Dodgers playoffs: Braves already playing the ‘no respect’ card

When the National League playoff matchups were set Sunday, the Dodgers had a more immediate crisis with which to deal. L.A. plays the Atlanta Braves, but Matt Kemp is out for the rest of the season.

With Andre Ethier questionable, the Dodgers could open the postseason with their top two center fielders lost to injury and utilityman Skip Schumaker starting in center field.

The Braves were happy to talk about the Dodgers, though. They did not drop the “shock the world” cliche, but they wasted no time suggesting no one outside the clubhouse would pick them against a team that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution called “the media-darling Dodgers.”

“We get no love from anyone,” Braves catcher Gerald Laird said.

Click on the story; it’s a good read. The quote that might draw the most interest in the Dodgers’ clubhouse is this one: “We think we can beat anybody, whether it’s [Clayton] Kershaw or whoever.”

The speaker: pitcher Kris Medlen, who will oppose Kershaw in Game 1.