O’Dowd says West is NL’s best

BOSTON -- The Colorado Rockies are the first National League West team in the World Series in five years, but Colorado General Manager Dan O’Dowd says the oft-maligned division is on the path to glory.

“I think it’s going to be the best division in the National League for years to come,” O’Dowd said Thursday.

The Arizona Diamondbacks and the Rockies led the league with 90 victories each this season, and the San Diego Padres won 89 games. The Dodgers also finished with a winning record, making the NL West the only division in the majors with four teams above .500.

“I think any of those four teams could have been playing here,” O’Dowd said.

And next year, he said, the division will not defer to the Rockies. “Look at the youth of Arizona. The San Diego people know how to build a good team. The Dodgers have good young talent too. And the San Francisco starting rotation might be the best in the division, top to bottom, and it’s young.”

Manager Terry Francona’s decision on whom to subtract from the lineup when the Red Sox lose the designated hitter in Coors Field wasn’t made any easier Wednesday when David Ortiz and Kevin Youkilis, the two most affected players, each hit a pair of doubles and combined for five runs.

But Francona hinted that, because of defensive and health concerns, Ortiz, the regular DH, and Youkilis, the regular first baseman, would split time at first and Mike Lowell would remain at third for Games 3, 4 and 5.

“David has some issues with his knee -- that is certainly important, and we have to at least pay attention to it,” Francona said. “If we play Youkilis at third and Ortiz at first, we’re playing two guys out of position, which isn’t real good, either. So, there are some things we need to think about.”

Dodgers bench coach Dave Jauss has informed General Manager Ned Colletti that he could be interviewing for the Pittsburgh Pirates’ managerial position, a National League source said.

“I’m the Dodgers’ bench coach,” Jauss said Thursday night. “I have conversations with Ned Colletti and Grady [Little] all the time and those conversations are definitely confidential.”

Jauss said he hasn’t spoken directly with anyone in the Pirates organization.

Jauss and the other Dodgers coaches have not been told whether they’ll be offered contracts for next season. Interim hitting coach Bill Mueller is expected to return to the front office.

The FBI has opened an investigation into the apparent hacking of a computer system that postponed the sale of World Series tickets for the games in Colorado.

Tickets went on sale Monday, but Rockies President Keli McGregor said their website was hit by “an external, malicious attack.” The team suspended the sale of tickets until Tuesday.

The attack caused a system-wide outage for the Rockies’ Irvine-based online ticket vendor, Paciolan.

Staff writer Dylan Hernandez contributed to this report.

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