

Welcome home, cheers that echoed with the memories of decades.

"This is kind of atmosphere Dodger Stadium should have," said Ellis. "Tonight is the kind of night that we need to put the product out on the field that our fans desperately deserve."

It was that Dodger Stadium of old mixed with the Dodgers' passions of new.

Tom Lasorda stood behind home plate and shouted, "It's time to play Dodger baseball," and then Ramirez again defined Dodger baseball. Will anybody ever get him out again? The ball soared into the night as if his bat were a slingshot, a single, a double, a triple, a franchise-record tying six extra-base hits in one postseason series, a force not seen around here since that last Ramirez guy.

He is overcoming the reputation of not playing hurt, of not being a team player. He is now given the ultimate compliment in this town, chants of "M-V-P" accompanying his strolls to the plate, the Dodgers' Kobe.

"I knew that it was going to be crazy tonight and you've got to thank the fans for bringing that energy from the beginning," Ramirez said.

After Lasorda, Fernando Valenzuela elegantly walked to the mound and threw out the first pitch, then Crawford became the powerfully tricky one. One moment, he was hitting a three-run home run, the next moment he was laying down a bunt that led to an error that led to a four-run inning. He finished it all up with a flop into the left-field stands, leaving his cleats and risking injury to catch a fly ball in the middle of a route.

"I thought I was good, the next thing you know, I feel my feet flip," he said.

It seems like this city is feeling the same way about these Dodgers, dizzily embracing their return home after a controversy-filled loss in Game 2, partying enough that the video scoreboard showed an unsuspecting couple seriously smooching two innings after the Kiss Cam.

"Every batter, you could feel the energy building and building," said Ellis.

In the end, as the Dodgers were scoring the most postseason runs in Los Angeles history, the crowd was joining the pummeling with a taunting, blue-toweled tomahawk chop and chant. To those who say they were being disrespectful to the Braves, since when has Atlanta's chop and chant been respectful to anyone?

"I must say, seeing our fans do that after hearing it for two days in Atlanta, that was awesome," said Howell.

Chris Capuano comes to Dodgers rescue

By Bill Shaikin

In 2007, Chris Capuano appeared in an episode of "The Young and the Restless." He is no longer young, but the restless part is still in play.

If you're good enough to get paid to play ball for a decade, you ought to get into the playoffs sometime, at least one time.

Capuano made his postseason debut Sunday, at age 35, in an unfamiliar role. He just might have saved the Dodgers' season.

"That was as nervous as I've been since I first stepped on a big league mound," he said.

After Hyun-Jin Ryu got nine outs and gave up four runs, Capuano got nine outs without giving up a hit. The Dodgers' offense took it from there, with a 13-6 victory over the Atlanta Braves. Capuano was the winning pitcher.

The Dodgers lead the series two games to one, with Ricky Nolasco set to start Monday. With a victory, the home team advances to the National League Championship Series.

The Dodgers could go for the kill with Clayton Kershaw in Game 4, but that would make little sense. Kershaw never has started on short rest, and the Dodgers put themselves in good position no matter what happens in Game 4.

If they lose Monday, they have their ace for Game 5. If they win Monday, they have their ace for Game 1 of the league Championship Series.

"He's our future," Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt said. "You don't want to mess around with it."

Ryu, the first South Korean pitcher to start a postseason game in the major leagues, carried the hopes of his country with him. With Shin-Soo Choo and the Cincinnati Reds eliminated, Ryu is the last South Korean player in the postseason.In Seoul, the game started at 9 a.m. Monday. The country went back to work a little after 10, and after three innings in which Ryu could not command his curve or slider well enough to rely on either one.

The Dodgers raised the local alert level to red by having their team doctor watch Ryu throw his bullpen session Friday. Ryu insisted he is not pitching with any injury.

"I know myself better than anyone else," he said through a translator. "If I'm not hurt, it doesn't matter what people say."

Ryu faced 16 batters, with nine reaching base. He also missed first base trying to catch a relay throw, then threw to the plate on a comebacker when he had no chance to get the runner. He called the latter play "a thoughtless mistake" and said both plays were "completely my fault."

Manager Don Mattingly said he would not hesitate to start Ryu if the team advances to the Championship Series.

"We don't turn our back on guys that have had great seasons for us after one game," Mattingly said.

Capuano did not have a great season, but he had a great game. He had not pitched even two innings in a game since August, but he gobbled up three Sunday, enabling the Dodgers to save Chris Withrow as a long man behind Nolasco on Monday. In his three most recent starts, the last on Sept. 25, Nolasco gave up a total of 19 runs in 12 innings.

There was a time when the Dodgers had three too many starters, and Capuano was one of the three. Aaron Harang was traded in the first week of the season. Ted Lilly was cut in August after two stints on the disabled list.

Capuano served two stints on the disabled list too, and a September groin injury meant he would make the playoff roster as a reliever or not at all. If the Braves did not have three left-handed hitters in the first five spots in their batting order — Jason Heyward, Freddie Freeman and Brian McCann — Capuano might well have been watching this series on television.

"It's unlike anything I've ever experienced," Capuano said of his postseason debut. "It's a whole other level of excitement. It's just awesome."

No doubt. He is 35, and he can finally say he has appeared in just as many postseason games as soap opera episodes.

Atlanta's Freddy Garcia to get ball for 'Big Game' against Dodgers

By Mike Hiserman

Freddy Garcia was given the nickname "Big Game" when he was with the World Series-winning Chicago White Sox.Well, he will have one of those Monday, this time for the Atlanta Braves.

The veteran right-hander, 37, spent most of this season in the minor leagues, but he will be the starter in Game 4 of the National League Division Series with the Braves trailing the Dodgers two games to one and on the brink of elimination in their best-of-five-games series.

Garcia described the Dodgers as a "powerful team" with a "powerful lineup" during a media session Sunday afternoon and nothing that happened in Game 3 will have changed his mind. The Dodgers crushed Braves' pitchers for 14 hits, including a double and a triple by Hanley Ramirez and home runs by Carl Crawford and Juan Uribe in a 13-6 win.

"I just have to go out there and pitch the way I've been pitching," Garcia said, "and try to do my best."

He might need something better than that.

Garcia is a two-time All-Star with 156 career victories, but his best years are behind him.

Far behind him.

He was released by the San Diego Padres during spring training and picked up by the Baltimore Orioles, who signed him to a minor-league contract; he was with their triple-A Norfolk team most of this season.

Garcia had an 8-3 record there, but when the Orioles called him up in May, he stuck with them for less than two months. His record was 3-5, his earned-run average 5.77, and he was designated for assignment.

The Braves saved him, sending cash to the Orioles for his rights. He made one start at triple-A Gwinnett, giving up eight earned runs in 32/3 innings, but he was promoted anyway late in August.

He has appeared in six games for the Braves and had a 1-2 record and 1.65 ERA. Monday will be his fourth start, unless Braves Manager Fredi Gonzalez has a dramatic change of heart.Gonzalez was asked whether he would consider bringing back Game 1 starter Kris Medlen if the Braves faced elimination.

He was adamant he would not.

"I don't think it would be a good decision to bring them back short on a day, our guys," Gonzalez said.

Garcia used to be a power pitcher back when he led the American League in ERA with the Seattle Mariners in 2001. He also won a World Series with the White Sox, pitching seven scoreless innings in the fourth and final game of a sweep over the Houston Astros in 2005.

But a shoulder injury that required surgery sapped several miles an hour off his best fastball. He has variety, though, with a split finger pitch at the top of his repertoire.

"He knows how to maneuver himself through a major league lineup," Gonzalez said.

There's also this: as bad as it looks for the Braves right now, it looked just as bad for Garcia when he was released by the Padres and then given up on by the Orioles.

He admitted he thought about quitting, but he wasn't ready.

"You know, I always am positive," Garcia said. "This year, being up and down, I always think I will be back to where I am right now."

His chance for redemption came from the Braves.

They would like him to return the favor.

Dodgers show off their firepower in 13-6 rout of Braves in Game 3

By Dylan Hernandez

What initially looked like an unfolding crisis quickly turned into the Dodgers' loudest statement of the postseason — even louder than the fans at Dodger Stadium who mocked the Atlanta Braves on Sunday night by mimicking the Tomahawk Chop.

In defeating the Braves, 13-6, to take a two-games-to-one lead in the best-of-five National League division series, the Dodgers offered a forceful reminder that they possess offensive firepower to overcome almost anything.

Hyun-Jin Ryu melted down spectacularly in his first career postseason start, but the rookie left-hander's three-inning appearance had little bearing on the final results, as Hanley Ramirez was one of five Dodgers to drive in two or more runs.

The Dodgers finished with 14 hits, including home runs by Carl Crawford and Juan Uribe. The team's run total matched a franchise postseason record, which was set in the second game of the 1956 World Series.

"We're a team that's built around offense," catcher A.J. Ellis said. "We need to have more nights like this. Hopefully, this carries forward for the rest of the playoffs."

With a victory Monday night at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers can advance to the NL Championship Series. Even if they drop Game 4, they can be eliminated only if the Braves win a game started by Clayton Kershaw on Wednesday in Atlanta.

With two rookie pitchers on the mound in Ryu and Braves starter Julio Teheran, the early innings were turbulent.Ryu gave up two runs in the first inning, which Teheran followed by serving up four in the second. The Dodgers moved in front, 4-2, on a three-run home run by Crawford, who hit one home run in the regular season after May 6.

"It changed the whole game," A.J. Ellis said of Crawford's home run.

Ryu gave up the lead in the third inning, as a couple of his defensive gaffes resulted in two runs. He cost the Dodgers a double play when he received a throw from Ramirez but failed to step on first base.

Later in the inning, Ryu fielded a weak comebacker and tossed the ball home, even though he didn't have a force at the plate. Freddie Freeman scored to make it, 4-4.

The Dodgers made their decisive move in the bottom half of the inning.

Ramirez doubled and scored on a single to center field by Adrian Gonzalez, allowing the Dodgers to reclaim the lead, 5-4.Gonzalez's greatest contribution that inning might not have been that hit, but a take-out slide.

Gonzalez slid into second baseman Elliot Johnson, which not only prevented Johnson from turning a double play, but also forced him into making an errant throw. Yasiel Puig reached second base on the play and scored on a hit by Skip Schumaker.

Gonzalez, who frequently jokes about his lack of speed, smiled when asked about his slide.

"I don't get many opportunities to do that because I don't get there quite often," Gonzalez said. "When I get the opportunity, I'm going to take advantage of it. Elliot told me afterwards I got him pretty good. That was a good feeling."The third inning marked the end of both Ryu and Teheran's nights. Michael Young pinch-hit for Ryu, which prompted Braves Manager Fredi Gonzalez to replace Teheran with Alex Wood.

Of Teheran, Fredi Gonzalez said, "I think he just left some balls over the plate and made some mistakes. And with this club, if you do that, you're going to look down at a gas tank with a lighted match."

The Dodgers added four more runs in the fourth inning, which included a run-scoring triple by Ramirez and a two-run home run by Uribe.

The triple was Ramirez's sixth extra-base hit of the series, which tied a franchise record for the most extra-base hits in a playoff series. The other players with as many were Steve Garvey (1978 NL Championship Series) and Duke Snider (1952 World Series).

Left-hander Chris Capuano preserved the Dodgers' advantage by pitching three hitless and scoreless innings.

But there were some scares in the late innings. Crawford went head-first into the stands along the left-field line after catching a foul ball in the eighth inning. A.J. Ellis was hit by a pitch on his left elbow in the bottom of the inning.

And after Paco Rodriguez gave up two runs in the ninth inning, Mattingly brought in closer Kenley Jansen to record the final out on what should have been a day off for him.

Joe Torre can relate to Don Mattingly's status within Dodgers

By Dylan Hernandez

Asked about protégé Don Mattingly's uncertain future, former Dodgers manager Joe Torre explained Sunday why Mattingly might be concerned about his lame-duck status.As the New York Yankees manager in 2007, Torre found himself in a situation similar to Mattingly's. Torre's contract was about to expire and there was mounting speculation he wouldn't be back the following season.

"Players have to answer a lot of questions and that's the tough part for a manager," Torre said. "If it was just on the manager and you just had to respond as a manager, that's your job. You get paid more money than anyone else on your coaching staff based on the fact that you have to be there and respond to all the questions. But I know in New York — and I don't know what's happening here — my concern was the fact that they were asking players. I don't know what they were asking them, but it was related to me. Whether they like me or don't like me, it's a tough question to answer."

Torre and the Yankees parted ways after that season. Torre went to the Dodgers and took Mattingly with him to be his hitting coach.

The Dodgers haven't announced whether they will exercise their club option on Mattingly's contract for next season. There has been increased chatter in baseball circles about Mattingly's future after Game 2 of the National League division series with the Atlanta Braves.

In that game, a Dodgers' 4-3 loss, Mattingly made an ill-fated decision to intentionally walk Reed Johnson to face former All-Star Jason Heyward.

Torre, who was representing the commissioner's office at Dodger Stadium on Sunday, said he hadn't called Mattingly to give him a pep talk. "Donnie's a tough kid," Torre said.

As far as Mattingly's decision to walk Johnson, the ever-diplomatic Torre tap-danced around the subject. "I wasn't watching," Torre said. "It's tough to say."

No 'I' in team

With the Dodgers taking a two-games-to-one lead in the series, they probably won't start Clayton Kershaw on three days' rest in Game 4.

But Ricky Nolasco said he would understand if the Dodgers started Kershaw on Monday instead of him.

"This isn't about me," Nolasco said. "This is about the team. Whatever decision they make is going to be the best decision for the team. So, I'm with whatever. They're the one who get paid to make those decisions and stuff like that. So, I'll be here ready to take the ball whenever they ask me to pitch."

Short hops

When Fernando Valenzuela threw out the ceremonial first pitch, scout Mike Brito stood behind catcher Tim Federowicz holding a radar gun. Brito was the scout who signed Valenzuela.

Even if instant replay were in place, the controversial caught-stealing call involving Dee Gordon in Game 2 wouldn't have been overturned, according to Torre. "Whichever way it was called, all the replays I looked at, I didn't see enough to overturn what was called originally," Torre said. "You really have to see something that's really defined in order to overturn. On that particular play — and I saw everything they showed me on TV and I know people were back in New York looking at stuff — it was not sure when he caught the ball that the glove didn't graze the uniform."

Dodgers' Adrian Gonzalez is a film buff when it comes to hitting

By Dylan Hernandez

By the time Adrian Gonzalez steps into the batter's box Sunday evening to face Julio Teheran, he figures to have a decent idea of how the Atlanta Braves right-hander will attack him.

"Adrian is probably the smartest hitter I've ever played with," Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis said.

That's why Dodgers players are sometimes seen talking to Gonzalez before their at-bats. There were multiple times this season when Yasiel Puig said the four-time All-Star's advice helped him hit a home run.

QUIZ: Postseason Dodgers -- what do you know?

For Gonzalez, everything starts in front of a computer screen.

Gonzalez spent Saturday watching video of Teheran, the hard-throwing 22-year-old who will take the mound for the Braves at Dodger Stadium in Game 3 of a National League division series.

"When I first started looking at video, I did a lot of stuff that normal people do, where they just look at their own swing and try to break down their swing so they can make adjustments on their swing," Gonzalez said. "But then I realized that I don't need video to know my swing. I know my swing. So I'm better off putting that time into getting to know the pitcher and catcher.

"Once I get to know the pitcher and catcher, I can pretty much call their game. I feel when I'm at the plate, I can tell what a catcher wants to call or what a pitcher wants to throw. At that point, it's just about execution."

Gonzalez said he typically gains a feel for a pitcher after watching him throw 150 to 200 pitches. Seeing how hard a pitcher throws is difficult, but Gonzalez said there are ways to tell.

"The gun really means nothing, at least to me," Gonzalez said. "It could be 95, but it could be a soft 95. It could be 90, and when you get up there, it's a lot harder, so in my mind it could be 95. That's the only thing I can't tell you. But I can see it off a hitter's reactions or if guys are late on a fastball down the middle over and over and over again, it means the pitches have life."

From the video room, Gonzalez migrates to the batting cages.

"Every swing I take is focused on the game plan that I have, what I'm trying to cover, what I'm trying to lay off of," Gonzalez said. "If I catch something in my sleep or overnight, I'll come in and make a tweak here or there."Often, adjustments are made mid-game.

Take Game 1 of the division series, when Gonzalez was two for five with a home run in the Dodgers' 6-1 victory.In his first at-bat, with no outs and no men on in the second inning, starter Kris Medlen threw him a first-pitch changeup. Gonzalez swung and missed.

"When a pitcher throws you a first-pitch changeup with nobody on, leading off an inning, he's kind of saying that's going to be his go-to pitch that day," Gonzalez said. "So when I got a chance with runners in scoring position, I was going to go up there and look for it the whole at-bat."

That opportunity came in the third inning. With two outs and Carl Crawford on second base, Medlen threw him another first-pitch changeup. Gonzalez crushed the pitch over the center-field wall.

Gonzalez's knowledge of the opponents extends beyond the starting pitcher. Before the first game of a series, Gonzalez will familiarize himself with all of the team's relievers and catchers.

For this series, he has studied how catchers Brian McCann, Gerald Laird and Evan Gattis like to call games. He has noted the pitchers' on-field relationships with each of them, to see if a particular catcher will shake off one catcher more than another.

"I'm very methodical with everything I do in life," Gonzalez said.

He was an honors student at Eastlake High in suburban San Diego. He said he would have studied mechanical engineering had he attended college.

What allows Gonzalez to put his ideas into practice is his calm demeanor. Gonzalez admitted he was overly energized for his first career playoff game, which was with the San Diego Padres in 2006. He was hitless in four at-bats and struck out twice.

He told himself to be patient. He was five for 10 with three walks over the remaining three games of the series, which the Padres lost to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Gonzalez said he was able to take that calm approach into the Dodgers' series against the Braves.

"I wasn't nervous at all," Gonzalez said. "I felt normal for my first at-bat and first play on defense. I was really just enjoying the moment. It really seemed like another game."

The combination of smarts and composure makes Gonzalez a force in crucial situations. Gonzalez led the Dodgers this season with 100 runs batted in and batted .356 with two outs and runners in scoring position.

"There's nobody else we'd rather have up in a big situation than Adrian," Ellis said. "That's for sure."

Ricky Nolasco to start Game 4 for Dodgers, pitching coach says

By Bill Shaikin

The Dodgers plan to start veteran right-hander Ricky Nolasco — and not ace left-hander Clayton Kershaw — in Game 4 of the National League division series on Monday, Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt told The Times.

The Dodgers had considered using Kershaw on short rest if they faced elimination Monday. However, after the 13-6 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Sunday, Honeycutt said the team would not risk using its ace Monday.

Kershaw has never pitched on short rest.

"He's our future," Honeycutt told The Times. "You don't want to mess around with it."

The Dodgers lead the best-of-five series two games to one. If the Dodgers win the series Monday, Kershaw could pitch Game 1 of the National League Championship Series.

If the Dodgers lose Monday, Kershaw could pitch the decisive fifth game in Atlanta on Wednesday.

Dodgers roll a lucky number in whipping Braves, 13-6, in Game 3

By Steve Dilbeck

The game looked like it wanted to go in dozen different directions all at once, squirming and squealing all over the place, unable to lay claim to anything but a wild ride.And then the Dodgers suddenly seem to say enough, that they had other things in mind, and the seized control with a 13-6 victory Sunday at Dodger Stadium that may also have seized control of their National League division series against the Atlanta Braves.

The Dodgers now lead the best-of-five series two games to one, with a chance to close it out in Game 4, scheduled Monday at 6:30 p.m. PT at Dodger Stadium.

BOX SCORE: Dodgers 13, Braves 6

The Dodgers won Sunday’s battle despite a rocky start by Hyun-Jin Ryu that has to leave them concerned. They fell behind 2-0 and came back behind a three-run homer from Carl Crawford to take a 4-2 lead, only to see the Braves answer with two in the top of the third to tie it again.

Then the Dodgers took control. They scored two in the bottom of the inning to regain the lead, then four more in the fourth to make it a runaway. After four innings, they had 10 runs on 11 hits.

Just for good measure, they added three more in the eighth. The 13 runs tied a franchise record for most runs in a postseason game, tying the 1956 Dodgers who beat the New York Yankees, 13-8, in Game 2 of the World Series.The Dodgers got a two-run homer from Juan Uribe, a triple, double and single from Hanley Ramirez, three hits, three runs and two RBIs from Yasiel Puig and three badly needed scoreless innings of relief from Chris Capuano.

Here is an inning-by-inning recap of Game 3:

Dodgers 13, Braves 6 (game over):Reliever Paco Rodriguez came on to finish it off for the Dodgers in the ninth, but could not get it done.After an infield hit, he gave up a two-run homer Jason Heyward. That would be the same Heyward who lined a two-run single off Rodriguez to win Game 2 for the Braves.

Rodriguez also gave up a walk and a single, before Don Mattingly had seen enough and called on Kenley Jansen to strike out Brian McCann for the final out.

Rodriguez, however, has been struggling for over a month now, and may have pitched himself off the playoff roster should the Dodgers advance to the next round.

Dodgers 13, Braves 4 (end of eighth):

Three outs to for the Dodgers.They added three more runs in the eighth after Hanley Ramirez continued his terrific series by lining a run-scoring single. It was the first single of his seven series hits.

Adrian Gonzales collected another RBI hit when he singled off reliever Luis Avilan and Yasiel Puig singled in one more.The 13 runs ties the franchise record for runs in a postseason game, tying the 1956 Dodgers who beat the Yankees 13-8 in Game 2 of the 1956 World Series.

Dodgers 10, Braves 4 (middle of eighth):Things have come to such a crawl, the sellout crowd at Dodger Stadium has resorted to a bad imitation of the war chant Braves fans do at Turner Field. They need serious practice.The highlight of the inning was Carl Crawford running down a foul ball by Brian McCann. Crawford sprinted past the foul line, made the catch at the thigh-level wall and then tumbled head-over-heels into the concrete path.He emerged unscathed and received a rousing round of applause, including from grateful reliever J.P. Howell. Ronald Belisario took over for Howell at the point and retired both of his hitters.

Dodgers 10, Braves 4 (end of seventh):They're playing a completely different game now. The Dodgers went in order in the seventh and now haven't had a hit since the fourth inning. Of course, they had 11 hits through four innings.

Dodgers 10, Braves 4 (middle of seventh):J.P. Howell followed suit with reliever Chris Capuano, keeping the Braves off the scoreboard in the seventh. He allowed one hit, but otherwise Atlanta could do nothing with him.

The Braves are now in that wonderful position, down by six runs with only six outs left.

Dodgers 10, Braves 4 (end of sixth):Geez, this game is boring. Nobody ever scores a run.The Dodgers were held scoreless for the second consecutive inning. The highlight was when hot-hitting Hanley Ramirez had an 11-pitch at-bat he worked a walk. Second baseman Elliot Johnson made a diving stop of an Andrian Gonzalez bouncer to start a double play.J.P. Howell is taking over for Chris Capuano to start the seventh.

Dodgers 10, Braves 4 (middle of sixth):For the third consecutive inning, reliever Chris Capuano walked the leadoff hitter. And for the third consecutive inning, he came out of it without allowing a run. No "MVP" chants?After walking Andrelton Simmons on four pitches, he induced Elliot Johnson to hit into a double play and then struck out pinch-hitter B.J. Upton.That has to be it for Capuano, who has thrown 46 pitches. Battling a groin injury, he threw only 3 2/3 innings in all of September. Still, those were three innings to remember for Capuano, who was making the first postseason appearance of his nine-year career.

Dodgers 10, Braves 4 (end of fifth):For the first time all night, they played an entire inning without ethier team scoring.The Dodgers were retired in order buy Alex Wood.

Dodgers 10, Braves 4 (middle of fifth):Chris Capuano has restored some much-needed order for the Dodgers. He completed his second scoreless inning. He again gave up a lead-off walk, and then retire the next three consecutive Braves.He's thrown 32 pitches and the Dodgers have no one up in the bullpen, so it appears he'll come out to at least start his third inning of relief.

Dodgers 10, Braves 4 (end of fourth):The Dodgers look like they don't want to play this back-and-forth game any longer.The Dodgers tried to break the game open by scoring four more in the fourth to take a six-run lead.Hanley Ramirez, who is hitting like someone determined to make the most of every at-bat, got it going, again.He tripled in Carl Crawford in the fourth, continuting his remarkable first three games. Ramirez now has six extra-base hits in just three games.That ties Steve Garvey for the most extra-base hits by a Los Angeles Dodger in a postgame series. Garvey had six in four games during the 1978 National League Championship Series in 1978.Puig singled in Ramirez, and the Dodgers were up by four. And not nearly done. Juan Uribe drilled the first pitch he saw for a two-run homer, to put the Dodgers up by six.It was Uribe's fourth postseason home run.

Dodgers 6, Braves 4 (middle of fourth):The Dodgers needed that.Chris Capuano, who had pitched only two innings of relief since straining a groin on Sept. 6, took over to start the fourth. He did walk leadoff hitter Elliot Johnson, but then retired the next three Braves, including Justin Upton on a strikeout to end the inning.It's turned into a bullpen game now, and the Dodgers need at least two innings out of Capuano.

Dodgers 6, Braves 4 (end of third):Yes, it is absolutely going to be one of those games. Both starting pitchers were done before the end of the third.The Dodgers quickly regained the lead in the bottom of the inning after Hanley Ramirez led off with a double and scored on a single by Andrian Gonzalez.Yasiel Puig then put the life of Gonzalez in jeopardy.

Puig hit a grounder to Chris Johnson at third, and he spun and fired to second to start the double-play try. But with his speed, Puig beat the relay and the wild throw got by first baseman Freddie Freeman.Puig saw it and started sprinting to second. But Gonzalez was still on the bag after his hard slide. Seeing Puig advancing, Gonzalez quickly rose, picked up his helmet and just got out of the way as Puig slid in ahead of the tag.Puig's hustle proved important when Skip Schumaker singled to score him from second. When A.J. Ellis singled, the Dodgers had Michael Young hit for Hyun-Jin Ryu, so the Braves countered with reliever Alex Wood. He struck out Young.That ended the night for both Ryu and Julio Teheran. Ryu gave up four runs on six hits in his three innings. In his 2 2/3 innings, Teheran was charged with six runs on eight hits.Chris Capuano will take over in the fourth for the Dodgers.

Dodgers 4, Braves 4 (middle of third):Hyun-Jin Ryu doesn't look long for the night. Ryu has thrown 68 pitches in just three innings. Safe to say, he doesn't look sharp. Also, he needs dancing school.The Braves loaded the baes on three singles to open the inning, and then Brian McCann hit a bouncer to Adrian Gonzalez to start a double play.Ryu covered at first to catch the relay for the second out, but apparently failied to get his right foot against the bag. He then tried to swipe it with his other foot, but by then Brian McCann was safe and a run had scored. A "Dancing with the Star," judges each gave him two points.Then he had a brain cramp, fielding a little tapper by Chris Johnson up the line and throwing home. He had no chance to get the runner Freddie Freeman, and a second run scored. A double play got him out of more trouble.

Dodgers 4, Braves 2 (end of second):Carl Crawford was almost the forgotten guy in that big Boston trade last summer, but he grabbed the spotlight Sunday.The Dodgers loaded the bases on singles by Yasiel Puig and Juan Uribe and a walk to -- who else? -- A.J. Ellis. Hyun-Jin Ryu then helped his cause by lining out to fairly deep right to sacrifice Puig in.That brought up Crawford, who promptly drilled a three-run homer into the Atlanta bullpen. Crawford's last home run was Sept. 27, but prior to that he had not hit a home runs since May 6.Braves 2, Dodgers 0 (middle of second):

The Dodgers had to find Hyun-Jin Ryu's second inning encouraging. This time it was three up, three down.It was 87 degrees at game time, but no wind, just a gentle breeze.

Braves 2, Dodgers 0 (end of first):

No early comeback by the Dodgers. They put a runner on second with no outs after Carl Crawford singled and advanced on a wild pitch.

But rookie Julio Teheran then retired Mark Ellis, Hanley Ramirez and Adrian Gonzalez in order. He threw 16 pitches, 14 for stikeouts.

Braves 2, Dodgers 0 (middle of first):

And -- boom! -- the Dodgers are down. Didn't take long for those convinced something is not right with Hyun-Jin Ryu to gain new evidence.

Ryu gave up two quick runs on three hits and a walk in the first. A one-out double by Justin Upton just beyond the diving grasp of Skip Schumaker -- a drive that the speedy Matt Kemp probably would have run down -- preceded a run-scoring single by Evan Gattis.Ryu walked Brian McCann and gave up an RBI single to Chris Johnson, and the Braves had the early lead.Pregame:

The good: Fernando Valenzuela throws out the ceremonial first pitch, wth Mike Brito (the scout who signed him), leaning over the catcher wearing his white fedora, cigar in mouth and radar gun in hand.

The not-so good: They gave out blue hand towels to those in attendance Sunday. Really? This is Los Angeles, not Oklahoma City.

Some of the crowd appears late in arriving. In the house: Sandy Koufax and Joe Torre. Tommy Lasorda took the microphone to do the, "It's time for Dodger baseball" bit. There will be more than one rookie starting pitcher taking the mound Sunday in Game 3 of the Dodgers-Braves division series at Dodger Stadium.

Hyun-Jin Ryu (14-8, 3.00 ERA) has been everything the Dodgers hoped this season after coming over from South Korea.But the Braves had also enjoyed a standout rookie season from Julio Teheran. This is only the 11th time in postseason history two rookie pitchers have started opposite each other.

Teheran is a 22-year-old right-hander from Colombia who was ranked as the Braves’ No.1 prospect for the past three consecutive years. Teheran spent the past six seasons in the minors, trying to win the Braves’ favor.

They gave him a spot in their rotation to start the season, and after sporting a 4.57 ERA in his first seven starts, he put together a 2.81 ERA over his last 23 games. He finished the season 14-8 with a 3.20 ERA.

Braves Manager Fredi Gonzalez said the key for the 6-foot-2, 175-pound Teheran is getting his fastball over early in the count.

“The fastball command, that’s big,” Gonzalez said. “If he gets that fastball down and he gets strike one, I think the other stuff will play.

“That’s the No.1 thing. If he gets that strike one or gets the fastball where he wants it to be, he’ll be very effective today.”

Teheran has never faced the Dodgers.

And not that Sunday’s game is big, but ESPN reports that the last 15 times a division series was tied 1-1, the team that won Game 3 went on to win the series 14 times.

Joe Torre talks about Don Mattingly's job status, Game 2 decision

By Dylan Hernandez

Asked about the uncertain job status of Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly, Joe Torre reflected on his days as a lame-duck manager with the New York Yankees.

“Players have to answer a lot of questions and that’s the tough part for a manager,” Torre said. “If it was just on the manager and you just had to respond as a manager, that’s your job. You get paid more money than anyone else on your coaching staff based on the fact that you have to be there and respond to all the questions. But I know in New York -- and I don’t know what’s happening here -- my concern was the fact that they were asking players. I don’t know what they were asking them, but it was related to me. Whether they like me or don’t like me, it’s a tough question to answer.”

Mattingly, who coached under Torre and inherited his job as the Dodgers’ manager, doesn’t have a guaranteed contract beyond this season.

Torre faced a similar situation in 2007 with the Yankees. After the Yankees were eliminated by the Cleveland Indians in the American League division series, Torre rejected a one-year offer. He later moved to the Dodgers.

“That’s what the job is all about,” Torre said. “When you buy into becoming a manager, life isn’t necessarily fair but the upside is great. I’m not trying to be trite, but it is what it is. You can’t say, 'This is because of this,' because nobody wants to know that. You just take it as it comes along and do the best you can.”

Ever the diplomat, Torre tap-danced around questions about whether Mattingly made the right call in Game 2 to intentionally walk Reed Johnson to load the bases and face Jason Heyward.

“That’s tough to say,” said Torre, who claimed he didn’t watch the game.

Heyward singled in two runs in what turned out to be the deciding play of the Atlanta Braves’ 4-3 victory.

Even if expanded instant replay was already in place for that game, Torre said the controversial caught-stealing call involving Dee Gordon probably wouldn’t have been overturned. Torre said none of the replays definitively showed Gordon was safe or out.ALSO:

Dodgers' Andre Ethier still hopes to play center field in NLDS

By Bill Shaikin

Andre Ethier worked out in center field Sunday and said he hopes to return to the position during the National League division series.

Ethier has not played the field since Sept. 13 because of discomfort above his left ankle, a condition similar to shin splints. Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly said it would be a "great surprise" if Ethier played the field before the NL championship series, if the Dodgers advance.

"Hopefully sooner than that," Ethier said. "That's what we're hoping for. You never know."

Ethier has appeared as a pinch-hitter in each of the first two games of the NLDS against the Atlanta Braves. Skip Schumaker has started in center field.

Ricky Nolasco won't fret if Dodgers let Clayton Kershaw start Game 4

By Bill Shaikin

Ricky Nolasco said he would not object if the Dodgers take the ball out of his hands and give it to Clayton Kershaw for Game 4 of the National League Division Series.

"This isn't about me," Nolasco said. "This is about the team."

Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly said Sunday that Nolasco is the Game 4 starter "right now." If the Dodgers lose Game 3 on Sunday night, they would face elimination in Game 4. The Dodgers could be reluctant to risk elimination without using Kershaw, the probable National League Cy Young winner.Nolasco said team officials have told him nothing other than to be ready to start Game 4.

"They are the ones who get paid to make those decisions," Nolasco said. "I'll be here ready to take the ball whenever they ask me to pitch."

In his three most recent starts — the last on Sept. 25 — Nolasco has given up 19 runs in 12 innings.

Kershaw has never started on short rest but would be doing so if asked to pitch Game 4. That would set up Zack Greinke to start a Game 5 on regular rest.

In Game 1, Kershaw held the Braves to one run and three hits over seven innings while striking out 12.

DAILY NEWS

Vincent Bonsignore: Dodgers’ Hanley Ramirez paying Braves manager back for tough love

By Vincent Bonsignore

It’s funny how the twists and turns of baseball can sometimes intersect at the oddest places, or how a formerly frowned-upon star can rehabilitate himself on a stage in which a former teacher has a front row seat to observe the transformation.

But with each blast off the extraordinarily hot bat of Hanley Ramirez on Sunday to help inch the Dodgers one step closer to disposing the Atlanta Braves in the National League Division Series, it’s impossible not to remember his former life under the manager in the opposing dugout.

Or how Fredi Gonzalez once tried to save Ramirez from himself, and how the belated result of that effort may soon mean the end of the Braves’ season.

It seems like a lifetime ago when the petulance of Ramirez ran into the brick wall that is the respect Gonzalez has for doing things correctly on the baseball field.

Back in 2010, the hottest hitter in the Dodgers lineup and the current manager of the Braves were jointly employed by the Florida Marlins, and when Ramirez’s immaturity crossed Gonzalez’s integrity one too many times, Ramirez found himself on the Marlins bench.

It was a gutsy move by Gonzalez, and maybe a costly one. He was eventually fired by the Marlins, and to this day some people insist Ramirez had a hand in his demise.

As for Ramirez, his reputation took a significant hit. He was seen as non-caring, a loafer and egotistical. And soon he was on his way out of Miami too, shipped off to Los Angeles where the Dodgers agreed to absorb his salary and damaged character in the middle of last season.

“That was the same thing I thought coming here as a free agent,” Dodgers reliever J.P. Howell said. “I didn’t know where Hanley was coming from; I used to not like him as an opponent.”

Fellow pitcher Chris Capuano, whose three innings of relief Sunday helped steady the Dodgers after starter Hyun-Jin Ryu flamed out after three innings, was apprehensive as well.

“I really didn’t know what to expect,” Capuano said. “Maybe a little flashy from the other side sometimes, not sure what kind of a teammate he was going to be.”

Only for both to discover Ramirez was nothing like they imagined, perhaps changed by the Dodgers veteran environment or inspired by the winning atmosphere or unburdened without the pressure of having to carry a loaded ballclub.

“You’ve seen it so many times where a change of scenery is so good for somebody,” Capuano said. “You get to start over and choose who you want to be.”

That renovation began on the very day Ramirez became a Dodger and met with manager Don Mattingly in St. Louis.

“I walked into his office, he just told me just be you,” Ramirez remembers. “We’ve got 24 more guys out there that come here every day and play hard and have fun. I want you to be the same.”

It was Ramirez, as much as anyone else, who carried the Dodgers this year – their 51-26 record when he started during the regular season a remarkable testament to his influence - and now he’s hoisted them onto his shoulders in the NLDS against the Gonzalez-managed Braves.

From the opposing dugout, Gonzalez must watch with assorted interest.

Ramirez has hammered his Braves this series, his triple, double, single, two RBIs and three runs scored Sunday a multi-layered haymaker in the Dodgers’ 13-6 Game 3 victory to position themselves for a knockout punch in Game 4 today.It was vintage Ramirez, a former batting champion under Gonzalez back in 2009 and a player who can take over a series with his bat and glove.

“It’s ridiculous,” Howell said. “His talent is incredible.”

This is the Ramirez who Gonzalez knew was possible three years ago when he doled out the kind of tough love a father does to a reeling son.

A player for whom Gonzalez remembered fondly this week from their Florida time as someone who “on any given day, might have been the best player on the field.”

That is, before he went astray in 2010 with various acts of on-field defiance and reported disobedience off it.

Ironic, then, that the grown-up Ramirez, the one Mattingly speaks of in the highest regard, re-blossomed this year and that it’s Gonzalez and the Braves he and his .538 batting average are punishing right now.

Ramirez’s six extra-base hits through the first four games this series ties him for the Dodgers record for extra-base hits in a playoff series with Steve Garvey, who did it in six games against the Philadelphia Phillies in 1978, and Duke Snider, who did it in seven games in the 1952 World Series.

“At the plate, right now I’m not thinking. I’m just looking at the ball and hit it, whatever the pitch is,” Ramirez said. “It’s an unbelievable feeling when it’s just less thinking, just produce. Go out there and have fun and play hard.”

Ramirez doubled to start the third inning after the Braves tied the score 4-4 in the top of the third, setting the table for a two-run inning that put the Dodgers ahead 6-4.

Then he tripled in a run in the fourth as part of a four-run inning to put the Dodgers up 10-4.

And in the eighth he singled in yet another run in a three-run inning that extended the lead to 13-4.

With every hit and each RBI and run scored he pushed the Dodgers one step closer to advancing to the NLCS.

That the grown-up version of Ramirez is doing it for the Dodgers against the man who desperately tried to help him three years ago – harsh and disciplined as the assistance may have been – is one of the great ironies.But for the Dodgers, all’s well that ends well.

“I just hope he keeps it up and we can ride his coat tails all the way to the World Series,” said left fielder Carl Crawford.

Only Freddy Garcia can save Braves now

By Jill Painter

The Braves’ postseason hopes are clinging to the right arm of 37-year-old Freddy Garcia.

If Garcia can channel his inner Chicago White Sox champion self from the 2004 World Series, the Braves could extend the NLDS to a Game 5 in Atlanta.

If not, Atlanta will suffer more postseason heartbreak that its fans have become accustomed to over the years.This time, Atlanta’s bats went quiet. Very quiet in Game 3 of the NLDS at sold-out Dodger Stadium.

The Dodgers bats got hot — they scored four runs in each of the second and fourth innings — and even though they trailed early, they quickly rallied for a 13-4 blowout win and 2-1 series lead.

Atlanta couldn’t stop the bleeding.

Both Game 3 starters disappointed. Hyun-Jin Ryu lasted only three innings, and Atlanta rookie Julio Teheran just 2 2/3. Teheran allowed six runs on eight hits and was relieved after 2 2/3 innings.

Poor starting pitching can be erased with an insanely productive offense.

See the Dodgers.

And not the Braves.

“I wasn’t disappointed. I was just trying to get out of difficult innings,” Teheran said. “I tried to throw my pitches and made a couple of mistakes I paid for.”

And now, the Braves face an elimination game today in Game 4 at Dodger Stadium. Garcia — who was a September callup — will get the pivotal start. No emergency start for Kris Medlen on three days’ rest, according to Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez.

“You know what? It’s one of those games you forget about it,” Gonzalez said. “I think if you look at the positives, I don’t know what it was, a nine-run game in the ninth inning and they had to bring their closer in.

“You always think that’s a good thing. We didn’t roll over. We went out there and scored some runs, and they had to bring in (Kenley) Jansen. You know, we’ll build on that.”

Atlanta found a silver lining in Game 1 in that it worked Clayton Kershaw’s pitch count up. You know how well that went for the Braves. Kershaw struck out 12 batters en route to pacing the Dodgers to a 6-1 victory.

There’s no silver lining for the Braves if they win Game 4 with Ricky Nolasco on the mound because they would have to face Kershaw in Game 5.

Garcia’s got next for the Braves.After Tommy John surgery and struggles, he pondered retirement. He started the season with Baltimore, but he’s now Atlanta’s best bet for postseason success.

Garcia doesn’t have the umph back on his fastball after surgery, but he’s added to his arsenal of pitches. That should make him a more complete pitcher. But in August, Garcia was pitching for the Triple-A Gwinnett (Georgia) Braves. Big difference from an elimination Game 4 in Major League Baseball.

“I had to change my style,” Garcia said. “You know, I used to be a power pitcher. After I got surgery, I wasn’t throwing hard anymore. So I had to find a way to get people out. I learned to throw that split finger.”

On Sunday, the Braves had the Dodgers right where they wanted them. They got to Dodgers starter Ryu in the first inning with a 2-0 lead and knocked him out of the game after three innings. They tagged him for four runs on six hits, but knocking Ryu out of the game early didn’t matter.

Leadoff batter Jason Heyward — the hero for Atlanta in its Game 2 victory — was 0 for 4 until the ninth, when he hit a two-run homer off Paco Rodriguez. He cut the lead to seven runs at 13-6.

Postseason home runs are nice and all, but they matter little down by nine runs.

Atlanta catcher Brian McCann — well-known for policing guys who trash talk while running bases — was 0 for 4 with one walk. Heyward, Justin Upton, Freddie Freeman, Evan Gattis and McCann — the top of the lineup — combined for four RBIs, thanks to Heyward accounting for half of that total on that ninth-inning home run.

Freeman — the Fountain Valley native — was 2 for 4 and so flustered when he struck out against Rodriguez in the ninth that he slapped his hands to his helmet as he walked back to the Braves dugout.

He couldn’t believe he went fishing for that pitch, but he wasn’t the only one fooled.

Atlanta’s pitching was so bad — and the Braves had to deplete their once-stingy bullpen by using five relievers — that Atlanta aided the Dodgers in setting and tying franchise records for runs (13) in a postseason game.

The Dodgers bats were sizzling as Carl Crawford and Juan Uribe both homered. Hanley Ramirez doubled and tripled and tied a new Dodgers postseason record in the process for extra-base hits (six) in a series.

Not much went right for the Braves.

In the fourth inning, reliever Alex Wood didn’t help his own cause by stumbling and fumbling when trying to field a bunt attempt by Crawford. It’s a video made for a blooper reel. That error made all four runs in the inning unearned.

It was just an example of all the debacles and miscues that happened to Atlanta’s pitching staff on Sunday.

And the Braves will leave it up to another pitcher — Garcia — to save them from yet another playoff disappointment.

Loyal Dodgers fans thrilled to be at postseason game

By Brenda Gazzar

Dodgers fans were ecstatic to return to their iconic stadium Sunday for a postseason game for the first time since 2009 and were feeling cautiously optimistic that the World Series was in their future.

The sold-out stadium was an electric sea of blue and white as fans in Dodger’s caps and jerseys twirled their rally towels and chanted “Let’s Go Dodgers, Let’s Go!” Many fans were hopeful the team would clinch the win Sunday and again Monday in the best-of-five series against Atlanta so they could celebrate at home. The Dodgers didn’t disappoint them on Sunday with a convincing victory over

the Braves to take a two games to one lead and pull within one win of advancing to the National League championship series against either St. Louis or Pittsburgh.

“I love the Dodgers; love watching them play,” said Mike Kametani, 68, of Alhambra, who has been a fan for about 20 years and attended the game donning a Hawaiian-style Dodgers shirt given to him by his son 15 years ago for Father’s Day. “The new ownership makes it really nice. A lot of the changes at the stadium have been nice, too. It’s the most exciting team I’ve seen in the last five years. It’s brought baseball back into L.A., really.”

Kametani’s sister-in-law Lupe Hilario-Flores, 57, of Pico Rivera grew up going to Dodger’s games since her grandparents were “die-hard” Dodgers fans.

While “it’s been pins and needles sometimes,” Hilario-Flores said, “we knew something was going to happen, something good, because of the fact that we’re all happy with the new ownership. We knew with Magic Johnson behind this team, it was going to turn around. Because Magic Johnson is a winner.”

Tony Kim, 17, of Brea, said he’s been a Dodgers fan since he was born in Australia, where he and his father would watch the games on Pay Extra before they moved to Southern California.

With all the injuries the team has seen this year and they way they were playing early on, Kim said he thought it was “a miracle” they even made it to the playoffs. But early Sunday evening, he was feeling confident, he said, that his team would win and that they would even go on to the World Series.

“I’ve been at Dodgers Stadium 10 times and whenever I’ve been here, we’ve won them all so I’m 10-0,” said Kim, who was wearing a Jersey bearing the name of starting pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu on it. “So I’m confident that we’re going to win tonight.”

Chris Sanchez, 46, of Thousand Oaks and his wife, Lynn, said they’ve been fans their whole lives and would never miss a playoff. While it was initially a rough season for the Dodgers, Sanchez said, things really turned around with outfielder Yasiel “Puig hitting as well as he has and the energy he’s put to the team.”

The couple said they brought their “good luck charm” to the game, their 12-year-old son, Derek, who donned a long, fake beard with a blue rubber band at the tip in honor of Dodgers relief pitcher and “bigger than life” personality Brian Wilson and a T-shirt that says “Fear the Beard.”

“We never leave home without him,” Sanchez said.

“It’s his Halloween costume,” said his mother, Lynn, who grew up in Woodland Hills.

Dodgers fan Christian Allen, 24, of Manhattan Beach was stuck without a ticket Sunday night but sat down and watched the game on television from outside the Top of the Game Store near the stadium’s entry gate.

Dressed in a Dodgers Jersey and cap and holding a baseball mitt and baseball once signed by Dodgers pitcher Ricky Nolasco, Allen was enthusiastically cheering, or in some cases, yelling with frustration after each big play.

“It’s better than nothing,” Allen, who is studying sports journalism and photography at El Camino College in Torrance, said, adding that he’d love to see the Dodgers win the World Series this year. “If I’m here, not inside the ballgame, at least let me see the game from somewhere.”

Dodgers put Braves on the brink in NLDS

By JP Hoornstra

Hanley Ramirez had just finished answering a question in Spanish about how happy he was in Los Angeles when he said, in English, “everything I do, I do for my team and for the city.”

The National League Division Series is only three games old, but Ramirez has already done a lot..

Ramirez went 3 for 4 and finished a home run shy of the cycle in the Dodgers’ 13-6 win over the Atlanta Braves on Sunday at Dodger Stadium.

The Dodgers lead the best-of-5 series 2-1. They can clinch their first trip to the National League Championship Series since 2009 on their home field Monday. If the Braves win Game 4, a deciding Game 5 will be played Wednesday in Atlanta.

All it took was one big win for the Dodgers to feel that momentum is on their side.

“We’re in stage one,” reliever J.P. Howell said. “You can sense it, where we’re heading.”

The longer the series goes, the further Ramirez heads into the history books.

The Dodgers’ shortstop, who is participating in his first postseason after 1,095 career regular-season games, has six extra-base hits in the series. That matches a Los Angeles Dodgers record set by Steve Garvey in the 1978 National League Championship Series.

“Right now, I’m not thinking,” he said. “Just look at the ball and hit it, whatever the pitch is. It’s an unbelievable feeling when you’re thinking less, just produce, go out there and have fun and play hard.”

On Sunday, Ramirez had plenty of help.

After scoring six runs against Braves starter Julio Teheran — the most he’s allowed in a game in his brief career — the Dodgers padded their lead with seven more against the vaunted Atlanta bullpen.

Adrian Gonzalez went 2 for 5, Yasiel Puig went 3 for 5, and Juan Uribe went 2 for 5 as the Dodgers’ Nos. 3-6 hitters were a collective 10 for 19.

Carl Crawford went 2 for 5 with his first postseason home run since 2010. He also contributed a head-over-heels catch over the left-field railing as he tumbled into the seats in the eighth inning.

Early on, the game was anything but a laugher. As the runs piled up, Teheran and Dodgers left-handed starter Hyun-Jin Ryu were both out of the game by the fourth inning.

Ryu had already allowed six hits and four runs when he was replaced for a pinch-hitter with the Dodgers leading 6-4 in the third inning.

“He’s a guy who relies on deception and location,” Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis said. “When he was over the middle of the plate, they were ready for it.”

In his first MLB playoff appearance, Ryu allowed a pair of runs in the top of the first inning, on RBI singles by Chris Johnson and Evan Gattis.

The Dodgers answered with four runs in the bottom of the second inning, three on the home run by Crawford.Atlanta tied the score with two runs in the top of the third inning, helped by a pair of mistakes by Ryu. The pitcher failed to touch first base while covering the back end of a potential double play, which in turn allowed Justin Upton to score the Braves’ third run.

The next batter, Chris Johnson, hit a swinging-bunt dribbler up the first-base line. Ryu fielded the ball inches inside the first-base foul line and unwisely threw home, where Freddie Freeman easily slid in safely, tying it 4-4.

Flustered, Ryu was allowed to finish the inning, but he was replaced by pinch-hitter Michael Young after the Dodgers scored two more off Teheran in the bottom of the third.

“There was absolutely no injury whatsoever,” Ryu said. “And of course there was anxiety and I was a little bit nervous taking the mound. But I think the earlier part of the game when I had the count going my way, I think I should have honed in and focused a little more. I think those were the mistakes I made.”

“It seemed like he had trouble getting settled in,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. “And tonight was one of those nights — usually with him, there is more swing and miss, and there was really no swing and miss tonight.”

If few expected Ryu to falter, even fewer expected the Dodgers to match a franchise record for runs in a postseason game, set in Game 2 of the 1956 World Series.

Ramirez led off the third inning with a double and scored on an RBI single by Gonzalez, putting the Dodgers ahead for good at 5-4.

A two-out RBI single by Skip Schumaker padded the Dodgers’ lead at 6-4. Left-hander Alex Wood replaced Teheran with two outs in the third inning, Wood fared no better than his predecessor. He bobbled a routine ground ball hit back to the mound by Crawford, who reached on the error then scored on Ramirez’s triple. After Puig singled to score Ramirez, Uribe hit a two-run home run to extend the Dodgers’ lead to 10-4.

RBI singles by Ramirez, Gonzalez and Puig gave the Dodgers a 13-4 lead in the eighth inning.

A two-run home run by Jason Heyward off Dodgers reliever Paco Rodriguez in the ninth inning provided the final score.

“There are no moral victories,” Mattingly said. “You don’t get to add total points together or anything like that. So it’s one win, it’s over at this point. We get a chance to close the door tomorrow.”

Even Dodger Dogs are playoff ready

By Tom Hoffarth

The Los Angeles Police Department officer stopped in his tracks late Sunday afternoon.

He took a long look at me as I came toward him on the Dodger Stadium loge level with what may have appeared to be a lethal weapon.

I was merely carrying, on a tray that was beginning to buckle, one the newly created Dodger Playoff Dogs.

It was loaded. I was definitely handling it without a proper permit.

The problem was I couldn’t get a hold of my doctor at the moment, since he was most likely in a club level suite and out of cell range. And my cholesterol medicine had a child-proof cap, so I might as well be DOA.

The crime wasn’t the fact I actually paid $9 for this creation at the Extremely Loaded Dog concession stand — this foot-long all-beef wiener on a pretzel baguette was already topped with pastrami, a few squirts of mustard and a sliced pickle. It was that I went ahead and added a scoop of onions to the whole mess, possibly vandalizing the work of postseason art.

Guilty, but just a force of habit.

How hungry are Dodger fans for an extended playoff run? Evidenced by the fact I wasn’t the only one in line for one of these beauties, plenty.

“If you handcuff me now, and didn’t allow me to eat this, you’d be doing your duty to protect and to serve,” I told the officer who, at this point, couldn’t walk far enough around me.

“Good luck with that,” he offered. He could have at least handed me a card to explain self-adminstered CPR.

This is the time of year at Dodger Stadium when you can’t even get arrested. Except for a cardiac arrest.

My non-aggravated assault of the dog took 4 minutes, 23 seconds, without any PETA protesting. Considering the first three innings of Sunday’s game took about an hour and a half, followed by a mad rush to the restrooms on every level of the park, it was worth the nutritional investment.

Usually, the “Loaded” dogs go for $7.75, ranging from the Doyer Dog Jr. (Nacho cheese, chili, pico de gallo and jalepenos) the Kim Chi Dog (with, of course, Kim Chi), Frito Pie Dog (Fritos, chili, cheese), the Big Kid Dog (gooey Mac and Cheese with Fritos) and the classic Heater (buffalo wing sauce and blue cheese cole slaw).

Taking things to the next level — because that’s what you do with your eating game when October comes around — meant a bigger gulp, reassessing your health insurance plan pre-Affordable Health Care and then sizing up your appetite for success.

This foodie investment is probably longer lasting than sliding the charge card for a $30 playoff cap or a $30 playoff T-shirt that will be outdated by the end of the month.

The only problem we had with the whole transaction is that instead of “Playoff Dog,” the words “Pastrami Dog” came up on the concession register.

Are the computers not playoff-ready?

The concessionaire had no answer for that. Her arms were tired from carrying it the two feet from the kitchen shelf window to the counter.

An usher watched as I planted myself behind the back row of the loge level and attempted to get into post-season mode.

“Do they give you a knife and fork with that?” she asked.

Yes, but it was buried underneath this Rose Parade sized beast — perhaps this is what Vin Scully will be riding on come January 1.

As if I needed it anyway.

“Somehow, they forgot to include a fishing harpoon,” she added.

This is the time and place to check your pulse. And your blood pressure. When your stadium seats vibrate from the rocking after a Carl Crawford home run as much as from the rap music coming out of the center-field speakers.

It’s a stadium already in full “Let’s Go Dodgers” pregame chant, shouting down some clown on the field with his Dodgers hat turned backward yelling into a microphone that it’s time to get loud because it’s time for the TV cameras to come on.

You don’t need to light up the “applause” sign this time of year.

A crowd full of blue towel-waving fans trumps red foam tomahawks on any perfect fall night when the temperatures are in the high 70s, the San Gabriel Mountains glisten that certain shade of purple in the background, and even Chris Capuano can go to the mound and look like Clayton Kershaw for a few amped-up innings.

Not even Larry David could curb his enthusiasm when put up on the video screen.

In the 2013 playoff baseball buffet, the Dodgers may end up treating the Atlanta Braves like cheap hors d’oeurves. Just don’t mistake them for cocktail franks. We’re going super-sized this time. Pass the onions. Next round, we’re adding fresh blue berries to the recipe.

Notebook: Chris Capuano offers Dodgers solid relief

By JP Hoornstra

Chris Capuano did more than just stop the bleeding after a shaky start by Hyun-Jin Ryu on Sunday.

The veteran left-hander validated the Dodgers’ decision to include him on their 25-man National League Division Series roster.

Pitching the first playoff game in a nine-year career that included stops with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Milwaukee Brewers and New York Mets, Capuano tossed three scoreless innings to earn the victory.

After replacing Ryu to start the fourth inning, Capuano walked the first batter he faced in the fourth, fifth and sixth, but none of the runners advanced past second base. He struck out three and got a double-play ground ball off the bat of Elliot Johnson in the sixth inning, before giving way to J.P. Howell in the seventh.

Capuano started in 20 of his 24 appearances this season, none after Sept. 6. He suffered a strained groin in that game and was forced to leave in the second inning, an injury that caused him to miss the next three weeks.

Not until the final weekend of the regular season did Capuano return. He pitched one scoreless inning of relief in two of the Dodgers’ three games against the Colorado Rockies. That, and a wealth of experience, was enough to earn him a postseason roster spot over right-handers Brandon League, Edinson Volquez and Carlos Marmol.

Ryu lasted just three innings, allowing four runs. The Dodgers led 6-4 when he left the game and were ahead 10-4 when Howell relieved Capuano in the seventh.

Celebrity sightings

Among the celebrities in attendance for Game 3 were musician Jack White, comedian Conan O’Brien, producer Rob Reiner and actor Eric Stonestreet.

Wearing his number 34 jersey, former Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela threw out the ceremonial first pitch to Dodgers catcher Tim Federowicz. Mike Brito, the scout who discovered Valenzuela in Mexico as a teenager in 1978, recreated his famous radar gun-holding pose behind Federowicz with an actual radar gun. Tommy Lasorda did the honors of announcing “It’s time for Dodgers baseball” prior to the game.

Dodgers special advisor Sandy Koufax and former manager Joe Torre were also in attendance. Former Dodger Casey Blake was at the game, too.

Jessica Sanchez, an American Idol product, sang the National Anthem

Ethier update

For the first time this series, Andre Ethier (ankle) took fly balls in center field as the Dodgers took batting practice. Ethier has been limited to pinch-hitting duties this series and only began running the bases Thursday.

Ethier took advantage of the off-day in the schedule Saturday and appeared to be running as normally as he has in weeks. The outfielder said Friday in Atlanta that he would “figure out some more ways to maybe get comfortable and running on this full time.”

Anyone for $1,000?

The Dodgers had a silent auction Sunday, and a Puig jersey had the highest asking price. Of course. A Puig jersey — one of the top-five best sellers in Major League Baseball — had a starting bid of $1,000 and was up to $2,000 an hour before the game. A Clayton Kershaw jersey had a starting bid of $400. All of the proceeds went to the Dodgers Foundation.

ESPNDEPORTES.COMDodgers pone en la lona a Bravos

By Rigo Cervantez

LOS ÁNGELES -- Los Dodgers de Los Ángeles pusieron al borde del nocaut a los Bravos de Atlanta, luego de imponerse por pizarra final de 13-6, este domingo, en Chávez Ravine, con una concurrencia de 54,646, en el tercer duelo de su serie.

Con su triunfo, los dirigidos por Don Mattingly toman ventaja de dos triunfos a uno y quedan a una victoria de adjudicarse la serie divisional.

Los Dodgers igualaron una marca de 13 carreras anotadas que habían logrado el 5 de octubre de 1956 en un juego de Serie Mundial frente a los Yankees de Nueva York, que finalizó 13-8.

Juan Uribe y Carl Crawford se distinguieron en la ofensiva azul, con sendos cuadrangulares, mientras que Hanley Ramírez producía dos carreras, en una noche de 3 hits en 4 turnos.

"Para mí, todos los juegos son iguales, sin importar si son playoffs o series mundiales. En todos, uno debe tratar de hacer lo mejor", destacó Uribe, quien también tuvo palabras para su gran amigo, Hyun-Jin Ryu, quien no tuvo una buena noche.

"Yo confío en Ryu, que es un tremendo lanzador" dijo Uribe, quien disparó el cuarto batazo de cuatro esquinas de su carrera, en juegos de postemporada.

DOS NOVATOS

En un juego que presentó a dos abridores novatos, que se comportaron como tales, el zurdo Hyun-Jin Ryu, y el joven colombiano Julio Teherán, permitieron un total de 14 hits y 10 carreras en su labor combinada de menos de 6 entradas. La derrota fue para Teherán, mientras que el triunfo fue para Chris Capuano, el primero de su carrera en una postemporada, luego de su labor de relevo de 3 capítulos, sin permitir carreras.

"Fue importante que el equipo tuviera la capacidad para responder tan rápido, luego de que ellos nos anotaran dos carreras, cuando todavía no empuñábamos un bate", dijo Capuano.

"Me sentí muy bien de poder lograr ceros en tres entradas, a pesar de que inicié cada una de ellas caminando a un bateador", añadió Capuano.

"La cosa más grande de esta noche, fue que logramos la victoria", dijo, por su parte, Don Mattingly, quien tuvo palabras de elogio para el trabajo de Capuano, a quien retiró de la rotación de abridores, para reubicarlo en el bullpen.

ATLANTA AL ATAQUE

En el mismo primer episodio, un sencillo por el centro de Evan Gattis, acarrea la primera anotación de la tarde, que llega a puerto seguro en los bombachos de Justin Upton, quien estaba en la intermedia con su batazo de dos esquinas que pasó sobre la cabeza del jardinero central Skip Schumaker.

La segunda, la consumó el mismo Gattis, quien fue remolcado por el imparable, también al jardín central, de Chris Johnson.

La respuesta azul se produjo en el segundo acto. Con las bases congestionadas, Ryu conectó un batazo a lo profundo del bosque derecho, suficiente para que Yasiel Puig anotara en un pisa y corre, desde la antesala.

Después, vino lo bueno, un soberbio garrotazo de Crawford, su cuarto cuadrangular en juegos de postemporada, que se fue por encima de la cerca derecha, llevándose por delante a Uribe y a A.J. Ellis.

En el tercer episodio, Justin Upton vuelve a pisar el plato, esta vez con batazo al cuadro de BrianMcCann.

Enseguida, otro batazo corto, por la línea de la primera base, de Chris Johnson, permitió a Freddie Freeman anotar la cuarta carrera para la visita.

En el capítulo, Ryu lució como todo un novato en dos jugadas. En el batazo de McCann, al asistir a la primera base para consumar una doble matanza, el zurdo coreano no pudo hacer contacto con la almohadilla.

Después, al fildear la bola que Johnson dejó cerca de la línea de cal, entre el plato y la primera base, en lugar de sacar al corredor en primera, como indica el librito, intentó, en vano, evitar la anotación.

En el cierre del mismo tercer capítulo, los de casa volvieron a asumir el mando en la pizarra.

Adrián González disparó un imparable al callejón central izquierdo, para que Ramírez anotara la quinta carrera para los de Chávez Ravine.

La sexta, la hizo buena Puig, impulsado por un batazo al sector izquierdo de Schumaker.

Cuarto capítulo y sigue el carrusel azul, con Crawford anotando la sétima carrera, con el triple de Ramírez, quien luego anotó también, por cortesía del sencillo por el centro de Puig.

Después, la locura se desató en una tribuna que agitaba pañuelos azules, cuando Uribe disparaba un vuelacercas de dos rayitas al pabellón derecho.

En la octava vuelta, Ramírez trajo a Crawford al plato con un sencillo por el campo corto, para l.a undécima anotación de los Dodgers. La décimo segunda la impulsó Gonzáles, haciendo avanzar hasta home a Mark Ellis, mientras que Ramírez anotaba la décimo tercera con hit de Puig.

El festín de carreras finalizó cuando Jason Heyward disparó bambinazo de dos carreras para los Bravos, en el noveno acto.

Duro debut de Teherán en playoffs

By Rodrigo Azurmendi

LOS ÁNGELES -- Seguramente Julio Teherán no se llevará la mejor impresión de su debut en la postemporada.

El colombiano se convirtió en el primer lanzador de aquel país en abrir un juego ligamayorista de playoffs, pero fue apaleado por una intratable ofensiva de Dodgers, y acabó siendo el responsable, desde lo estadístico, de la derrota de los Bravos de Atlanta.

"Un orgullo para mí en ser el primer colombiano", dijo. "Fue un juego normal. Todo fue normal, sentí que los picheos estaban como estuve todo el año. Un solo error y lo pagué".

Teherán admitió estar un poco emocionado en la previa y admitió por momentos tratar de hacer demasiado, algo que resultó en algunos malos picheos.

"No estoy decepcionado, hice lo mejor que pude pero no salió de la manera que esperaba", explicó.

El derecho tuvo un comienzo errático (sencillo y lanzamiento descontrolado), pero parecía haber enderezado el barco con respectivos ponches a Mark Ellis y Adrián González para clausurar el inning inicial.

Sin embargo, eso fue su punto alto, ya que todo lo que llegó luego fue sufrimiento.

En total los Dodgers le asestaron seis carreras en ocho hits a lo largo de 2.2 entradas de trabajo.

"Creo que dejó algunas bolas altas en la zona y contra este equipo [se paga caro]", dijo Fredi González. "No creo que las emociones, o el público hayan tenido mucho que ver con esto. Solo tuvimos errores".

El mánager hizo hincapié en un par de picheos que no fueron ejecutados de la manera ideal, y que acabaron causándoles mucho daño.

Uno de ellos fue el vuelacercas de tres carreras de Carl Crawford en el segundo capítulo.

"El comando de su recta no fue el que hemos visto antes", dijo el mánager de los visitantes. "Cuando no estás lanzando la bola donde quieres, como en el slider en el jonrón de Crawford, sucede eso. No estuvo tan fino como en el pasado".

Jason Heyward defendió a Teherán haciendo alusión a su juventud y destacó que este nunca abandonó su modo ofensivo.

"Es joven y jugó en una atmosfera de playoffs en su primera vez", dijo. "Creo que hizo buenos lanzamientos pero dejó algunos en el plato y le batearon. Batalló, no se escondió y estoy orgulloso de él por eso".

Las 13 carreras de los Dodgers le acabaron dando otro matiz al encuentro, y González explicó que eso es un reflejo de lo que sucede cuando la defensa no está a la altura de las circunstancias.

Los Bravos sumaron dos errores de fildeo, tuvieron un par de lanzamientos descontrolados y caminaron a tres bateadores.

"Creo que lo que nos perjudicó es dar pasaportes o cometer errores de fildeo, básicamente entregándoles extra outs", dijo. "Eso nos puso en una posición dura. Pusieron grandes números, pero si quitas esos dos innings fue un partido bastante decente. Así son las cosas cuando enfrentas a una alineación tan buena".

MANTIENEN LA FE

Aún con la espalda contra la pared, Atlanta sigue manteniendo la fe.

González citó la mini remontada del noveno inning como una razón para seguir confiados. Los Bravos sumaron un par de carreras tras un jonrón de Heyward a Paco Rodríguez, obligando a Mattingly a llamar a Kenley Jansen a cerrar la puerta y conseguir el último out.

"Si ves lo positivo, era un juego de nueve carreras en el último inning y tuvieron que traer al cerrador", dijo el piloto. "Eso siempre es algo bueno y podemos construir de cara al lunes".

Heyward dijo que están acostumbrados a este tipo de situaciones.

"No renunciamos, no lo hicimos en toda la temporada", dijo Heyward. "Seguiremos atacando".

Adrián González en siete entradas

By Rigo Cervantez

Adrián González, 'El Titán,' primera base de los Dodgers de Los Ángeles, ha finalizado su última sesión de bateo, previa al juego frente a los Bravos de Atlanta, el tercero de su tanda de cinco, este domingo, en Dodger Stadium.

González

A toda prisa, el pelotero mexicano se despoja de su casco protector, deposita el tolete en la caja correspondiente, ubicada en un extremo del dugout.

Tiene prisa, le esperan en el club house, para la reunión de todo el equipo con el manager y sus asistentes, que precede a cada partido.

Sin embargo, el pelotero de San Diego, quien fuera instrumental en el triunfo del primer juego de la serie divisional, el jueves, en Atlanta, conectando su primer bambinazo en una postemporada, se da tiempo para un corto cuestionario, de siete entradas:

¿Cuál fue la diferencia entre el juego uno y el dos?

"El bateo oportuno".

¿Qué es lo que tiene que funcionar hoy?

"El bateo".

¿Qué hace fuerte a Julio Teherán?

"Su recta, una curva, el cambio, tres lanzamientos buenos y que es un buen lanzador". ¿Hasta donde pueden llegar los Dodgers?

"Hasta la Serie Mundial".

¿Cuál es la clave para vencer a los Bravos?

"El bateo. Nuestros lanzadores van a hacer su trabajo y hay que batear, en todos los innings, no solamente en uno".

¿Intimidan los aficionados de Atlanta con sus cánticos?

"Para nada. Es simplemente la emoción de los aficionados de ellos".

Pero, ¿ustedes se sienten mejor en Dodger Stadium?

"Claro que sí, siempre que uno está en casa, es algo bueno. La afición es increíble y nos ha apoyado todo el año, muy bien".

Kershaw podría ser opción este lunes

By Rigo Cervantez

LOS ÁNGELES -- Clayton Kershaw se ha convertido en el centro del universo de los Dodgers de Los Ángeles.

Luego de confirmar su excelente momento, ganando su primer juego en una postemporada, vestido de azul, el pasado jueves, en el Turner Field, sobre los Bravos, pareciera que todo el mundo estuviera esperando que el zurdo texano, salga a lanzar todos los días.

O, por lo menos, al manager Don Mattingly, todos los días le preguntan lo mismo:

¿Va a lanzar Kershaw este lunes, en el cuarto juego de la serie contra los Bravos de Atlanta, en lugar de hacerlo en el quinto y último de la serie, de hacerse necesario, el miércoles, en Atlanta?

"Ahora mismo, el lanzador abridor es Ricky Nolasco para el juego número cuatro," repitió Mattingly, por enésima vez, este domingo, antes del juego número tres de la serie divisional, frente a la novena de Fredi González, en Dodger Stadium.

La idea que flota en los pasillos del inmueble de Chávez Ravine, es de que si los Dodgers llegaran a perder el juego número tres de este domingo y quedaran a una derrota de la eliminación, se encenderían las luces de alarma y Mattingly se vería obligado a recurrir a su as del montículo, para la cita del lunes.

"Clayton se ha mantenido en su rutina, lanzó su acostumbrada sesión de bullpen ayer, en preparación para el juego número cinco, si es que llegamos tan lejos," explicó el dirigente azul, sobre un trabajo que los lanzadores abridores acostumbran hacer entre cada salida al montículo.

En otros temas, Mattingly destacó la valía del receptor A.J. Ellis.

"Cuando tenemos que analizar a los oponentes, él hace gran parte de esa labor, porque luego, él va a dictar el ritmo del juego para el lanzador y, básicamente, los lanzamientos para cada bateador. Por los pasados dos años hemos dependido de él y siempre está preparado," señaló.

También ofreció detalles sobre sus opciones para un caso de necesitar a un relevista largo:

"Dependerá de la situación, de qué tan temprano o de qué tan largo. Si es la cuarta entrada, puede ser un jugador y si es antes, otro completamente diferente. Capuano es el de mayor experiencia como abridor y él podría ser el neutralizador de los bateadores zurdos, Freddie Freeman y Brian McCann, de ser necesario. De igual forma, uno espera dos o tres entradas de un relevo largo, pues luego, volvemos a llamar a alguien del bullpen, que está descansado."

En cuanto a la diferencia de un juego de la campaña regular y la postemporada, el timonel explicó: "Es lo mismo que un juego regular, lo único, es que recibimos más información y más detallada de nuestros visores, para ofrecer a los jugadores."

¿Podría Nolasco llegar a lanzar hoy?

"Solo en un caso de total emergencia, un juego de 15 o 16 entradas".

LAIST.COM

Dodgers Historic 13 Runs Put the Braves on the Brink of Elimination

By Jimmy Bramlett

The Dodgers tied a franchise postseason record with 13 runs scored in their 13-6 rout of the Atlanta Braves in Game 3 of the NL Divisional Series. The Dodgers take a 2-1 series lead and can win the series tomorrow night at home.

The 13 runs tied the franchise record for most runs in a postseason game with Game 2 of the 1956 World Series against the New York Yankees.

The rout explains what I heard at the Ravine. I never thought I would ever hear this, but I heard a good majority of the soldout crowd of 54,646 at Dodger Stadium do the Tomahawk Chop during the eighth inning.

There was nothing nice about the cheer. It was aimed straight to the Atlanta first base dugout as they were trailing 10-4. Dodger fans are mean like that, and it had me laughing in what was a laugher of a game.

It was nothing like the three-hour game Saturday night that the Tigers and the Athletics played. That was a well-pitched and tension-filled 1-0 game, a scoreless game through eight innings. Every pitch made by starters Justin Verlander and Sonny Gray had the gravitas expected of a playoff game. This one?

Once the smoke from the fireworks cleared and the pomp of the pregame ceremony gone, reality quickly hit the both teams. Neither starter Ryu Hyun-Jin nor Julio Teheran made it to the fourth inning.

Ryu followed his regular season form in giving up two runs in the first inning — of the 64 runs Ryu Hyun-Jin gave up in the regular season 17 of them were given up in the first inning, that's 27% for those of you calculating.

"Yeah, it's funny, but I never actually try to go out there and give up runs in the first inning," Ryu said in his press conference yesterday. "It's just the way it happens. It's out of my control."

While there was concern of a possibility of an arm injury with Ryu, he flat out denied it after the game. "There was absolutely no injury whatsoever," he said. "Of course there was anxiety, and I was a little bit nervous taking the mound."

Ryu blamed the four runs he gave up in the first three innings to a lack of concentration. "When I had the count going my way, I should have honed in and focused a little more," he said.

The Dodgers trailed 2-0, led 4-2 in the second, tied 4-4 in the top of the third, took the lead for good with a four-run fourth. One of the heroes for the Dodgers was Hanley Ramirez who went 3-for-4 with a walk, a homer shy of the cycle. With six extra-base hits this series, Ramirez tied the Dodger postseason record with Steve Garvey (1978 NLCS vs. Philadelphia Phillies) and Duke Snider (1952 World Series vs. New York Yankees). He is batting 7-for-13 (.538) through his first three postseason games.

The secret. "I'm not thinking," Ramirez said. "I look at the ball, and I hit it."

Those were the same words Juan Uribe told me on Sept. 9 when he belted three home runs in one game. Even he got in on the action with a two-run homer in the fourth inning. "Every time I go to the plate, I want to make sure I have a good swing, a good at-bat," he said.

Uribe obviously has a lot of fun with Ramirez, or perhaps it's the other way around. I've heard Ramirez call Uribe a gorilla and a red oompa-loompa. Despite the jesting, Uribe is not surprised by what Ramirez is doing. "Hanley can hit. He's a good player."

For Ramirez, this first taste of the postseason is sweet.

"It's an unbelievable feeling, just the ewnergy around you, in the dugout, on the field," Ramirez said. "I knew that is was going to be crazy tonight, and you've got to thank the fans for bringing that energy from the beginning."

Just last season in the middle of his second subpar season after having surgery on his left shoulder, he admitted there were some hard times.

"It was really tough," Ramirez said. "I don't want to remember those moments the last two years. It was awful."Ramirez credited the trade to the Dodgers and the team's acceptance of him from the very beginning. "[Donnie] just told be to just be you," Ramirez said.

Ramirez also credited the Dodger medical staff. "I think I wouldn't be where I am right now without them."

There is not enough room to describe everything that happened. The Carl Crawford home run. The Carl Crawford tumble into the stands to catch Brian McCann's foul ball in the eighth inning. "I'm on all kinds of medication right now, so I won't feel it until tomorrow," he said. I'm sure I'm forgetting a ton.

But here's one last thing. I saw Dodger reliever Peter Moylan in the clubhouse. He had joked that being a recent ex-Brave he would give scouting reports to the team. I told him that it looked like his scouting reports worked. "Until it's finished," he replied.

The Dodgers can finish off the Braves tomorrow.

NY TIMES

Braves’ Simmons Is Turning Heads and Double Plays

By Billy Witz

LOS ANGELES — Andrelton Simmons had just finished high school in his native Curaçao and figured that baseball was finished with him. Major league scouts, the same ones who had taken to his former youth teammates Kenley Jansen and Didi Gregorius, had passed on him. Simmons loved the game, so maybe he would play in a local league. Or maybe he would play semipro soccer. In any case, he would surely have to get a job. Related

Those were his prospects. “When I was 18, I was like, oh, it’s over,” Simmons said. “I thought baseball gave me all it had. I didn’t have big dreams, like a big career. I wasn’t sure what I wanted, but I pretty much gave up on baseball. I wasn’t sure where I was headed.”

As Simmons spoke, in an empty but immaculate Dodger Stadium on Saturday night, the unlikely and rapid change in his fortunes was not lost on him. Simmons had finished a workout with the rest of the Atlanta Braves, who resumed their National League division series with the Dodgers on Sunday night tied at one game apiece.

That the Braves were even was in no small part because of Simmons. His run-scoring double tied the score early in Game 2, and his close tag of Dodgers pinch-runner Dee Gordon, after a deft scoop of catcher Gerald Laird’s one-hop throw, helped the Braves hang on in the ninth inning for a 4-3 victory.

The skillful tag, as well as the three double plays he helped turn, was further evidence in the case that Simmons, at age 24 and in his first full season in the major leagues, is already the best defensive shortstop in baseball. Simmons, according to Baseball Info Solutions, saved 41 runs from scoring with his defense this season. That is by far the most in the 11 seasons that the metric has been in place.

“Somebody asks me, ‘What is the best play you’ve ever seen him make?’ ” Braves Manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “My patent answer is the next one. He’s got a knack.”

If Simmons has given the Braves a lifeline with his defense, he was thrown one by Kurt Russell, the baseball coach at Western Oklahoma State, a junior college in Altus, Okla., near the Texas border. Russell, who recruits Latino players to his college, found Simmons on a visit to Curaçao and offered him a chance to play. After one season at the college, Simmons was drafted in the second round by Atlanta.

But his rise was not that simple. Simmons not only played shortstop at Western Oklahoma, but he also served as its closer, with a fastball clocked at 98 miles per hour. Most teams had doubts that Simmons would ever hit well enough to be a shortstop, but he wanted to play the position, and he told the Braves so before the draft. Tony DeMacio, the Braves’ scouting director, told Simmons they would give him a chance there first.

In his first full season in the minor leagues, Simmons finished among the leaders in the Carolina League with a .311 batting average.

In the opposite clubhouse Saturday, Jansen, who has emerged as the Dodgers’ closer over the past two seasons, smiled broadly when the subject of Simmons came up. They are two years apart, and they first played together along with Gregorius, a shortstop for the Arizona Diamondbacks, in a pee wee league. Curaçao, off the coast of Venezuela, was barely a blip on the baseball map until 1996, when Andruw Jones, then a precocious 19-year-old Braves outfielder from the island, hit two home runs in Game 1 of the World Series against the Yankees. Soon, children everywhere on Curaçao began playing the game. Curaçao regularly played in the Little League World Series, and now its players are regularly finding their way to professional baseball.

The native tongue is Papiamento, a Creole-Portuguese dialect that is confined mostly to Curaçao and its Caribbean neighbors Aruba and Bonaire, and in small pockets of West Africa. English is taught in fifth and sixth grade, Spanish in seventh and eighth. Many also pick up Dutch — the nation of Curaçao is a constituent country of the Netherlands — and some French.

And so, when a teenager from Curaçao arrives in rookie ball, it may be a new world of small towns and long bus rides, but at least he can chat with his Latino teammates, take coaching in English and order dinner off a menu.

“There’s not the same learning curve of the kids from the Dominican or Venezuela,” Braves General Manager Frank Wren said. “I don’t have anything scientific — it’s very subjective — but we all realize that as kids acquire language skills and a comfort level, and they understand instruction better, their ability to adapt and progress in the minor leagues is accelerated.” Less than two years after Simmons signed, he was in Atlanta. And though he batted a modest .248 this season, Simmons hit 17 home runs and struck out in just 8 percent of his plate appearances. His manager says Simmons is capable of driving in 100 runs or winning a batting crown.

“I don’t want to put a ceiling on him,” Gonzalez said.

Yet where Simmons truly shines is with a glove in his hand. His throws are not only strong, but effortless. Besides broad range, he displays the footwork of a soccer player around second base. Most noticeable, though, are his hands.

Simmons delicately collects ground balls in his size 11 ¼ glove, with “God Given” stitched on it, and gets the ball in and out of his throwing hand with the quickness of a three-card Monte dealer.

But it is the instincts that go with those skills that set him apart. Once, Simmons lunged to glove a grounder up the middle. Off balance, he reached behind his back with his right hand to take the ball out of his glove, and contorted his body to throw the runner out at first.

It was the type of play — flashy but essential — that Ozzie Smith and few others might have made. And that comparison was not an uncomfortable one for the Braves’ first-base coach, Terry Pendleton, who once shared the left side of the St. Louis Cardinals’ infield with Smith.

“They are born shortstops, there’s no doubt about that,” Pendleton said. “That’s instincts. There are just things you see them do that they’re born to do.”

Not long before, as the sky darkened, Simmons took ground ball after ground ball. He often used his backhand, or gave himself a more difficult angle, or told himself that Carl Crawford, the fastest Dodger, was running. Yet no matter how many degrees of difficulty Simmons created, he made play after play look easy.

The hardest part of being a major league shortstop, as it turned out, was simply getting the chance.

Dodgers’ Bats Pound Questions Into Footnotes

By Billy Witz

LOS ANGELES — Returning home with a split of the first two games of a playoff series would buoy spirits in many cities. But when the Dodgers took the field Sunday night, the anxiety about the game that slipped through their grasp in Atlanta, which had stewed for 48 hours, seemed palpable among the capacity crowd. The cheers for the home team sounded more hopeful than assuring. Related

How would Hyun-Jin Ryu, admittedly a little nervous, handle the responsibility of starting not just a pivotal game in the teams’ National League division series but of being the first Korean pitcher to start a playoff game? And what if another game turned on a decision by Don Mattingly, in his first postseason series as a manager?

The Dodgers did not so much answer those questions as beat the relevance out of them with their bats.

Ryu was jittery and his appearance was brief. Mattingly summoned a pinch-hitter, Michael Young, who did not appear to have warmed up, and when he again matched up reliever Paco Rodriguez against Jason Heyward as he did Friday in Atlanta, the result was even worse: a home run.

But those potential unravelings became trifles when the Dodgers’ stable of sluggers bludgeoned the Braves rookie right-hander Julio Teheran and the bullpen, pounding out a 13-6 victory to seize a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series. Carl Crawford belted a three-run homer off Teheran in the second inning that helped the Dodgers crawl out of an early hole. Hanley Ramirez continued to punish the ball, with a single, a double and a triple, tying the club’s series record with six. And Yasiel Puig did what Puig does — hit the ball hard and charge around the field with abandon.

For good measure, the Dodgers had a big postseason hit from Juan Uribe, who has made a career of delivering them, as he belted a two-run homer.

“It’s like us, it’s hard to stop them when they get going,” Braves third baseman Chris Johnson. “They feed off that momentum. Guys get a big hit and they did a good job of keeping it rolling.”

Dodgers reliever J.P. Howell had a more succinct description of what it felt to watch the hitters.

“It’s freedom,” Howell said. “It feels like freedom for pitchers.”

While the Dodger hitters were the headliners, they were not the only ones who did heavy lifting. Chris Capuano, who had thrown only two innings in the last month while recovering from a strained groin muscle, threw three hitless innings, making the Dodgers look smart for putting him on the division series roster ahead of the former closers Brandon League and Carlos Marmol.

“Those nine outs he got were difference makers,” Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis said.

And Crawford also turned in the defensive play of the game, tumbling over the thigh-high fence along the left-field line to catch a foul ball by Brian McCann.

“It was huge for us,” Crawford said of his home run, which made amends for a groundout into a key double play in the 4-3 Game 2 defeat. “That was at a point in the game where we could have fell back and gotten into a big hole.”

Crawford’s catch, in the eighth, seemed to ignite the crowd as much as his home run. After cheering Crawford and then Puig during a pitching change, fans mocked the Braves with a version of the tomahawk chop.

Such hubris was not found at the beginning of the night, not when the Braves delivered two singles and a walk with two outs in the first inning to jump to a 2-0 lead against Ryu, who allowed 17 first-inning runs in the regular season. And not when the Braves evened the score, 4-4, in the third as Ryu lost his poise.

Ryu missed first base while taking a throw from Ramirez that would have completed a double play. And then when Johnson hit a slow roller along the first-base line, Ryu threw home when there was no play, as Johnson tied the score. But Adrian Gonzalez drove in Ramirez, who had doubled to lead off the third, with a single. And Skip Schumaker, filling in for the injured center fielder Andre Ethier, laced a two-out single to put the Dodgers ahead, 6-4.

They poured on four runs in the fourth, which Uribe capped with a two-run homer to right. Ramirez has four doubles, a triple, a home run and six runs batted in during the first three playoff games of his career.

“At the plate right now, I’m not thinking,” said Ramirez, who is apparently not being slowed by back and hamstring problems that sent him to the disabled list earlier this season. “I’m just looking at the ball and hit it, whatever the pitch is. It’s an unbelievable feeling when it’s just less thinking, just produce. Go out there and have fun and play hard.”

If the victory re-established the Dodgers’ control over the series, it also eased some of the attention on Mattingly. He is in the final year of a three-year contract, and his interest in an extension was rebuffed in spring training. The Dodgers’ president, Stan Kasten, has said that Mattingly’s status will be settled after the season.

The implication was that for a team with the best record in baseball over the last three and a half months and a $220 million payroll, reaching the playoffs for the first time since 2009 was not enough. And with the Cincinnati Reds having parted ways with Dusty Baker, a former Dodger who has taken three teams to the playoffs, speculation may not be idle.

Joe Torre, who recommended Mattingly to succeed him, said he could empathize with him. When Torre’s contract expired with the Yankees in 2007, there was great uncertainty over whether he would back, and eventually, Torre was not. But he suspected it would not weigh on Mattingly.

“That’s what the job is all about,” Torre said. “When you buy into becoming a manager, life isn’t necessarily fair. But the upside is great. Donnie’s a tough kid. He coached for me for a number of years, but when it came time for him to manage, he wasn’t trying to copy anybody. He had his own ideas.”

On Sunday night, those ideas did not need to be terribly complicated. It was as simple as filling out a lineup card.

It’s Showtime in L.A., at Dodger Stadium

By Harvey Araton

LOS ANGELES — It is so loud inside Dodger Stadium these days that Tommy Lasorda cannot listen to himself talk and Magic Johnson can hardly hear his own hyperbole. Not coincidently, it is N.B.A. arena loud — quite a feat for a venue with the sky as its ceiling and a palliative outfield backdrop of rolling hills and mountains.

Magic Johnson, center, and Tommy Lasorda, right, watched Game 3 of the National League division baseball series on Sunday.

Fans are pestered and prodded by on-field M.C.'s, clattering music and continuous marketing that almost make Yankee Stadium sound like a morgue. With their relatively new lineups of eager spenders and heavy hitters, the Dodgers seem bent on emphatically announcing themselves, over and over.

“It’s not a market that you could come into and just wait for a long rebuilding plan,” said Stan Kasten, the Dodgers’ president and part of the group that purchased — no, rescued — the famous brand from the disastrous ownership of Frank McCourt in March 2012. “Yes, we have a plan to focus on scouting and development. But we said we were also going to try to do what we can do now.”

Hence, like magic, they delivered a $235 million (in payroll) postseason team, their first appearance since Joe Torre last managed here, in 2009.

It took Kasten about 20 years, but he finally forged a working alliance with Johnson, whom he tried to hire as coach of the Atlanta Hawks after Johnson’s H.I.V.-related retirement from the Los Angeles Lakers in 1991. Kasten, a career-long sports executive, now knows what it is like to play on a team fronted by America’s happiest warrior.

“This is the most fun I’ve had in my life,” Kasten said before enjoying the Dodgers’ 13-6 pasting of the Atlanta Braves on Sunday night to take a two-games-to-one lead in their National League division series.

Kasten’s home address is still in Atlanta, but he has learned that “out here, if you’re having anything to do with the Dodgers, all doors in town are open.” He added: “If you’re the president of the Dodgers, it’s even more so. If you’re walking around with Magic Johnson, it’s a whole different thing. I can’t even describe what it’s like.”

But he could not deny that it is audacious and loud.

In putting up about $50 million to join the ownership group of the billionaire investor Mark Walter, Johnson & Co. have reinvigorated the Dodgers while his favorite basketball team, the Lakers, has begun what looks to be a certain decline. Unless LeBron James decides on a change of winter beach locations next summer, it would appear that the Lakers’ unchallenged status for years as Los Angeles’s chosen team is ending.

Forgetting the Clippers for a moment, Showtime is now an outdoor sport.

“L.A. is a real Dodger town right now,” Johnson told reporters in Atlanta a few days ago. “You should see all of the blue and white in town.”

He caught himself and added that a greater metropolitan area of more than 16 million just might be able to support a handful of professional sports teams. But we get it. Johnson has forever been the coolest kid in school. Whatever he puts his money and face on had better in his mind be the product that people cannot wait to buy.

The aging Kobe Bryant, who made an appearance on the outfield video screens Sunday night to exhort the fans, may soon be less of a luminary than Clayton Kershaw and Yasiel Puig. But Los Angeles’s intracity popularity contests are not really the most significant aspect of the Dodgers’ swift revival.

Much of it has been purchased with the kind premium dollars that made the Yankees pariahs to so many for so long. But George Steinbrenner’s spending was good for baseball. It provided the sport with a national team brand for when its most famous individuals became tainted by drug scandal and the game was becoming more regionally provincial than ever.

Those nose-diving World Series ratings are not just about late-night games and competing movie channels. It has been awhile since the Series was must-see television no matter who played. Oakland and Pittsburgh are heartwarming stories, but baseball, much like pro basketball, needs sexy matchups. In the current environment, only the N.F.L. can produce desirable ratings with numbing parity.

Forget the Lakers; it is the Yankees’ apparent slide toward mediocrity that enhances the rise of the Dodgers, who did not lead the majors in home and road attendance this season by accident.

When Kasten was asked about the staggering sum his group paid for the team, he said: “As Mark Walter likes to say, ‘Look, why did we pay $2 billion? Because we thought it was worth a lot more.’ It’s the brand, it’s the history.” To emphasize his point, he dropped a few names — the Dodgers icons instantly recognized by one name — with whom he gets to trade phone calls: Tommy (Lasorda), Vin (Scully), Fernando (Valenzuela) and Sandy (Koufax).

It is no secret that basketball has dominated the one-name national celebrity mart since Magic and Larry (Bird) carried the Boston-L.A. rivalry in the 1980s. What a coincidence that the Dodgers took three high-priced players off the Red Sox’ hands late last season, a trade that helped both teams storm into this season.

One of the Dodgers’ acquisitions, Carl Crawford, hit a three-run homer off the Braves starter Julio Teheran in the second inning Sunday night to launch the rout. Another former Red Sox player, Adrian Gonzalez, scoffed at the delicious thought of a Dodgers-Red Sox showdown later this month.

“Just being in the World Series is all we care about,” he said. “We don’t care who we play.”

They still have much work to do, starting with Game 4 against the Braves on Monday night. But sitting next to Lasorda — the beloved former manager and folk hero — and watching the Dodgers tie a team record for most runs in a postseason game Sunday, it was impossible to believe that Magic’s brain was not already fast-breaking ahead.

If only he could get his good friend Larry to buy into the Sox.

FOXSPORTSWEST.COM

Healthy Ramirez thriving in first postseason run

By Joe McDonnell

LOS ANGELES -- It was just another typical 2013 game for Hanley Ramirez on Sunday night when the Dodgers trounced the Braves 13-6, moving within a single win of a trip to the National League Championship Series.

Ramirez went 3-for-4 with a triple, double, walk and three runs scored. He's 7 of 13 in the series and is now tied with Steve Garvey (1978) and Duke Snider (1952) for the Dodgers' record of six extra base postseason hits. Ramirez had already put together one of the best regular seasons in Dodger history, hitting .345 with 20 home runs and

57 RBI in just 86 games. Had he stayed injury-free, he no doubt would have been a leading candidate for the NL MVP Award.

How great of a season he would have had if he'd been able to stay healthy is a question that will never be answered. However, you can be assured it would have been one of the greatest ever in Dodgers history and certainly the greatest ever for a Dodgers shortstop. But in Ramirez's mind, it almost didn't happen, injuries being the culprit that turned a batting champion into a .250 hitter, and threatened to derail a Hall of Fame career. "Two years ago I had major surgery on my shoulders, and I didn't feel right since then," an emotional Ramirez said. "It was tough -- really tough -- when I think about those (years before the trade) and where I am now. "My teammates helped change everything about me from the minute I got here. When I went into (Don Mattingly's) office that first day in St. Louis, he told me to just be (me), and that there would be 24 other guys out there playing hard and having fun. And that's what he wanted from me. And that's what I've tried to do ever since." Ramirez has been healthy so far in the NLDS and the Atlanta Braves have surely wondered which direction Hurricane Hanley came from. One more win gives the Dodgers a chance to play for a spot in the World Series for the first time since 1988, and if there were an MVP award given for this round of playoffs, Ramirez would be the top candidate to walk away with the trophy.

Making Ramirez' accomplishment even more remarkable is the fact that he had never played in a postseason game after playing in more than 1,000 regular season games since 2006. "It's amazing to watch Hanley right now," said third baseman Juan Uribe, who hammered a two-run homer off Alex Wood in the fourth inning. "He's hitting great and he's got a beautiful attitude that is really helping the team." Left-fielder Carl Crawford, who blasted a three-run homer and made a spectacular catch falling into the stands, echoed Uribe's thoughts. "He's always been a great player," said Crawford, who had to rebound from his own set of injuries to resuscitate his career, "and I'm glad he's doing it for us now. I just hope he keeps it up and we get to the World Series." So does Ramirez, who used to spend October at home in the Dominican, watching the playoffs with his family. "I just wanted to be there," he said. "Just get a chance to play in the playoffs." Now that he has? "It's been great." Indeed.

Dodgers shake miscues, take 2-1 lead vs. BravesBy Michael MartinezLOS ANGELES – There were so many ways this game could have gone wrong – the first inning, the third, the sixth, maybe even the ninth, when the outcome seemed well in hand. If it appeared the Dodgers were ready to cave in, to let the National League Division Series slip away, they somehow found a way to salvage it Sunday night. Now, after a raucous evening at Dodger Stadium, they're one win a way from advancing. You could count the ways they nearly lost to the Atlanta Braves – Hyun-Jin Ryu's failed start, misplays in the field, a two-

run lead given up – but they still forged to a 13-6 victory that gives them a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series. Consider that in the previous 15 division playoffs that were tied 1-1, the team that won Game 3 went on to win the series 14 times, there's reason for the Dodgers to feel a sense of confidence. "We're in stage one right now," reliever J.P. Howell said. "As the time goes, you can feel it, you can sense it, where we're heading. (Monday) will be a nice little test for us to see if we can finish." The Dodgers' eruption of runs was epic. They came back from a 2-0 deficit in the first inning, then rallied again after the Braves scored two in the third off Ryu. The 13 runs tied a franchise mark for runs in a postseason game last accomplished by the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1956 World Series. "It's a tough lineup to go through," second baseman Mark Ellis said. "I'm never surprised by our offense." Nor by the bullpen. After Ryu stumbled through three shaky innings, giving up four runs and failing to find a rhythm, manager Don Mattingly called on Chris Capuano, Howell, Ronald Belisario, Paco Rodriguez and Kenley Jansen to hold down the potent Braves. Capuano, Howell and Belisario held Atlanta scoreless over five innings before Jason Heyward's two-run homer off Rodriguez scored two in the ninth. Mattingly brought in Jansen, his closer, to get the final out. It wasn't easy. Capuano, whose difficulties as a starter relegated him to the bullpen, worked three scoreless innings, but not before walking the leadoff batter each time. "That was as nervous as I've been since I first stepped on a big-league mound over 10 years ago," Capuano said. "My heart was pounding the whole time. I just had to make sure I kept breathing out there. I had three leadoff walks, but fortunately I was able to pitch around them." His emotional load was made lighter by an offense that exploded for 10 runs from the second inning through the fourth. Hanley Ramirez, who has been the catalyst, had a single, double, triple and two RBI. Yasiel Puig had three hits, scored three runs and drove in two. Carl Crawford's second-inning homer put the Dodgers in front 4-2. Crawford had three RBI and the defensive play of the night, chasing down a pop foul off the bat of Brian McCann in the eighth and tumbling over a short wall in left field to make the catch. The Dodgers had a six-run lead at the time, but Crawford still put himself at risk, figuring an out is an out. "I honestly didn't think the ball was going to the stands," he said. "It kept floating, it seemed like. I didn't see the wall coming. Next thing you know, I felt my feet coming from up under me, and I felt myself flipping over. The good thing is, I held on to the ball, so that's all that matters." Ryu's performance was the only downer, and although the Dodgers insist his left arm is fine, it was curious to see him struggle so mightily. He gave up two runs in the first inning, pitched a routine second, then yielded two more in the third. There had been rumors that something was wrong with his arm, and he did nothing to dispel them with his effort. Even so, he said through a translator, "There was absolutely no injury whatsoever. Of course, there was anxiety, and I was a little bit nervous taking the mound. But I think in the earlier part of the game, when I had the count going my way, I should have honed in and focused a little more. I think that's the mistake I made." His defense was also a problem. In the third, he missed touching first base with his foot on what should have been a double play, and one batter later, he threw home on Chris Johnson's grounder, apparently thinking it was a force play.

His throw was late. "Both were completely my fault," he said. "Me covering first base, I just rushed and missed the bag. The next play, throwing home, (was) just a thoughtless mistake there. I'm going to make sure those things don't happen again." Right now, all that matters is finishing off the series and awaiting the winner of the Pittsburgh Pirates-St. Louis Cardinals. But they can't think about that until they win once more. Their chance comes tonight.

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Ramirez epitomizes Dodgers' talent

By Mark Saxon

LOS ANGELES -- Teams that advance deep into October tend to have a narrative that adheres around them. In some cases, it's the team that gets hot in September and just keeps going. Or, it's the battle-tested team that struggles series after tough series and learns to adapt and survive. Some teams eke by with just enough offense by pitching the other team into submission. Other teams batter down fences long after their starter has left the game.

Somebody asked catcher A.J. Ellis the other day to describe the Los Angeles Dodgers' identity.

"Honestly," Ellis said, "I feel like it's talent."

The Dodgers have thrown their talent at the Atlanta Braves in waves in this National League Division Series, and it's beginning to put them in an enviable position. The Dodgers took a two-games-to-one lead with Sunday night's 13-6 win over Atlanta. No sooner do the Braves emerge from the trials of facing Clayton Kershaw, the best pitcher on the planet, then they stumble into Zack Greinke, who would be the best pitcher in just about any other city.

They pay their leadoff hitter $20 million and he barely merits a mention most nights, though Carl Crawford certainly did Sunday, his three-run home run igniting the Dodgers' offense. Their first baseman might be the most analytical hitter in the game. Their closer is the best pitcher no one has ever heard of. Aside from Kershaw, though, there is really only one towering talent in the Dodgers' clubhouse. The scary thing for the Braves is the guy who's sitting in their dugout pulling the strings has known all about it since the day he learned he would be playing L.A. Manager Fredi Gonzalez may not have seen eye to eye all the time when he was together with Hanley Ramirez in Miami, but Gonzalez is a veteran baseball man. He knows freakish ability on a baseball field when he sees it.

"I told Donny [Mattingly] when he was injured, this guy could tilt the field," Gonzalez said earlier this series.Ramirez has certainly tilted a lot of Dodgers runs to the plate in these three games. He's batting .538 with four doubles, a triple, home run and six RBIs. Not bad for a guy who had never had a postseason at-bat until Thursday night. The six extra-base hits is the kind of thing only two Dodgers ever have accomplished in a postseason series and they're pretty good names if you're a Dodgers fan: Steve Garvey and Duke Snider.

And it has put the Dodgers on the brink of advancing. In fact, their position is practically ideal, with two more chances to clinch, facing high-mileage starter Freddy Garcia on Monday, and with Kershaw standing by ready to pitch Game 5 on normal rest. Mattingly knows hitting. He knows potential and he knows results. So, going into this season, his message to Ramirez was fairly consistent. He told him he's too good to bat .250. Ramirez, a former batting champion, hit .243 in 2011 in Miami and .257 between Miami and L.A. last season.

When the Dodgers have been able to keep him on the field, Ramirez has been their driving force all season with about half the media attention Yasiel Puig was getting. Now, with one of the great breakout performances in recent playoff history, his years of obscurity are over.

"I just kept telling him, 'I want the whole world to see you. I want the whole world to see how good you are,'" Mattingly said. Players are supposed to be nervous for their first playoff series. Ramirez may have shown a nerve or two in his first at-bat, a strikeout against Kris Medlen on Thursday night, but the rest of the series has been a continuation of his regular season. He has made major league baseball games look like Sunday afternoon softball games. His teammates marvel at his ability to play so well while looking so happy.

His 1.040 OPS trailed only Miguel Cabrera among players with at least 300 plate appearances this season. Now, he gets to do it in games people in other time zones might actually stay up to watch. He said he's enjoying October baseball so far. How could he not the way things are going?

"It's an unbelievable feeling, just the energy around you -- in the dugout, on the field, in the crowd," Ramirez said.

Just think if he were healthy. For weeks, he has been dealing with an irritated nerve in his back and the related hamstring tightness. In fact, it seems like virtually every key Dodgers hitter is on the verge of going down at any moment, perhaps the No. 1 worry for Mattingly at this point.

Puig had to retreat to the clubhouse midgame to get a little treatment on his knee. Crawford joked that he was on "so many medications" after flipping into the stands to make a catch Sunday and, perhaps, bothering his chronically sore lower back, he wouldn't know how he felt until Monday.

In other words, closing out the series Monday -- which would afford the Dodgers three days of rest heading into the NLCS -- would be entirely preferable to flying all the way across the country again for a Game 5 in Atlanta. The Dodgers players, who say they were a little surprised at the lack of energy in Dodger Stadium when the game began, would like to see maximum pressure applied to the Braves on Monday night.

"Make them squeeze the bats a little harder, grip the ball a little harder," reliever J.P. Howell said.

But, of course, these types of things are entirely unpredictable at this time of year. If the Dodgers don't close this thing out in one of the next two games, their identity will be the talented team that went practically nowhere.

Hanley great, Braves awful, Fredi messes up

By David Schoenfield

Well, not every rookie starter can be expected to deliver a performance like Gerrit Cole did for the Pirates or Sonny Gray did for the A's.

There isn't a whole lot to say about the Dodgers' 13-6 pounding of the Braves in Game 3 of their NL Division Series, other than to say the Dodgers hit well, the Braves pitched and fielded poorly and Hanley Ramirez might be on his way to one of those legendary Octobers.

The turning point, if there was one, came with Fredi Gonzalez's slow hook on rookie starter Julio Teheran. Teheran had allowed four runs in the second inning during a rally capped by Carl Crawford's three-run homer to right field with two outs. OK, he'd been one strike away from getting out of the inning with one run -- Crawford jumped on a 2-2 slider -- but in the bottom of the third, after the Braves had scored twice to tie the game, Gonzalez let Teheran allow four more hits and two runs before finally pulling him.

It was too late. Considering the importance of this game -- the winner of Game 3 has won 14 of the past 15 Division

Series that were tied at one game -- you can't leave the starter in that long. What's the point of carrying seven relievers for a five-game series that has two off days if you can't be more flexible than how you would manage in the regular season?

It's an issue I have with most managers in the postseason, the unwillingness to change how they manage in October from how they manage in July, the inability to be more creative. Over 162 games, you have to worry about burning out your bullpen, and you have to let Teheran learn how to pitch out of jams. But you can't wait in the postseason. There is an urgency to every game, and one inning can change an entire series.

Compare Gonzalez's slow hook to what Don Mattingly did. Donnie Manager made some questionable moves in Game 2, but he didn't hesitate in this game. After the Dodgers took that 6-4 lead, Hyun-Jin Ryu was due up with two outs. He's actually a good batter -- he hit a sac fly earlier in the game and hit .203 with four extra-base hits in the regular season -- but Mattingly sensed an opportunity to (A) get more runs and (B) not gamble by keeping Ryu in there after he'd struggled through three innings.

Again, in the regular season with a 6-4 lead, you let Ryu go back out there with that lead, hoping that you can squeeze a couple more innings out of him. So I liked the decision to yank him and go to Chris Capuano, who responded with three scoreless innings.

One more minor nitpick on Gonzalez. When Capuano walked the first better he faced, No. 8 hitter Elliot Johnson, I thought Gonzalez should have hit for pitcher Alex Wood, who had replaced Teheran. Yes, Wood is a guy who started in the regular season and can give the Braves multiple innings out of the pen, but the leadoff walk presented the possibility of a big inning. Again, series tied, trailing in Game 3, there is no time for patience. Wood sacrificed and Capuano settled down, but bring in a position player to hit off Capuano and who knows what could have happened.

As for Ramirez, the dude is ripping line drives all over the place. After going 3-for-4, he's 7-for-13 in the series with six RBIs and six extra-base hits. He could be headed for one of those Reggie Jackson/David Ortiz/David Freese postseasons. Ramirez was the best player in 2013 on a per-game basis, and he's showing why he hit .345 with 20 home runs in 86 games. The Braves have 24 hours to figure out how to get him out.

Freddy Garcia -- yep, Freddy Garcia, who first appeared in the postseason way back in 2000 with the Mariners -- is the starter the Braves are trusting in Game 4 to do that. Garcia had 27 good innings with the Braves (1.65 ERA), which proves nothing but was enough to convince Gonzalez to start him. Hey, he had a 5.77 ERA for the Orioles in 53 innings, but who cares. Johnson got released by the Royals, but had 100 good at-bats with the Braves, so let's make him the starting second baseman. Evan Gattis isn't a left fielder, and his failure to get to a fairly routine fly ball in the second inning helped set up that four-run inning, and he later failed to back up a Ramirez triple that bounced off the wall, but, whatever., Let's keep sending him out there.

Look, this kind of decision-making doesn't kill you against the Phillies, the Mets or the Marlins. It does against a good team. Dodgers wrap this one up in four.

Joe Torre discusses managers

By Ramona Shelburne

LOS ANGELES -- Officially speaking, Joe Torre is staying out of it. Unofficially, the former New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers manager is keeping a close eye on the two men who succeeded him in both jobs.

Torre's protégé with the Dodgers, Don Mattingly, finds himself in precarious waters despite leading the team to the NL West title.

The Dodgers have yet to pick up the option on Mattingly's contract for next season, leaving his future with the club unsettled as they face the Atlanta Braves in the NL Division Series.

Torre preferred to avoid managing into the final year of his contract, whenever possible, and said he empathizes with Mattingly's plight.

"Players have to answer a lot of questions and that's a tough part for a manager," Torre said Sunday before Game 3 of the Dodgers-Braves series at Dodger Stadium. "If it was just on the manager and you had to respond as a manager, that's your job. You get paid more than anybody else on your coaching staff based on the fact that you've got to be there and respond to all the questions. But in New York, and I can't tell you what's happening here, but in New York, my concern was the fact that they were asking players. I didn't know what they were asking them, but it was related to me and whether they liked me or didn't like me, it's a tough question to answer."

The man who succeeded him in New York faces an entirely different offseason question. The Yankees offered Joe Girardi a new contract last week, according to ESPNNewYork.com's Andrew Marchand, but are awaiting word as to whether he will accept it. Girardi is also thought to be at the top of the Chicago Cubs' list to replace the fired Dale Sveum.

"I've talked to Joe Girardi," Torre said. "I didn't ask if he was staying or going. But I can tell you, [New York] is a pretty tough place to walk away from. On the other hand, if Chicago is the other option, that's a pretty special place to go, too."

Torre said he's kept an eye on both men since he retired as the Dodgers manager after the 2010 season, but his conversations with them are mostly limited to his role as an executive vice president with Major League Baseball."I recommended Don Mattingly because I think very highly of him," Torre said. "I picked him out because I liked the qualities he has. I liked his qualities as a person."

Asked whether he had an opinion of Mattingly's controversial decisions in the seventh inning of Game 2 on Friday night, Torre declined to comment, saying he didn't see the game live because he was out to dinner in Boston.

As for the scrutiny Mattingly has faced in the last few days, Torre said he wasn't concerned in the least about him.

"Donny's a tough kid," Torre said. "He coached for me a number of years, but when it came time for him to manage, he wasn't trying to copy anyone. He had his own ideas about how to do it."

While Torre didn't watch the game live, he did review the controversial play at second base in the ninth inning when Dodgers pinch runner Dee Gordon was called out trying to steal second. Replays appeared to show Gordon safely sliding into the base, but it wasn't conclusive whether Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons tagged his uniform as he caught the ball.

"That play on the steal, whichever way it was called, with all the replays I looked at, I didn't see enough to overturn what was called," Torre said. "You really have to see something definitive in order to overturn."

Torre said baseball continues to make progress toward instituting instant replay into the games -- possibly as soon as next year -- but stressed that the issue is more complicated than it appears.

"We're getting closer and closer," he said. "I'm pretty hopeful that we'll have something set next year."

There has been speculation Torre could also have a new role next season, after commissioner Bud Selig retires.

"I'm 73 years old. I really don't envision that happening," Torre said. "Bud has been there for 20-plus years and when the owners decide on who the new commissioner it's going to be, I think they have to think long term. They have to have that in mind, anyway.

"If they ask me to do something for the game, I certainly would listen. But I have no aspiration to be commissioner, based on my age. It's just reality. I'm very comfortable working there, I have a significant job, and I don't have a great deal of stress in my job. That feels pretty good."

Dodgers score 13 runs, thump Braves for 2-1 lead in NLDS

By Associated Press

LOS ANGELES -- The Dodgers fell behind early, took the lead, and let Atlanta tie it up. Then their big hitters cut loose.Carl Crawford hit a three-run homer, Juan Uribe added a two-run shot and Los Angeles routed the Atlanta Braves 13-6 on Sunday night for a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five NL Division Series.

Hanley Ramirez and Yasiel Puig each had three hits and scored three times on a huge night at the plate for the Dodgers, who matched a franchise record for runs in a postseason game. Brooklyn beat the New York Yankees 13-8 in Game 2 of the 1956 World Series.

"It's 25 guys out there that we come here every day and we put in hard work on the field," Ramirez said. "Everything I do, I do for my team and for the city. When I see a big smile from my teammates and my fans, that makes me happy."After losing 4-3 in Game 2 to let the Braves even the series, the Dodgers returned to the offensive form they showed during a 6-1 victory in the opener on the road.

"Guys were unhappy with the way they played, so we wanted to get back to playing the way we did the first game," Crawford said. "We knew it was going to be at home in front of our home crowd, and we were going to have some extra energy for that. Hopefully, we can like wrap it up while we're here at home."

Los Angeles can advance to the NL Championship Series with a victory in Game 4 on Monday night. Ricky Nolasco pitches for the Dodgers against veteran Freddy Garcia.

Crawford made the play of the game when he tumbled head over heels to catch an eighth-inning foul ball at the low retaining wall in left field. The speedy leadoff man also scored three times, including once in the eighth when the Dodgers made it 13-4.

"I'm fine. I landed in a way it didn't hurt," he said. "I didn't think the ball was going to go into the stands. It kept floating and I didn't see the wall coming. I felt myself flipping over. Good thing is I held onto the ball, so that's all that matters."Chris Capuano won in relief of ineffective rookie Hyun-Jin Ryu in a game that took 4 hours, 1 minute. The 13 runs allowed by the Braves equaled the most in club history for a postseason game.

Atlanta starter Julio Teheran took the loss, giving up six runs and eight hits in 2 2/3 innings.

"He just left some balls out over the plate and made some mistakes," Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "With this club, if you do that, you're going to look down at a gas tank with a lighted match."

Los Angeles rallied in the third to regain the lead for good after Atlanta tied it in the top of the inning. After that, the Braves didn't manage much besides Jason Heyward's two-run homer in the ninth.

By then, it was way too late.

Teheran and Ryu both made inauspicious postseason debuts in the first matchup of rookie pitchers in the playoffs since 2007. Neither stayed around long.

In addition to being shaky on the mound, Ryu made two major mistakes in the field before giving way to Capuano, who spent most of the season in the rotation before moving to the bullpen.

With the Dodgers ahead by six runs in their first home playoff game since 2009, fans waved their blue souvenir towels with one hand and made chopping motions with the other in mocking Atlanta's trademark tomahawk chop.

"I didn't have my best, and I tried my best," the 22-year-old Teheran said. "It was just one of those games that you do everything, and the things don't go as you expect."

Ryu allowed four runs and six hits in three innings, becoming the first South Korean-born pitcher to start a postseason game in the major leagues.

Despite his rookie status, the left-hander brought a wealth of experience from his native country in becoming the first player to go from the Korean Baseball Organization to the majors. Besides his seven seasons in the KBO, he had pitched in the 2009 World Baseball Classic at Dodger Stadium as a reliever.

"I felt a little more anxious than compared to those games," Ryu said through a translator.

Atlanta got to him with two runs in the first during another of Ryu's typically slow starts. Capuano came on to strike out three and walk three in three hitless innings.

Los Angeles extended its lead to 10-4 with four runs in the fourth. Ramirez had an RBI triple for his sixth extra-base hit in three postseason games, tying the club record set by Steve Garvey in four games of the 1978 NL Championship Series.

"I just kept telling him, 'I want the whole world to see how good you are,' " Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. "It's been good so far."

Puig added an RBI single and Uribe followed with a two-run homer on the first pitch he saw from reliever Alex Wood.

"With two outs there, if we get out of that inning, it's a whole different ballgame," Braves catcher Brian McCann said.

"But it just didn't turn out the way we wanted. Carl hit a slider that hung up a little bit more than we wanted and he put a good swing on it."

The Dodgers regained the lead 6-4 in the third on RBI singles by Adrian Gonzalez and Skip Schumaker. Ryu was lifted for a pinch-hitter later in the inning.

Atlanta tied it 4-all with two runs in the third after loading the bases with nobody out.

The Dodgers scored four times in the second to take a 4-2 lead, highlighted by Crawford's three-run homer with two outs. Ryu helped himself with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to right field -- Justin Upton had to stretch out to keep the ball from going over his head.

Game notes

Dodgers C A.J. Ellis got hit on the left elbow by a pitch from hard-throwing Jordan Walden in the eighth, but stayed in the game. Ellis had X-rays after the game and said he felt fine. ... Capuano's only other major league win in relief came on Aug. 20, 2010, for Milwaukee. ... It was the first time in Teheran and Ryu's careers as starters that their pitching lines had more runs than innings. ... Teheran became the youngest pitcher (22 years, 252 days) to make a postseason start for the Braves since Steve Avery (22 years, 193 days) in the 1992 World Series, according to STATS. ... Among the famous faces in the sellout crowd of 54,646 were Sandy Koufax, Larry David, Eric Stonestreet of "Modern Family" and Dennis Haysbert.

ESPN.COM

Braves face must-win in Game 4

By Molly Knight

LOS ANGELES -- If you had told the Atlanta Braves Sunday morning that they would rough up Los Angeles Dodgers starter Hyun-Jin Ryu for four runs and knock him out of pivotal Game 3 of the NL Division Series after just three innings, they'd have felt pretty good about their chances.

They lost in a laugher.

The Dodgers thumped the Braves 13-6 in a wild game at Chavez Ravine Sunday night to take a 2-1 lead in this best-of-five series, and now all that stands between Atlanta and a long offseason is the arm of a 37-year-old journeyman starting pitcher who spent most of this season in the minor leagues. Freddy Garcia will take the ball for the Braves in Game 4 in Los Angeles on Monday to try to help them stave off elimination.

Atlanta certainly had a golden opportunity to take a series lead Sunday night and recapture home-field advantage. The Braves struck early in the first inning when Justin Upton doubled over Dodgers center fielder Skip Schumaker's head. Two batters later, Evan Gattis singled him home. Then, Brian McCann walked, and Chris Johnson singled Gattis home.

But Julio Teheran couldn't hold the early lead. The Braves' 22-year-old rookie righty gave up six runs in just 2⅔ innings, including a two-out, three-run home run to Carl Crawford that ignited Los Angeles' video game-like offense. The Dodgers' 13 runs tied a franchise postseason record that has stood since 1956.

"I didn't have my best, and I tried my best," said Teheran, who had a fantastic first season in the big leagues, posting a 3.20 ERA and striking out 170 in 185⅔ innings. "It was just one of those games that you do everything, and the things don't go as you expect."

If the Braves hope to force a Game 5 in Atlanta on Wednesday, they'll need Garcia to do much better. The Venezuelan began the season with the Padres but was cut in spring training. He then signed with the Orioles but was demoted to their Triple-A Norfolk affiliate in June after posting a 5.77 ERA in 53 innings.

Baltimore traded Garcia to the Braves for cash in late August, and he was added to the big league roster as a September call-up. He earned a spot on the Braves postseason roster by pitching excellently down the stretch, posting a 1.65 ERA with 20 strikeouts in 27⅓ innings.

"We've got a lot of faith in him," said catcher McCann of Garcia's Game 4 chances. "He's been there and done that. He's pitched in every situation you could possibly pitch in. We know what we have to do."Garcia, who has thrown 2,264 innings in his career and gone 6-3 with a 3.28 ERA in 10 career postseason starts, says he is unfazed by the pressure of pitching on the road in an elimination game. "I'm the kind of guy who relaxes on the mound," Garcia said after Game 3. "I don't panic. I just go out there and pitch."

His task will not be easy. To force the series back to Atlanta, Garcia will have to neutralize a scorching-hot Dodgers lineup that is collectively hitting .333, slugging .524 and getting on base at a .390 clip this series against a pitching staff that posted the best ERA (3.18) in baseball this season. (The Braves are hitting just .221 this series, slugging .284 and have a .308 OBP.)

"They're an aggressive, good-hitting club that hits every mistake," Garcia said. When asked if he has any ideas regarding how to stop the Dodgers offense after watching them torch his rotation mate in Game 3, he stood by his locker and smiled. "I can't tell you my plan," he said. "You'll have to wait and see tomorrow."

Making matters even more difficult, the Dodgers had yet to announce Sunday night whether they would start Ricky Nolasco in Game 4 versus Garcia as planned or bring back ace and likely 2013 NL Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw to try to close out the series on three days' rest. Kershaw has been nothing short of brilliant in his short career, leading the National League in ERA the past three seasons and posting an infinitesimal 1.83 ERA this season. But the 25-year-old has never pitched on short rest, and it's far from guaranteed he'd be himself. From 2005 to 2011, pitchers going on three days' rest in the postseason were 6-10.

Should the Braves win Monday against Nolasco, they'd face Kershaw on regular rest in Atlanta in Game 5. If the Dodgers throw Kershaw on Monday and the Braves beat him, they'll force a series finale versus Zack Greinke on regular rest. But the Braves aren't looking that far ahead.

"We need to win [Monday] or we go home," right fielder Justin Upton said. "That's the bottom line."

FOXSPORTS.COM

Red-hot Hanley now a complete talent

By Jon Paul Morosi

LOS ANGELES

In May 2010, Hanley Ramirez was pulled from a game because he loafed after a ball in the field. He compounded the issue by questioning his manager’s authority, saying publicly that the man who benched him never played in the major leagues. The incident was viewed as being emblematic of Ramirez’s immaturity as a young star with the then-Florida Marlins.

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When Ramirez initially refused to apologize, he was held out of the next day’s starting lineup in favor of a journeyman infielder named Brian Barden. In the days that followed, news reports said Ramirez “pouted” and displayed “selfish” behavior. Once Ramirez relented and told his teammates he was sorry, he returned to his customary No. 3 spot in the batting order.

“After this is all said and done,” his manager told the Associated Press as the crisis passed, “10-15 years down the road we’ll sit down and say: ‘What a privilege to get a chance to manage this type of ballplayer.’”It has taken far less than 10 or 15 years. During the 2013 National League Division Series, the man who spoke those prescient words – Fredi Gonzalez, now manager of the Atlanta Braves – has watched Ramirez batter his team to within one game of winter.

Ramirez finished a home run shy of the cycle as the Los Angeles Dodgers took a 2-1 series lead with Sunday’s 13-6 thrashing of Gonzalez and the Braves. He’s tied a franchise record with six extra-base hits in a single postseason series – and there’s at least one more game to play. He’s hitting .538 in these playoffs despite playing with a sciatic nerve condition in his back.

Need we say more?

Well, yes, we probably should. Ramirez turns 30 in December, and it’s time to give him credit for the way his professional temperament has caught up with his superstar ability. Not every athlete makes that journey successfully. When it happens, though, it’s a sight to behold. The metamorphosis is much easier to recognize when it’s evident on the postseason stage. You can ask LeBron James about that.

Ramirez won the NL Rookie of the Year award in 2006 and the NL batting title three seasons later, but he began to decline around the time Gonzalez benched him in 2010. Then the injuries started. He played only 92 games in 2011 and had season-ending left shoulder surgery that September. He endured a frustrating 2012, during which he was dealt from the Marlins to the Dodgers.

“It was tough – it was really tough,” Ramirez recalled Sunday night. “I don’t want to remember those moments the last two years. It was awful. I think, mentally, it was really tough for me.

“But I’ve got my family, and I’ve got my teammates. When I got here, they changed everything around (for) me and in my mind. From the first day, Donnie [manager Don Mattingly], I remember when I walked into his office, he told me, ‘Just be you. We’ve got 24 more guys out there that come here every day and play hard and have fun. I want you to be the same.’ Since Day 1, that’s what I’ve been trying to do every day.”

Even though Ramirez played in only 86 games this season – because of surgery on his left thumb and a left hamstring strain – he was arguably the Dodgers’ most impactful position player (Yasiel Puig included). Ramirez developed a new ambition for leadership and team success, in part because of his experience with the title-winning Dominican team at the World Baseball Classic. Now he’s thriving in his first trip to the postseason while staying true to his fun-loving self, joking with teammates when he’s not busy receiving treatment in the trainer’s room.

The Braves don’t have an answer for what Ramirez is doing at the plate, with Atlanta outfielder Justin Upton saying,

“He’s in one of those zones,” and catcher Brian McCann admiring, “When he’s hot, he’s as good as it gets.” Teammate Adrian Gonzalez put it in bold yet accurate terms: “He’s one of the best hitters in the game right now.” But when I asked Ramirez on Sunday night if he views this postseason as a chance to prove he’s still one of the game’s elite players, he answered by praising the team’s medical staff for keeping him on the field.

“I think I wouldn’t be where I am right now without them,” he said.

For years, those who watched Ramirez knew he was capable of this. His former manager was among them. And now that Ramirez could be one or two more gappers from ending the Braves’ season, Fredi Gonzalez probably wishes Ramirez would have waited a little longer to become, as he once described it, this type of ballplayer.

YAHOOSPORTS.COM

Hanley Ramirez, rejuvenated and relevant, leads Dodgers past Braves in Game 3

By Tim Brown

LOS ANGELES – He's bigger than you think, Hanley Ramirez is. Broader. Thicker. He walks with that heaviness sometimes, in the later innings when his body is weary, especially heavy for a man who plays shortstop and twice stole more than 50 bases in this league.

He wears his jersey rakishly unbuttoned, like it can't hold him, not tonight it can't, that big chain and cross dangling, and he holds his bat high, and kicks his front leg high, and fellow ballplayers don't understand how all that doesn't kill his bat speed. But it doesn't. Never has.

Somewhere along the line, the world began to underestimate Hanley Ramirez. He was hurt. He didn't really want to play. He was tired of being a Florida Marlin. He had made his money. The perception of him had changed, and whether it was self-inflicted or not was a matter of where one stood in relation to an unflattering career arc. The Marlins, for one, unloaded him, happily, as they are prone to do.

He said Sunday night, after he'd hit three more line drives and the Los Angeles Dodgers had played to the brink of the NLCS, that those were terrible times, when a weak shoulder had made him half the player he expected of himself."I don't want to remember those moments," he said. "It was awful."

But, yeah, at 29, suddenly he's bigger than you thought he was. Wearing the white jersey and playing shortstop and batting third is who he is again, and in a place where they're suckers for stars. In a division series that means the world to the Dodgers, who are trying to make something of themselves again too, it is Ramirez who has never been better, and he'd been pretty damned good once before.

In three games against the Atlanta Braves, including Sunday's Game 3 won 13-6 by the Dodgers, Ramirez is batting .538. The Dodgers are a win away, with a full ballpark awaiting Monday night's Game 4, with Clayton Kershaw in reserve if that doesn't work out, and with Ramirez swinging the bat like there's not a pitch or a pitcher who could beat him.

Against a pitching staff that was the finest in the National League over six months, Ramirez has seven hits in 13 at-bats. He's homered, tripled, doubled four times and driven in six runs.

Watch every pitch of those 13 at-bats, every subtle weight shift, the way he starts high and finishes higher, grander, and the way the ball leaves the bat, hard and backspun, and a greater question arises.

"Yeah," A.J. Ellis said, "I don't know how he got out six times."

After he'd doubled off Julio Teheran, tripled off Alex Wood and singled off Jordan Walden, all part of a 14-hit uprising by the Dodgers, Ramirez seemed touched by how wonderful the game could be again. He'd watched so many October baseball games from his home in Miami and never played in one himself. He'd sat through the San Francisco Giants' celebration last October, and he told himself often that next year would be the Dodgers and him playing for something like that. Not everybody wins, of course, but Ramirez wanted a shot at it.

"We're here now," he said.

He's still not whole. Every day, like the men on rosters all over the game, he trudges into the trainer's room and tends to his back and his hamstring and whatever else may have arisen. Don Mattingly, his manager, had rested him plenty in the season's final weeks, because of days like today. Ramirez fought him plenty, too. He wanted to play.

"I just kept telling him," Mattingly said, "'I want the whole world to see you. I want the world to see how good you are.'"

Ramirez would nod and report to the bench, waiting for the important games and the important at-bats, allowing his body to catch up to the time of season. Along came the fourth inning Sunday night. Ramirez laced a line drive into left-center field. He turned first and headed to second base, pulling up slightly as he arrived. Braves center fielder Jason Heyward noted Ramirez's deceleration and he, too, slowed. And then Ramirez dug for third base. He beat the throw easily. The Dodgers scored four runs that inning.

They are better for him. Since the trade two Julys ago, Ramirez has played 150 games as a Dodger and batted .312 with 30 home runs and 101 RBI. The three playoff games, you know about.

"When I got here, they changed everything around me and in my mind," he said. "From the first day, Donnie, I remember when I got to St. Louis and when I walked into his office, he just told me to just be you."

Part of that has been injuries. The rest has been production. And at a time the Dodgers are trying to become relevant again, so is Hanley Ramirez, and it seems to suit them both.

In fact, they're both a little bigger for it.

SPORTINGNEWS.COM

Pitching in MLB playoffs: Stinkers by starters are standard

By Ryan Fagan

We've seen a few gems from starting pitchers already in October, but those types of efforts have been more the exception than the rule.

For the most part, starters have been lousy. Like, crushing their team's chance of a playoff victory bad.

In this month's 12 playoff games -- counting the two wild-card contests -- we've seen seven starters yanked from a game after giving up more earned runs than the number of innings pitched. Add in Tampa Bay Rays ace David Price's uncharacteristic start in Boston (seven earned runs in seven innings) and you have eight disastrous starts that so far define a postseason lacking in drama -- outside the Detroit-Oakland series.

SUNDAY: Pirates 5, Cardinals 3 | Dodgers 13, Braves 6 | MONDAY: ALDS resumes; NLDS Game 4s The combined numbers for those eight starters -- Johnny Cueto, A.J. Burnett, Kris Medlen, Matt Moore, Lance Lynn, Price, Julio Teheran and Hyun-Jin Ryu -- are staggeringly awful. In 30 2/3 innings, they gave up 61 hits and 15 walks and have a collective ERA of 13.21.

You don't have to be a nerd to know these pitchers had terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days.

Those eight awful starts have, predictably, resulted in seven losses. Only Ryu's game for the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday against the Atlanta Braves -- four earned runs in three innings -- avoided a loss, but that's because the lefty pitched against another clunker. Teheran allowed six earned runs and couldn't finish the third inning in the Dodgers' 13-6 victory in Los Angeles.

It's hard to find patterns. You have a former Cy Young winner (Price), a couple of veterans (Burnett and Cueto), a former playoff hero (Moore), a few rookies (Teheran and Ryu), a guy who had previously struggled in October (Lynn) and one who was the victim of poor playoff defense (Medlen).

Of this group, only Price made it through the fifth inning. Only Lynn and Teheran finished with more strikeouts than innings pitched. Strikeouts are key in October, as veteran catcher Brian McCann explained before Game 2 of the Dodgers-Braves series.

"Because every pitch matters. I mean, every play matters," the Braves' McCann said. "You hang on every pitch that's thrown, every ball that's hit in play. You manage for 162 games, and it's just all or nothing. It's one game. You have to -- if you get bases loaded, one out, you're going for the punch-out. Every run matters, and I think that's what postseason baseball is."

The trend started in Pittsburgh, when Cincinnati Reds wild-card starter Cueto gave up four runs and eight hits in 3 1/3 innings. He didn't strike out a single Pirate.

Then, it was Pittsburgh's turn to suffer. Burnett worked two scoreless innings in Game 1 of the NLDS against the St. Louis Cardinals, but then couldn't get an out in the third. The Cardinals scored seven times in that inning and went onto a 9-1 victory.

"He didn't have his stuff today," Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said after the game. "I mean, that's it at the end of the day. He didn't have his stuff."

When a manager talks about a pitcher not having his "stuff," it can mean a few things. Usually, he's referring to

movement or velocity on a fastball or bite on a breaking ball. It can mean location, too. And location isn't just about avoiding walks. It's about throwing strikes on the corners of the zone instead of down the middle.

That was the case for Medlen in Game 1 of the Dodgers-Braves series. He walked one guy, but he gave up nine hits and was pulled after allowing the first two hitters he faced in the fifth inning to reach base (on a single and a hit-by-pitch).

"For me, with Medlen, it's about control; it's about working inside-outside, up and down," McCann said before Game 2. "His changeup is his best pitch, and last night he hung it a little more than usual. I mean, I said last night, his location, that was the difference last night, I thought."

For a little perspective on how many clunkers we've already seen this October, let's look at the 2012 postseason. In those 37 games, there were nine instances where starters gave up at least as many earned runs as the number of innings pitched; four of those nine came before the League Championship Series started.

This year, it's eight clunkers in 12 games. It hasn't been pretty. Here's hoping there are more Justin Verlander - Sonny Gray duels than Teheran-Ryu debacles in our near future.

TRUEBLUELA.COM

Hyun-jin Ryu, Dodgers insist he's healthy after rocky start

By Eric Stephen

LOS ANGELES -- The speculation leading up to Sunday, coupled with Hyun-jin Ryu's poor start in Game 3 of the National League Division Series against the Braves, has many concerned that the Dodgers left-handed pitcher is injured. But Ryu and the team are adamant that is not the case.

"He was fine," said manager Don Mattingly. "If there had been anything physically wrong, we wouldn't have let him pitch today."

"There was absolutely no injury whatsoever," Ryu said after the game, through interpreter Martin Kim. "Of course, there was anxiety and I was a little bit nervous taking the mound. I felt a little more anxious than compared to [World Baseball Classic and the Olympics]. Today was a little bit more intense."

The early jitters are nothing new for Ryu, who allowed 17 first-inning runs in 30 regular season starts this season. on Sunday he allowed two more, but the Dodgers responded with four runs of their own in the second inning. But instead of settling down like he has so many times before, especially at Dodger Stadium, Ryu had a bad third inning, too.

"I didn't sense anything physically from Hyun-jin to make me feel he was injured, from my perspective," said catcher A.J. Ellis. "It was more about execution."

Ryu was asked if injury concerns before the game distracted him during the game.

"There was absolutely no injury whatsoever." -Hyun-jin Ryu on his Game 3 start

"No [distractions], none whatsoever. I was fully confident that my body was fine. I know myself better than anyone else if I'm not hurt," Ryu said. "It doesn't matter what people say. I'm not hurt so it wasn't a distraction at all."

Ryu ended up allowing four runs on six hits in three innings, his shortest start of the season by far.

"There was really no swing and miss tonight. His velocity was okay. It seemed like he touched 93, and we've seen him starting out at 90, 91 which is pretty normal for him. He just dind't seem to have that same finish and be able to locate," Mattingly said. "You know, it was just one of those nights."

Mattingly said Ryu will remain in the Dodgers postseason rotation going forward.

"We don't turn our back on guys that have had great seasons for us after one game," Mattingly said.

Chris Capuano helps save the day for Dodgers

By Eric Stephen

LOS ANGELES -- In a wild Sunday night at Dodger Stadium, it took a 35-year-old veteran who fought his way onto the NLDS roster to calm things down. Chris Capuano's three innings of relief saved the bullpen in a game that could have gotten out of hand very easily.

Sure, the 10 runs scored by the Dodgers helped, but when Capuano entered in the fourth inning the Dodgers led 6-4 and the runs were coming at a furious pace from both sides.

"It felt like you just don't know what's going to happen with that game, because Cappie comes in and he hasn't pitched in a while. If he's rough or something, that thing just turns into a mix and match, and guys are going to have to do things they haven't been asked to do," said manager Don Mattingly after the game. "Cappie was the key to settling that game down."

Capuano injured his groin on Sept. 6 and didn't pitch for three weeks until throwing a pair of scoreless innings of relief in the regular season's final weekend. So his three-inning outing on Sunday night was more than he threw in a month.

"It was a battle just to get back by the end of the regular season," Capuano said.

It was also the playoff debut for Capuano, in his 11th season. He said he was the most nervous he's ever been on a baseball field, and had to remember just to breathe when he was on the mound.

Cappie was really good for us, right on time. -Don Mattingly

"I first got to the big leagues in 2003, and I didn't thought it would be this long to get the playoffs," Capuano said. "It's unlike anything I've ever experienced. It's a whole new level of excitement. It's just awesome."Capuano's performance was just the second Dodgers postseason appearance of three innings or more without allowing a hit, joining Alejandro Pena in Game 4 of the NLCS. But it felt more reminiscent of Tim Leary, who pitched three scoreless innings in relief to keep Game 1 of the 1988 World Series from getting out of hand.

"I'm so happy for him. He threw the ball extremely well. He gave us exactly what we needed, nine outs in the middle of the game, to keep them where they were at," said catcher A.J. Ellis. "He had a great game plan, to walk the first guy of every inning, then work his way out of it. It was a false sense of security for them."

NLDS Game 3: Hyun-jin Ryu vs. Braves

By Eric Stephen

LOS ANGELES -- With Sunday's Game 3 of the National League Division Series at battle of rookies pitchers, there simply isn't a lot of history between Hyun-jin Ryu and the Braves, or Julio Teheran and the Dodgers.

More: Full NLDS coverage Game 3 at 5:07 p.m. PT 'No concerns' about Ryu Fernando first pitch No OF for Ethier yet Kershaw or Nolasco in Game 4? Hanley/Andrelton at SS

Teheran hasn't even faced the Dodgers yet in his career, so there is no history, while Ryu has at least made two starts this year against the Braves. Ryu has a pair of no-decisions an a 2.13 ERA, with 11 strikeouts and six walks in 12⅔ innings against Atlanta.

Ryu walked a season-high five batters in just five innings on May 17 in Atlanta but only allowed two runs. On June 7 at Dodger Stadium Ryu pitched into the eighth inning and allowed just one run, this time with only one walk and six strikeouts. In both games he left with a tie score.

Here are the Braves' numbers against Ryu this season: Jason Heyward: 1-for-7 (.143), double, three strikeouts Andrelton Simmons: 2-for-7 (.286), strikeout Justin Upton: 1-for-6 (.167), walk, strikeout Freddie Freeman: 3-for-4 (.750), double, two walks Chris Johnson: 1-for-6 (.167), strikeout B.J. Upton: 1-for-5 (.200) Evan Gattis: 0-for-3 (.000) Brian McCann: 0-for-2 (.000), walk

The active Braves have combined to go 9-for-40 against Ryu, hitting .225/.295/.275.

Game info

Time: 5:07 p.m.

TV: TBS

On Clayton Kershaw, Ricky Nolasco & Game 4

By Eric Stephen

LOS ANGELES -- Manager Don Mattingly won't say it, but it's becoming increasingly clear that if the Dodgers lose to the Braves in Game 3 of the NLDS on Sunday night, they will turn to ace Clayton Kershaw on short rest rather than scheduled starter Ricky Nolasco.More: Full NLDS coverage More Kershaw/Nolasco from Saturday

Mattingly on Saturday said Nolasco was his Game 4 starter and repeated the mantra on Sunday, with the same caveat allowing for wiggle room.

"Right now Ricky is the pitcher in Game 4," Mattingly said. "That's what we've decided. Right now, Ricky is the pitcher."

It's the "right now" that leaves room for speculation. Clayton Kershaw threw a bullpen session on Saturday and would be ready to pitch on Monday night if needed. It would be the first time Kershaw has ever started on three days rest.

I think the reason Mattingly won't publicly acknowledge the possibility of Kershaw starting Game 4 is because it's not in his nature to do so. The Dodgers would only turn to Kershaw if down 2-1, giving them their two best pitchers in a pair of must win games, with Zack Greinke on full rest in Wednesday's Game 5 in Atlanta.

For Mattingly to acknowledge a Kershaw start, that would require him to think about losing Game 3, something the positive-thinking Mattingly almost never does.

Nolasco, for his part, wants to start in Game 4 but understands the situation.

"This isn't about me, this is about the team," Nolasco said. "They are the ones who get paid to make those decisions. I'll be here ready to take the ball whenever they ask me to pitch."

I think it really as simple as this: if the Dodgers win Sunday, Nolasco starts Monday night; if not, it's Kershaw in Game 4.That's the feeling I get right now.

USA TODAY

Overlooked Dodger the key difference in win

By David Leon Moore

LOS ANGELES – Surrounded by the attention-grabbing talents of Hanley Ramirez and Yasiel Puig, the modest-by-comparison game of Carl Crawford is sometimes overlooked.

BREAK DOWN: How the Dodgers won

But not Sunday night, when Crawford's second-inning, two-out, three-run homer turned a 2-1 Atlanta Braves lead into a 4-2 Los Angeles Dodgers lead and set the tone for a 13-6 rout.

Los Angeles now leads the series 2-1 and can close out the best-of-five matchup Monday night.

"That got the crowd back into it," Dodger second baseman Mark Ellis said of Crawford's blast against losing pitcher Julio Teheran. "It was a huge hit. It changed the whole game around."

Maybe the whole series.

BOX SCORE: Dodgers 13, Braves 6

Maybe a whole postseason?

In a 13-6 game, maybe one hit isn't the difference.

Or maybe it is.

"Given everything that happened tonight, that might get overlooked a little bit, but that was a difference-maker right there," Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis said.

Crawford came up in the second with two runners on and two outs. He worked the count to 2-2 on Teheran and, as he always does, he looked for a fastball.

But he didn't get a fastball. He got a slider, out over the plate, and he jumped on it, lining it over the right-field fence into the visitors' bullpen.

"I was able to make the adjustment, and hit it out of the park," he said.

Crawford has made the adjustment in L.A. from being a franchise player, as he was considered in Tampa Bay and briefly in Boston, to being just another guy in the Dodgers' star-studded lineup.

Given the way his career went south in Boston after he signed a seven-year, $142-million contract after the 2010 season, and given the fact that he sat out most of last season with an elbow injury and got traded to the Dodgers in a Red Sox salary dump, it was understandable to think of Crawford as damaged goods, no longer capable of making a big difference to a playoff contender.

But at 32, he has shown glimpses of the player who was a four-time All-Star in the American League, a player who led the AL four times in stolen bases and four times in triples and won a Gold Glove in 2010.

His game Sunday night was more than a glimpse. It was a star turn, highlighted by the long ball.

"It was huge for us," Crawford said of his home run. "That was at the point in the game where we could have fallen back and gotten into a big hole. It was good to hit that home run right there."

Crawford had a single in addition to the home run and he also got on base on a bunt (Braves pitcher Alex Wood mishandled it for an error) and scored. Also, despite his team leading 10-4 at the time, he went head over heels into the stands to make a circus catch of a Brian McCann foul popup in the eighth inning.

"I honestly didn't think the ball was going into the stands," Crawford said. "It kept floating. The next thing I knew, I felt my feet flipping over my head. I'm just glad I held on to the ball. That's all that matters."

Well, the way he's playing, it also matters if he can play in Game 4. How was he feeling after the game Sunday night?"I'm on medication right now, so I can't feel it," he said, smiling. "I'll have an answer for you tomorrow."

He may have some more big hits coming, too.

Though he's not thought of as a power hitter – he had just six this season and has 124 in 12 seasons – it doesn't surprise the Dodgers when he goes deep.

"He's got a great swing," A.J. Ellis said. "He launches balls in batting practice every day. He has the power to drive balls into the gaps, and sometimes they go over the fence.

"He's been an elite player in this league for a long time."

Right. Sunday night was a reminder of that.

Offensive duo ignites Dodgers over BravesBy Jorge L. Ortiz

LOS ANGELES – Yasiel Puig's walkup song, "Papa Dios Me Dijo'' by Secreto el Biberon, features a repeated line that translates into, "They're jealous of me.''

Right now every team in the postseason might be jealous of the energizing combo the Los Angeles Dodgers have in Puig and his cohort Hanley Ramirez, for they're capable of turning any game into a rout.

Their latest handiwork was in evidence in Sunday's 13-6 victory over the Atlanta Braves in Game 3 of the National League Division Series, which left L.A. a win away from advancing.

Bookending cleanup hitter Adrian Gonzalez, Ramirez and Puig took turns starting and highlighting rallies as the Dodgers shook off a two-run Braves first inning and proceeded to pound starter Julio Teheran and his relievers.

Leadoff hitter Carl Crawford delivered the evening's biggest hit when he belted a three-run homer that put L.A. ahead 4-2 in the second inning. But it was Ramirez and Puig who kept the pressure on as the Dodgers bailed out their shaky starter, rookie Hyun-Jin Ryu.

CRAWFORD: 'Overlooked' Dodger the difference in key win

The demonstrative, supremely talented and uber-confident duo finished with a total of six hits, six runs scored and four RBI, powering an offense that hardly seemed to miss injured outfielders Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier.

"They're so dynamic, those two guys, and such good hitters, and they're even better with runners in scoring position,'' second baseman Mark Ellis said. "It's fun to watch. They're so talented. The way they barrel balls, it's not that easy a game, especially in the playoffs when you're facing the best pitching.''

Teheran had stumbled toward the end of a solid rookie season and was seeking to ride the momentum the club gathered with its Game 2 victory. But he promptly gave back the early lead and failed to get out of the third inning, which saw both Ramirez and Puig score runs.

"You have to be careful not to make a mistake because they're such good hitters, and when they get on base they're a threat to run,'' Teheran said. "They're hard to strike out, so I was trying to make my pitches and have them get themselves out.''

BREAK DOWN: How the Dodgers won

It didn't work, and the Braves bullpen didn't fare much better as the Dodgers' 13 runs tied the franchise postseason record set in 1956, when they were in Brooklyn.

Now the unenviable task of figuring out a way to stop them falls on 15-year veteran Freddy Garcia, who was let go by the Baltimore Orioles and spent half the season in the minors before hooking up with the Braves.

Garcia pitched very well for Atlanta in September, including a three-start stretch to end the season in which he posted a 1.83 ERA. Still, most of the questions he fielded during a pregame interview session were of the "Can you believe you're here?'' variety.

Lacking the plus fastball of his younger days, Garcia will have to rely on his guile to contain an attack that has heated up behind its two dynamos.

Ramirez, playing in his third playoff game after waiting eight seasons to join the party, tied a Los Angeles record for extra-base hits in a postseason series with his sixth, a fourth-inning triple that drove in the Dodgers' seventh run. He scored the eighth two batters later on Puig's single."He's locked in. He's covering both sides of the plate,'' Braves catcher Brian McCann said of Ramirez, batting .538 with six RBI. "I've played against him for a long, long time now, and when he's hot he's as good as it gets.''

Ramirez battled shoulder woes that required surgery in September 2011, and his production declined markedly that season and the next. This year he was limited to 86 games by thumb, hamstring, shoulder and back injuries, and even now he's not at 100 percent.

But treatment and some September rest have revitalized him, and even the smile he used to flash more frequently in his younger years is back.

"What gives me the greatest happiness is to see my teammates, how they're enjoying it and how we treat each other like brothers,'' Ramirez said. "Every time we get to the ballpark, everybody's happy to be here, as if they were at home with their family.''

Puig reached the playoffs in his rookie season surrounded by questions about whether his "Wild Horse'' ways would help or hurt the Dodgers' quest to return to the World Series for the first time since 1988.

So far he has stayed in control while still unleashing the full power of his relentless enthusiasm.

It was Puig who ignited the Dodgers' four-run second, and the one who kept the two-run third going with his hustle, beating out a potential double-play grounder and reaching second on an errant throw. Whenever something exciting was happening, Puig seemed to be in the middle of it.

"He's doing a really good job of kind of toning it down but staying aggressive, because his aggressiveness is what got us to where we are,'' Ellis said. "He's so talented and what he brings to our team is energy and excitement, but now he's a better baseball player.''

And, along with the scorching Ramirez, he making the Dodgers a very dangerous team.

NBCLA.COM

Dodgers Feeling Great After Game 3 Win

By Trevor O’brien

The Dodgers dominated the Braves in NLDS Game 3, on Sunday, with a 13-6 victory. The team is just one win away from clinching a berth to the NLCS that fact has them feeling very positive and upbeat.

Here are some post-game quotes to hold you over until Monday's NLDS Game 4:

Don Mattingly talked about how important Chris Capuano was to the victory on Sunday, "Obviously, Cappie (Capuano) is really good for us, right on time. A lot of stuff happened early. By the time we got to him it felt like it was a long game already at that point. I think, what is it? It's the 4-2, and then by the time we get to him, it's like we just need to settle the game down. He gave us those three innings there to kind of get us to the back end of the bullpen. So he kind of basically just put the game in order"

There was a lot of focus on Hyun-Jin Ryu, with many speculating over whether or not he is battling an injury. Mattingly and Ryu both refuted these claims. "If there had been anything physically wrong, we wouldn't have let him pitch today," Mattingly said.

Ryu was a bit more blunt, "There was absolutely no injury whatsoever." He was asked again and made sure to put the question to rest, "I know myself better than anyone else if I'm not hurt. Doesn't matter what people say. I'm not hurt."Ryu blamed his poor performance on not being prepared to pitch on the biggest stage of his career, "there was anxiety and I was a little bit nervous taking the mound" and it affected his performance, "in the earlier part of the game when I had the count going my way, I think I should have honed in and focused a little more. I think that's the mistakes that I made."

He said that NLDS Game 3 was even bigger than pitching in the Olympics, "Yeah, I felt a little more anxious than compared to those games. Today was a little bit more intense."

Carl Crawford also got a lot of attention because of his huge homer and a catch that sent him diving not the stands.

"That's definitely a big one (home run) for me to take the lead right there and get the team some momentum going into the rest of the game," he said of his three-run home run in the second inning.

Whether or not he injured his back falling into the stands was a concern for a few, but he made light of any possible injuries by saying, "I'm on all kinds of medication right now, so I won't feel it until tomorrow. I'll have an answer for you by tomorrow."

It sounds serious, but he was laughing and got the whole interview room chuckling as well.

Don Mattingly had heaps of praise for Hanley Ramirez, but he has been that way all year, "Hanley, I've been talking about him all year long just how good I feel like he is."

But down the stretch of the regular season, Ramirez wanted to play everyday, while Mattingly wanted to rest him before playoffs," I just kept telling him, I want the whole world to see you. I want the whole world to see how good you are. And that's been, I want him to show everybody how good he is. And it's been good so far."

Even Braves manager Freddi Gonzalez commented on the threat Ramirez has in the lineup, " later on in the game we hit Ellis, walked the other Ellis, and here comes Hanley again. It's a club that you can't make mistakes or you can't have base runners, because they've got some guys in the middle of the lineup that can really, really hurt you."

Dodger catcher A.J. Ellis also commented on Ramirez hitting 7-13 so far in the postseason, with a humorous jab, "I don't know how he got out six times."

After Crawford got a laugh for his statement about any injuries, Ramirez snuck in a joke too when asked what parts of his body are hurting, "That's a secret," he said laughing.

Overall the club is feeling great, physically and mentally, and they deserve to be after Sunday's 13-6 victory. They are just one game away from the NLCS, and can clinch on Monday in Game 4, at home, against Atlanta.

DODGERSCRIBE.COM

Hanley Ramirez is Dodgers’ finalist for Hank Aaron Award

By Tony Jackson

Here is the official release from the Dodgers, copy-pasted. It lays out how you can vote. Still no word on whether there is a change in starting pitchers for tonight.

RELEASE:Major League Baseball and MLB Advanced Media announced that Hanley Ramirez was named the Dodgers’ nominee for the 2013 Hank Aaron Award.

Fans can vote exclusively online at MLB.com and the 30 Club sites. For the fourth straight year, a special panel of Hall of Fame players led by Hank Aaron will join fans in voting for the award, which is officially sanctioned by Major League Baseball and has recognized the most outstanding offensive performer in each League since it was established in 1999.

Ramirez batted .345 with 20 home runs and 57 RBI in 86 regular-season games, leading the Majors (minimum 300 at-bats) with a .638 slugging percentage and topping the National League in batting average. Ramirez’s .402 on-base percentage also ranked fourth in the N.L. The 29-year-old hit 20 home runs in just 86 games, reaching the 20-homer mark for the sixth time in the last seven years and averaging a homer every 15.20 at-bats (7th, MLB). The Dominican Republic native established a career-high 19-game hitting streak from June 19-July 8, batting .486 (36-for-74) during the run, and reached base safely in 36 consecutive games from June 19-July 30, the fifth-longest run in the Majors this season. The Dodgers went 55-31 in Ramirez’s 86 games this season, which was limited by a pair of trips to the disabled list.

The Hall of Fame panel led by Aaron includes some of the greatest offensive players of all-time –Roberto Alomar, Johnny Bench, Tony Gwynn, Paul Molitor, Eddie Murray and Robin Yount. These Hall of Famers – who combined for 17,629 hits, 8,278 RBI and 1,723 home runs – have all been personally selected by Hank Aaron to lend their expertise to select the best offensive performer in each League.

Through October 10, fans will have the opportunity to select one American League and one National League winner from a list comprising of one finalist per Club. The winners of the 2013 Hank Aaron Award will be announced during the 2013 World Series.

“It is a great honor that Major League Baseball recognizes the most outstanding offensive performer in each League with an award in my name,” said Hank Aaron. “The game is full of so many talented players today that I am thankful my fellow Hall of Famers and the fans assist in selecting the much deserving winners.”

Hold the phone on Nolasco …

By Tony Jackson

There is at least one media report out there that the Dodgers still are considering starting Clayton Kershaw on short rest for Game 4 instead of scheduled starter Ricky Nolasco even though they will be trying to close out this National League Division Series rather than trying to stay alive in it. I’m not sure I’m buying it. I’m not saying the media report is inaccurate — I can certainly see that they might still be considering this — I just think it’s a ridiculous idea.

For one, Kershaw has never pitched on three days’ rest in his career. Ever. Not once. That isn’t to suggest he couldn’t do it and be just as good as he usually is. But are the playoffs the ideal situation in which to test that theory?

You can make a logical case for it. First, if the Dodgers burn Kershaw tomorrow night and still lose, they still would have Zack Greinke ready for Game 5 on normal rest because there is an off-day between Games 4 and 5. And if they win this series, either in four or five, they still would have Kershaw ready to go on normal rest for Game 2 of the N.L.

Championship Series on Saturday. And they don’t really have a long reliever for Game 4 because they burned Chris Capuano for three innings tonight after Hyun-Jin Ryu failed to go past the third inning, so if the struggling Nolasco can’t pitch deep into the game, the Dodgers are kind of up a particular creek, especially after they probably burned J.P. Howell (1 1/3 innings) and a suddenly struggling Paco Rodriguez (25 pitches) tonight. So by starting Kershaw, in the event the unthinkable happens and Kershaw gets knocked out early, they would have Nolasco to eat innings out of the pen when they otherwise wouldn’t really have anybody else.That’s the case for it. The case against it is this: one way or another, if the Dodgers are planning on going far into these playoffs, they’re eventually going to need to know whether Nolasco can get the job done after he posted a 12.75 ERA and a .393 batting average-against in his final three regular-season starts. They might as well find out now, when they’re playing with house money, and then save Kershaw for a game when they really need him — a potential Game 5 back in Atlanta on Wednesday night. And if there isn’t a Game 5, they would be all set to begin the NLCS with the same Kershaw-Greinke tandem with which they started this series.

So could it happen? Yes, of course. Would it have been the right thing to do if the Dodgers had lost Game 3? Absolutely. But is it the right thing now, when they are up 2-1 in the series?

I will say, unequivocally, no.

Finally on the big stage, Ramirez steals the show

By Tony Jackson

In the waning days of the regular season, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly had a conversation with shortstop Hanley Ramirez in which Mattingly laid out the justification for the sporadic playing time Ramirez would receive after the Dodgers had clinched the division title. Ramirez has been battling one injury or another pretty much all season, a season that has included two DL stints of a month each, and until he can get to an offseason he hopes won’t start anytime soon, the nerve issue he is still dealing with in his lower back is never going to get enough rest to go away completely.It could be argued all season that Ramirez was the Dodgers’ most important offensive player. Now, with Matt Kemp done for the year and Andre Ethier limited to pinch-hitting, it isn’t even an argument anymore.

And so Mattingly knew he had to do whatever he had to do to keep Ramirez healthy for the playoffs. And that included convincing Ramirez that spending more time on the bench than on the field as the season wound down was best for him, as well.

So Mattingly told Ramirez, who to that point in his decorated career had never appeared in the postseason, that he wanted to make sure the world saw Ramirez on the big stage of October, saw what he could do, witnessed his immense talent that went virtually unnoticed during all those years he spent with the Florida-Miami-whatever Marlins.

“You know, I want to play every day,” Ramirez said. “But at the same time, I knew he was doing the best for me to be ready for the playoffs. He played this game, and he knows what he is doing. That is great when you have a manager like that. That makes you keep doing your best every day, every inning, every out, every pitch.”

Through three games of this National League Division Series, what the world has seen of Ramirez is seven hits in 13 at-bats, six of them for extra bases, and six RBI.

“I always went back home (after previous seasons) and watched the playoffs with my family,” Ramirez said. “I remember telling them last year that I want to be there. It’s a different feeling, you know, the fans, the energy, it’s unbelievable. It makes you pumped. My family said, ‘Next year, you’re going to be there,’ and they were right. We’re here now.”

Ramirez thought back to his first day with the Dodgers, when he joined the team in St. Louis on July 25, 2012, after being traded from the Marlins. He came with a reputation — or, to put it more bluntly, baggage, the kind that doesn’t involve suitcases. He was widely viewed as a prima donna, and his antics in Florida had included a high-profile feud with one of his many managers there, Fredi Gonzalez, a guy who is now sitting in the other dugout in this NLDS as the manager of the Braves.

“When I got here, they changed everything around me and in my mind,” Ramirez said. “From the first day, Donnie, I remember when I got to St. Louis and when I walked into his office, he just told me, ‘Just be you. We have 24 more guys out there that come here every day and play hard and have fun. I want you to be the same.’ Since day one, I think that is what I have been trying to do every day.”

Even if that fun is interrupted by daily treatment, far more of it than most players receive, in the training room. Even if Ramirez feels some degree of pain somewhere in his body almost constantly.

“I don’t try to think about that right now,” he said. “We’re going to finish what we started. We can’t stop right now. We have to stay positive. We have been doing that all year. That is one of the good things that we have. We always stay positive, and everybody is happy around the clubhouse. Lots of good vibes.”

Lots of good vibes, indeed.

Cross their hearts and pinky swear, Hyun-Jin Ryu is fine, just fine

By Tony Jackson

Here is his entire, postgame interview-room transcript, so you can see the words for yourself.

The question was asked of Don Mattingly first, but only because he came into the interview room before Hyun-Jin Ryu did. Here is Mattingly’s answer:

“It seemed like he had trouble getting settled in, and tonight was one of those nights. Usually with him, there is more swing and miss, and there was really no swing and miss tonight. His velocity was OK. It seemed like he touched 93 (mph), and we have seen him starting out at 90-91, which is pretty normal for him. He just didn’t seem to have that same finish and be able to locate. So you know, it was just one of those rough nights. … It just seemed like he was a little out of sorts tonight. Just got going a little too fast. … He was fine (physically). There were no restrictions on him tonight. … If there had been anything physically wrong, we wouldn’t have let him pitch today.”

And then, there was a follow-up from one of the Korean reporters, asking if Ryu will be given another chance to pitch in this postseason.

“We hope,” Mattingly said. “You know, if we can win, put another win on the board, he gets another opportunity. We don’t turn our back on guys that have had great seasons for us after one game. So yeah, he is part of what we do.”

And then a little while later, Ryu himself came into the interview room and answered questions through an interpreter. He was extremely contrite about the two botched defensive plays on back-to-back hitters in that third inning. But when asked about his physical well-being, he was just as insistent as his manager that there is nothing wrong.

“There was absolutely no injury whatsoever,” he said. “Of course, there was anxiety, and I was a little bit nervous taking the mound. … I was fully confident that my body was fine. I know myself better than anyone else. It doesn’t matter what people say. I’m not hurt, so it wasn’t a distraction at all.”

Well OK, then.

By the way, you will notice that the postgame video that I normally post wasn’t posted tonight. That was because I was told by a Major League Baseball official that I wasn’t allowed to videotape anything from the interview room. I went to the clubhouse and got a little bit from Chris Capuano, which I will post, but most of the guys who really played a significant part in the outcome of tonight’s game were brought to the interview room.

I don’t think this is going to be a problem beyond tonight. I have known this particular MLB official for years and always have had a good working relationship with her. I asked her later to clarify exactly which rule prohibits me from shooting and posting video from the interview room, and she was perfectly conciliatory, said she would check and get back to me tomorrow and that it might be perfectly OK for me to do it, she just wants to be certain. So just bear with me on this, and hopefully things will be back to normal by tomorrow.

And if the Dodgers wrap up the series tomorrow, I’ll try to get video of the clubhouse celebration just as I did when they clinched the division two weeks ago.

Finally, just as I guessed it would, the whole Clayton Kershaw-or-Ricky Nolasco thing became a moot point when the Dodgers took care of business tonight.

“The biggest thing was getting the win today,” Mattingly said. “That has kind of been the plan the whole time, is kind of to win every day. I would like to be able to close us out tomorrow. I didn’t know there was a debate (about Kershaw vs. Nolasco for Game 4), really. Lot of questions, right? You never know what happens. Twists and turns of this game.”I’ll have another, longer post on Hanley Ramirez coming up shortly. Oh, and the Capuano video.

Dodgers 13, Braves 6

By Tony Jackson

On an evening when neither of the rookie starting pitchers made it past the third inning, the Dodgers launched their biggest postseason explosion in 57. They hadn’t scored 13 runs in a postseason game since the Brooklyn Dodgers hung 13 on the New York Yankees in Game 2 of the 1956 World Series.

The big blows were a three-run homer by Carl Crawford in the second and a two-run blast by Juan Uribe in the fourth. Hanley Ramirez, meanwhile, had a double and a triple and now is 7-for-13 through the first three games of the series, with six of those seven hits having gone for extra bases. Ramirez also has six RBI in the first postseason appearance of his career.

The Dodgers took a 2-1 lead in the National League Division Series, putting them a victory away from going to the N.L. Championship Series for the third time in the past six years. TBS, which was broadcasting the game nationally, showed a graphic in the seventh inning stating that in the history of best-of-five series (going back to 1969), whenever those series have been tied 1-1, the team winning Game 3 has gone on to win the series 78 percent of the time.

However, the news wasn’t entirely good for the Dodgers. Left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu gave up four runs on six hits and was lifted for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the third after throwing 68 pitches. His performance seemed in keeping with indications there might be a physical issue with Ryu, who threw a rare bullpen session before Game 2 in Atlanta with team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache watching. However, team officials and Ryu himself have been coy when pressed on the issue of whether there is something wrong with Ryu’s arm.

Even so, Ryu lasted longer in the game than did Braves rookie Julio Teheran, whom the Dodgers lit up for six runs on eight hits over 2 2/3 innings. After the Braves scored two in the top of the first to grab an early lead, the Dodgers got four in the second to go on top. Although Ryu gave the lead right back in the third, the Dodgers scored two in the bottom of the third to go back in front, then put the game away with four in the fourth.

Chris Capuano, whose candidacy for the postseason roster was in question right up until the moment he was included on it, followed Ryu and pitched three shutout innings without giving up a hit.

NLDS Game 3: Dodgers vs. Atlanta

By Tony Jackson

Sandy Koufax is here. Saw him in the dining room a few minutes ago, walking through with Mark Walter and a security person. So that should tell you right there this isn’t just any other evening at Dodger Stadium. Sandy Koufax doesn’t come around here very often. He is here, by the way, on the 50th anniversary of Game 4 of the 1963 World Series, in which he turned in a complete-game, six-hitter to defeat the New York Yankees, completing a four-game sweep. It was the only time the Dodgers ever celebrated a World Series title on their own field.

All day long today, I have been seeing headlines on the web about tonight’s game being a match-up of two rookies, just the 11th such match-up in postseason history and the first since Arizona’s Micah Owings and Colorado’s Franklin Morales squared off in Game 4 of the 2007 National League Championship Series at Coors Field. Technically, and officially, that is exactly what tonight’s game is. But from a common-sense perspective, Hyun-Jin Ryu is a rookie in name only. Ryu pitched seven seasons in the Korea Baseball Organization, his native country’s version of Major League Baseball. It is the same level? No. But any concern that he is going to go to the mound tonight with a deer-in-the-headlights look is misplaced, and I wouldn’t expect that from the Braves’ Julio Teheran, either, even though he is more of a traditional rookie, four years younger than Ryu. These two guys had almost identical numbers this year, including records of 14-8, and Teheran’s ERA was higher than Ryu’s by a mere two-tenths of a run (3.20 to 3.00).

Unlike either of the first two games in Atlanta, this one is a sellout. The old yard should be rocking, not only figuratively but literally at times.

Batter up.

The strange state of being Ricky Nolasco today

By Tony Jackson

So you’re Ricky Nolasco, you’re scheduled to pitch Game 4 of the National League Division Series tomorrow night, and you know at this point that there WILL be a Game 4. And so they bring you into the interview room this afternoon to do the customary next-day’s-starting-pitcher media session.

So you sit down at the table in front, and they begin to pepper you with the usual fluff about how you grew up in Los Angeles rooting for the Dodgers and the ticket requests you must be dealing with as a hometown guy and what a fun team this must be to play for and all that.

And then, someone asks you this:

“There has been some chatter about whether, if tomorrow is an elimination game, about whether (Clayton) Kershaw should start tomorrow. If the team does go in that direction, would you be understanding of that decision?”

Now keep in mind, if you’re Nolasco, you’re probably aware of that chatter. Keep in mind, also, that this is a question that had to be asked. Earlier, it might have been a question that possibly COULD be asked. But it became a question that HAD to be asked when manager Don Mattingly had used the words “right now” in HIS media session when he was asked whether Kershaw might be a consideration if the Dodgers are down 2-1. As in, “Right now, Ricky is the pitcher in Game 4.”

Anyway, back to Nolasco, who offered a perfectly politically correct answer, which you can read in the post I posted immediately previous to this one, in which he says this is all about the team and not about him personally.But then, there was this follow-up question:

“Have they given you any indication that things could change?”

And then, there was this follow-up answer from Nolasco:

“I haven’t heard anything, just from you guys.”

Thus, the strange dynamic to which I referred in the previous post.

By “you guys,” he is referring to the media. Again, if you’re Nolasco, you probably knew this might come up. You probably surveyed the situation and figured that out for yourself. And you also knew that although you were pretty darn good for most of the rest of the season after your hometown Dodgers acquired you from the Miami Marlins on July 6, you weren’t very good down the stretch, giving up 19 runs and a .393 opponents’ batting average in 12 innings over your final three starts.

Here’s the thing: no one involved in this scenario has done anything wrong.

You can’t blame Mattingly for not alerting Nolasco that things might change if the Dodgers lose tonight, because, first of all, the player might interpret that as a lack of confidence in him; and secondly, managers don’t like to make contingency plans based on losing a game because the Dodgers will take the field less than an hour now with every intention of winning Game 3.

On the other hand, you can’t blame Mattingly for not lying to the media — we criticize people all the time for lying to us, and to his credit, Mattingly was about as honest as you can ask him to be in this situation, particularly in light of the fact that he very well might not have even made up his mind yet who will pitch Game 4 if the Dodgers lose Game 3.

You can’t blame the media for asking the question to Nolasco. That’s just our job, and it’s an obvious question that has to be asked.

And yet, with everyone doing everything right, Nolasco is still left in something of a lurch. He has to prepare for tomorrow night’s game, all the while being less than 100-percent certain that he actually will PITCH tomorrow night’s game. Nolasco is a consummate professional, a guy who undoubtedly will do his best to put this out of his mind and carry on with his prep work as he normally would. But starting pitchers tend to be creatures of habit, slaves to routine. And sticking to that routine and focusing on that routine when you don’t even know for sure what it is that you’re preparing for, well, that’s easier said than done.

Please excuse Tony for being tardy …

By Tony Jackson

I have arrived at Dodger Stadium, barely two hours before game time — wow, it’s a whole different experience driving into the ballpark with everyone else. There are actually people in the parking lot. And other cars.

So even though tonight is Game 3, the most prevalent storyline at this point appears to be Game 4 and whether the Dodgers should bring back Clayton Kershaw on three days’ rest if they should lose Game 3 instead of trusting Ricky Nolasco, who struggled down the stretch, in a win-or-go-home game. Of course, they haven’t lost Game 3 yet, and there is a decent chance that they won’t. People seem to be forgetting that. But anyway, here is what Don Mattingly had to say on the subject earlier today (thanks to the wonders of printed transcriptions):

“Right now, Ricky is the pitcher in Game 4. That is what we have decided, so right now, Ricky is the pitcher.”The key words there, of course, are “right now,” which would seem to be a clear indication that Mattingly is keeping his options open.

For his part, Nolasco said exactly what he was supposed to say when he was asked about the possibility of his scheduled start being taken away if the Dodgers are facing elimination.“Yeah, this isn’t about me,” he said. “This is about the team. Whatever decision they make is going to be the best decision for the team. So I’m (OK) with whatever. They are the ones who get paid to make those decisions and stuff like that. So I will be here, ready to take the ball whenever they ask me to pitch.”

There is a weird dynamic at play here, of course. I will address that in a subsequent post in a few minutes.

NY DAILY NEWS

Carl Crawford, Juan Uribe go deep as Dodgers rout Braves to go ahead 2-1 in NLDS

By Anthony McCarron

LOS ANGELES — The mock tomahawk chops started in the fifth inning Sunday night as Dodger fans taunted the Braves by chanting and “chopping” with Dodger Blue towels while their favorite team was clobbering Atlanta.

Don Mattingly’s Dodgers moved one victory from advancing to the National League Championship Series with a resounding 13-6 victory over the Braves in Game 3 of their best-of-five division series in front of a raucous sellout crowd of 54,646 at Dodger Stadium.

Carl Crawford hit a three-run homer, Juan Uribe hit a two-run shot and locomotive-in-spikes Yasiel Puig scored three times and drove in two. Hanley Ramirez added a single, double and triple, tying Steve Garvey and Duke Snider for the Dodger record of six extra-base hits in a playoff series, and ex-Met Chris Capuano was the winning pitcher, tossing three scoreless innings of relief after starter Hyun-Jin Ryu faltered.

The Dodgers tied the franchise record for runs in a postseason game, matching the 13 scored by the 1956 Brooklyn Dodgers in a victory over the Yankees in Game 2 of the World Series.

These Dodgers can put away Atlanta Monday night in Game 4 when they send Ricky Nolasco to the mound against former Yankee Freddy Garcia. Even if the Braves win, they'll have to face Clayton Kershaw, the best pitcher on the planet, in Game 5.

“We want to win here (Monday),” Capuano said. “We don’t want to take it any further.”

Julio Teheran gets roughed up, allowing eight hits and six runs over 2 2/3 innings.

Mattingly’s managerial miscues were a big topic off Game 2, but no one was thinking about that Sunday as the Dodgers overwhelmed Atlanta after the all-rookie pitching matchup of Ryu and Atlanta's Julio Teheran fizzled.

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“Obviously, Cappie is really good for us, right on time,” Mattingly said. “He put the game in order.”

And then the Dodger bats pounded away. As Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez put it, when Teheran made a few mistakes, “with that club, you’re going to be looking down at a gas tank with a lighted match.”

Yasiel Puig (l.) goes 3-for-5 with 2 RBI.

The score was 4-4 after the Braves scored twice in the third on fielding mistakes by Ryu, who missed first base with his foot, ruining a potential double play, and also made an ill-advised throw on a bunt he shouldn’t have fielded in the first place.

The game was never close after that, though, and Capuano deserves some credit. The lefty, who was 11-12 for the Mets in 2011, did not allow a hit from the fourth through the sixth, though he pitched around a leadoff walk in each frame.RELATED: OUT OF FENWAY CHAOS, RAYS SEEK ORDER

“I first got to the big leagues in ’03 and I didn’t think it would be this long to get to the playoffs,” Capuano said. “It's a whole new level of excitement and it’s awesome. . . . This was a huge game.”

It’s been a huge series so far for Ramirez, who has six RBI and is batting .538. “It’s The Hanley Show,” Capuano said. “He’s awesome, one of the most talented hitters I’ve ever seen.”

The Dodger Show has got the team’s faithful buzzing. They were in a frenzy after the Dodgers went ahead for good and even with a big lead, their favorite club gave them plenty to cheer about. In the eighth inning, Crawford tumbled over a concrete wall and into the stands after snaring a foul ball, coming up unscathed.

It was that kind of night for the Dodgers and now they’re one game from advancing.