The Dodgers flirt with winning these days, bat their big eyelashes, tease it, get all comfy with it, and then watch it slip away.

They couldn't close the deal yet again today, their bullpen faltering in a 3-1 loss in Atlanta that wasted a masterful pitching performance by Chris Capuano.

Capuano turned in his finest outing of the season. He held the Braves scoreless through seven innings and left the game with a 1-0 lead after struggling B.J. Upton bounced a one-out single into left.

Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly called on right-hander Kenley Jansen to pitch out of the mini-jam, but he could not do it — couldn't come close, actually.

Jansen left a fastball over the plate and pinch-hitter Evan Gattis jumped on it for a two-run homer. Andrelton Simmons followed with a solo shot of his own, the Braves using back-to-back home runs to break the Dodgers’ hearts a day after Justin Upton had hit a grand slam to beat reliever Paco Rodriguez.

The Dodgers’ bullpen has now allowed...

The Dodgers have bullpen problems and hitting with runners in scoring position problems and health in the rotation problems.

And one other little thing: They’re a lousy defensive team.

This defensive trouble might come as a surprise. All three outfielders have won gold gloves. Adrian Gonzalez has won three at first base. Mark Ellis is superior at second base.

Yet 40 games into the season, there can’t be any denying the Dodgers are having trouble consistently fielding the ball.

Only three teams in baseball have committed more than the Didgers' 30 errors. The Diamondbacks have committed only 12.

And it’s not like any individual is responsible, like Dee Gordon has been playing shortstop all season and leading the league in errors.

The Dodgers with the most errors are actually Gonzalez and Kemp (four each).

Kemp and Carl Crawford have been particularly unpredictable in the outfield, capable of a dazzling play one moment and a miscue the next. Kemp hasn’t reverted to...

And there things were going so well.

The Dodgers opened their six-game road trip Friday in Atlanta, survived a middling start by Hyun-Jin Ryu to jump out to a 4-2 lead after five innings.

Then after a little bloop single and a fielding error by third baseman Luis Cruz, the call went to Dodgers left-hander Paco Rodriguez, who had not allowed a run in his last seven appearances.

BOX SCORE: Atlanta 8, Dodgers 5

But after a walk to Jason Heyward, Rodriguez surrendered a grand slam to Justin Upton and the Braves went on to an 8-5 victory at Turner Field.

Rodriguez, who was pitching in college at this time a year ago, had been brilliant of late. In his last 7 2/3 innings, he had not allowed a run, giving up only one hit and one walk, while striking out 12.

But Upton’s 14th home run of the season was one of those no-doubt-about-it jobs. It was the first home run Rodriquez has allowed in his two seasons (31 games).

Ryu struggled with his command all night, walking an uncharacteristic...

This smelled of a huge gamble. Looked like a reach. You had to wondered if it wasn’t largely a publicity exercise, if the Dodgers had really spent a total of $61.7 million to sign Hyun-Jin Ryu.

Yet nearly a fourth of the way into the season, it’s time to give the Dodgers and their scouts great credit for the signing.

Ryu, scheduled to start Friday night in Atlanta, has been fairly phenomenal. He has gone directly from the Korean Baseball Organization to the major leagues with relative ease -- like it happens all the time, not like he’s the first.

In his first eight starts, Ryu is 4-2 with a 3.42 ERA and 1.21 WHIP. In 50 1/3 innings, he has struck out 51 and walked one.

Ryu, 26, has demonstrated a calm confidence and command on the mound that should have been difficult to foretell. He changes speed, works the plate, uses a variety of pitches and seems highly competitive -- a ll from a guy who hadn't pitched at any level in the U.S. until this season.

“He knows...

We recently asked you to list your choices for the 10 greatest Dodgers of all time, and vote you did, as we received an amazing 12,231 ballots. So many people voted that we have decided to expand the list from the top 10 to the top 20. Each weekday at 11 a.m. PDT, a new person will be listed as we count down all 20.

Remember, any Dodger, Brooklyn or L.A., was eligible, including managers, owners, announcers, etc. Points were assigned based on where you listed the person on the ballot. Your first choice received 12 points, second choice 10, third place eight, all the way down to one point for 10th place.

So without further ado, here is No. 1:

No. 1: Sandy Koufax (6,333 first-place votes, 127,297 points)

When you talk about the greatest left-handed pitchers of all time, you start with Koufax, add in Warren Spahn, Lefty Grove, Randy Johnson and Steve Carlton and figure it out from there.

Koufax was the first pitcher to win multiple Cy Young Awards (1963, '65 and '66), as well as the first...

“Shredder” is a great nickname. No matter what you think about Nick Punto’s penchant for head-first dives to the bag, “Shredder” rocks.

And, much to most everyone’s surprise, so does Punto.

Punto was that other guy who came over to the Dodgers in the blockbuster trade for Adrian Gonzalez last summer from the Red Sox. Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett and Gonzalez were former All-Stars with rich contracts.

Punto was the undersized utility guy who seemed on the serious downside of his career.

Punto, 35, was batting a career-low .200 when the Dodgers picked him up from the Red Sox. There was absolutely no reason to believe he could pull off what he is doing right now.

Injuries have forced the Dodgers to use Punto more extensively than intended, yet he has responded better than they had any right to dream.

He is currently hitting .333, with .418 on-base and .423 slugging percentages. All three would be career highs.

Punto has played 14 games at second, 11 at...

The numbers were not the prettiest thing baseball has ever seen, but nonetheless Ted Lilly said he’s once again ready to rock ’n’ roll.

Lilly, on the disabled list for the second time this season, said his strained rib cage gave him no trouble in Wednesday’s rehab start for Class-A Rancho Cucamonga and doesn’t believe he needs a second start before rejoining the rotation.

“I don’t think so,” Lilly said. “I mean, I’m healthy.”

Lilly went five innings against San Jose, allowing four runs on five hits, three walks and a hit batter. He struck out three.

The left-hander said he assumed he would next throw in a bullpen session on Friday. He traveled with the team Wednesday night to begin a six-game road trip in Atlanta.

Lilly, who had offseason shoulder surgery, has made two starts for the Dodgers this season. He threw five solid innings in his first start (one run, seven strikeouts), but had to leave the game after three...

We recently asked you to list your choices for the 10 greatest Dodgers of all time, and vote you did, as we received an amazing 12,231 ballots. So many people voted that we have decided to expand the list from the top 10 to the top 20. Each weekday at 11 a.m. PDT, a new person will be listed as we count down all 20.

Remember, any Dodger, Brooklyn or L.A., was eligible, including managers, owners, announcers, etc. Points were assigned based on where you listed the person on the ballot. Your first choice received 12 points, second choice 10, third place eight, all the way down to one point for 10th place.

So without further ado, here is No. 2:

No. 2: Jackie Robinson (2,961 first-place votes, 105,545 points)

You can't do dignity to Jackie Robinson's status as a racial pioneer in a blog post, so I'm not even going to try, except to say that alone makes him worthy of being on this list.

But in all the talk about Robinson's role as the man who broke the color barrier, one thing often gets...

You can wish it and hope it from now until taking in your final breath, but that won’t make it true.

Still, if you’ve been scuffling like the Dodgers the last four weeks, you take whatever encouraging signs you can identify and proclaim them event-changers.

Which again takes us back to Matt Kemp, a theme that figures to be replayed throughout the season.

Kemp, coming off significant off-season shoulder surgery, is on a curious hot streak. He has now hit in 14 consecutive games, batting .328 along the way, yet still without his normal power. There have been no home runs in that stretch and only three doubles.

Indeed, Kemp has hit only one home run in 149 at-bats. And that’s through almost the first quarter of the season. He has drive in 15 runs and has scored 18 times, which although fairly modest for him, are each second on the team.

But Wednesday night Kemp lined a ground-rule double to right. Later he added a sharp single to left. He was hitting the ball hard to all...

Zack Greinke did his job, even a tad more. Then the rest of the Dodgers did just enough of theirs to emerge with a 3-1 victory over the Washington Nationals on Wednesday night before a Dodger Stadium crowd of 36,721.

Greinke, making his first start since suffering a broken collarbone April 11, turned in a solid 5 1/3 innings. Coming back three weeks early, he had to have made the Dodgers very encouraged.

He gave up a solo home run to Adam LaRoche in the fourth inning, but otherwise was able to keep the Nationals at bay.

Greinke (2-0) gave up five hits and did not walk a batter while striking out four. He threw 83 pitches, seemingly a nice number for his first game back.

He wasn’t exactly dominating but, as he promised, he certainly pitched well enough to win.

The Dodgers scored their first runs for Greinke early, getting one each in the first and second innings off left-hander Ross Detwiler.

They put together a little two-out rally in the first inning when Matt Kemp hit a ground-...

Ugh, it’s come to this. The Dodgers, rich with starting pitching when the season began, are now so decimated they’re fishing in the baseball scrap heap.

Brace yourself: The Dodgers have signed Jonathan Sanchez.                           

Apparently Jamie Moyer, Randy Wolf or Connie Marrero (age 102) were unavailable. We know Aaron Harang wasn’t, at least not yet.

It’s to a minor league contract, with Sanchez headed to triple-A Albuquerque. This would be the Sanchez who was once a star for the Giants, but in his last 18 starts is 0-12. Over the last three seasons, he is 5-19 with a 6.22 ERA.

But when by the middle of May you’ve placed six different starting pitchers on the disabled list (Ted Lilly, Chad Billingsley, Chris Capuano, Josh Beckett, Stephen Fife and Zack Greinke), you apparently need an emergency stash.

“Obviously with some of the issues we’ve had, with the injuries to some of our pitchers, it’s a guy that’s been a...