Dodgers Dugout: Clayton Kershaw was mad, but Don Mattingly was right

Hi, welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell, wondering how a 162-game season goes by so quickly.

Not a happy camper

Clayton Kershaw is usually a relatively stoic individual, with the same demeanor whether he strikes someone out or gives up a hit. But on Thursday, we discovered what gets him mad: taking him out of a game before he is ready.

Trailing 3-0 in the bottom of the fifth inning, Manager Don Mattingly sent Austin Barnes in to hit for Kershaw, and Kershaw was not happy. He immediately confronted Mattingly in the dugout and began gesturing and arguing, unhappy with his removal, the earliest he has left a game this season.

You have to admire the passion and competitiveness, but in this case, Mattingly was right. It’s time to start preparing for the playoffs, and on a hot day at Dodger Stadium, with his pitch count already at 80 and the temperature way past 80, taking Kershaw out was for the best, especially when you consider that in his past two starts, Kershaw has given up six runs and 13 hits in 12 innings.

“It just got to the point, the pitch count, the weather, what we’re trying to do, what we’re trying to accomplish, Donnie made a decision. I think it was the right one,” catcher A.J. Ellis said.

Kershaw didn’t want to talk about the incident after the game. “It's between Donnie and I. Nobody else needs to know,” he said. That’s the professional way to handle it, and Kershaw is a pro. But the Dodgers need him at 100% to win in the playoffs, so this is one Mattingly decision we should all agree with.

The playoffs

Let’s talk a little about the playoffs. It looks like the five NL playoff teams will be the Dodgers, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Chicago and New York. Over the next couple of newsletters, I will be comparing the five teams. Today, let’s look at on-base percentage. There’s something unusual about the five teams. Let’s take a look:

Team OB%

Dodgers, .327 (1st in NL)

Pirates, .325 (4th)

Cardinals, .322 (6th)

Cubs, .321 (7th)

Mets, .313 (11th)

That’s pretty straightforward. The Dodgers have led the NL almost all season in OB%, and have a decided advantage over the Mets, their first-round opponent.

Here’s where it gets unusual. Most teams will devise their lineup so the players who get on base the most bat at the top of the lineup. Most will have their best on-base guy batting first. So, let’s take a look at the OB% at each team’s leadoff position this season:

Cubs, .346

Mets, .344

Cardinals, .340

Pirates, .325

Dodgers, .317

Which leads us to the number of runs scored from the leadoff position this season:

Cubs, 102

Cardinals, 100

Mets, 95

Pirates, 92

Dodgers, 86

So, as you can see, the leadoff spot is a tremendous weakness for the Dodgers, who don’t have your stereotypical leadoff hitter. In fact, they have never had a typical lineup this season. Not only is leadoff their weakest spot, they don’t have your typical power threat, but they have eight guys with at least 10 homers. This is part of the reason they score runs in bunches, but at times go a game or two looking inept. And why they lead the league in OB%, but are 10th in runs per game (4.10).

Unfortunately, there is no obvious solution for this. The Dodgers must hope that Adrian Gonzalez leads the offense, and they will need a couple of other guys, at least, to step up.

Magic number

After splitting the four-game series with Arizona, the magic number to win the NL West is now down to 3, meaning they could clinch the division as soon as Saturday.

Who’s in your bullpen?

In Friday’s newsletter, I asked you to name the top 20 all-time pitching victory leaders in Dodgers history since moving to Los Angeles. Only 3.4% of you could do it! The person you got right the most was Don Drysdale, who was guessed correctly by 89.9%. The least was Ismael Valdez, correctly guessed by only 9.4% of you. 

Today, I want to know who you would put in the bullpen for the playoffs. Assuming the Dodgers go with Kershaw, Zack Greinke, Brett Anderson and Alex Wood in their playoff rotation, that leaves seven spots in the bullpen. I created a list of 12 pitchers for you to choose from. Pick seven and rank them in order from 1-7. Maybe you can successfully predict who the Dodgers choose. Go here to make your choices.

Is Zack OK?

Yeah, he’ll be fine. He skipped his start Wednesday against Arizona because of a sore right calf. Greinke felt discomfort in his last start against Pittsburgh, and when it didn’t feel 100% Wednesday, the team decided to give him some extra rest.

“We were just hoping it would resolve over the week,” Mattingly said. “And for the most part, it doesn’t feel very serious, but at this point we were like, we’re not going to take any chances with him.”

What about Puig?

It doesn’t look like Yasiel Puig will be back with the Dodgers this season. Out four weeks because of a hamstring injury, he still isn’t running at 100%. At this rate, they are better off without him. He is hitting only .256 this season, and I’d rather have Justin Ruggiano in the lineup against lefties right now.

Has any Dodger fallen from grace as fast as Puig? I’m not talking about someone like Manny Ramirez, who was caught using PEDs, I’m talking about a guy who looked like a superstar and was beloved by fans, and then, seemingly overnight, was an afterthought.

Ask Ross Porter

Former Dodgers announcer Ross Porter will be answering select reader questions for the rest of the season. Email me a question for Ross, and I will pass it on to him. Here is his latest response:

Oscar Carrillo asks: I was told the reason Dodger Stadium seats are colored and placed in such an order is because of a “West Coast” theme meant to represent the coast line. Is there any truth in that theory?

Ross: Dodger Stadium architect Emil Praeger made the decision about the colors. They represented going up from the land to the sky, and that was the rationale. Field seats were yellow, loge seats light orange, reserved seats turquoise, and general admission seats were sky blue. After the 2005 season, the seating bowl at Dodger Stadium returned to its original color scheme from the 1962 opening year.

And finally

He was a member of the hated Yankees, but you had to love Yogi Berra anyway. The baseball legend died this week at 90. Don Mattingly remembers him here. Bill Plaschke talks about him here, and you can read some of his best quotes here.

Have a comment or something you'd like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me and follow me on Twitter: @latimeshouston.