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The already-classic National League Division Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets is going the distance. Would you have it any other way?

We’ve seen Twitter-exploding controversy in the form of Chase Utley’s slide heard ’round the world. We’ve been treated to superlative starting pitching on both sides, with a few offensive outbursts sprinkled in. And, through it all, we’ve watched two well-matched clubs push one another to the brink.

It all culminates in Game 5 on Thursday in Los Angeles, with the winner advancing to face the Chicago Cubs in the National League Championship Series and the loser limping into the offseason with a head full of what-ifs.

As we get ready for what figures to be an epic, must-see clash, let’s examine a few keys that could tip the outcome.

Duel of the aces

Clayton Kershaw exorcised his playoff demons with a dominant performance in Game 4, and now the Dodgers will turn to their co-ace, Zack Greinke, in the do-or-die finale.

After a Cy Young-caliber season, Greinke was excellent in Game 2, tossing seven innings of two-run, five-hit ball with eight strikeouts and picking up the win.

In all, Mets hitters own a collective .215/.268/.331 slash line against Greinke. The Dodgers right-hander was susceptible to the long ball in Game 2, giving up solo home runs to outfielders Yoenis Cespedes and Michael Conforto. And first baseman Lucas Duda, who is 2-for-15 this postseason with nine strikeouts, does have three hits in 12 career at-bats against Greinke, including a home run.

The key may be getting to Greinke in the first few frames, as CBS Sports’ Matt Snyder outlined:

One thing that’s interesting is that while most pitchers have the most trouble the third time through the order, Greinke’s worst time this season was the first time through, and that’s when the Mets hit him last time [in Game 2]. Scoring early is always a plus, and it appears to be of extra importance for the Mets in this one.

Greinke’s counterpart will be Jacob deGrom, who threw seven shutout innings with 13 strikeouts in Game 1, outdueling Kershaw in the process.

Now, for an encore, the 2014 NL Rookie of the Year will attempt to slay Los Angeles’ other baseball-slinging dragon.

He’s up to the challenge, according to no less an authority than Kershaw himself.

“You know what? It’s probably dead even, to be honest,” Kershaw said of the Game 5 pitching matchup, per the New York Times‘ Benjamin Hoffman. ““As good as Zack is and has been the whole year, deGrom has been the same.”

Like Greinke against the Mets, deGrom has fared well against the Dodgers’ hitters collectively, limiting them to a .175/.288/.368 slash line, though Adrian Gonzalez (3-for-8 with two home runs) and the infamous Mr. Utley (3-for-10 with two walks) have had some success against him.

Dodgers’ outfield outage

As the Dodgers try to ding deGrom, they could desperately use a contribution from their outfield, which has been an offensive black hole in this series.

In fact, black hole might be putting it lightly: Dodgers outfielders have gone 8-for-46 with 17 strikeouts and one extra-base hit against Mets pitching.

Kike Hernandez (4-for-10 with three runs scored) has acquitted himself capably since taking over for rookie Joc Pederson, and Andre Ethier has three hits in 12 at-bats, including a double.

But Carl Crawford, Yasiel Puig, Justin Ruggiano and Pederson have provided essentially zero at the plate, going 1-for-24.

They don’t have to come alive for the Dodgers to win Game 5, but something—anything—would help.

The Syndergaard wild card

The plan for both teams is for the starting pitchers to go deep. If and when the bullpen phones ring, however, the Mets have a potent, not-so-secret weapon.

That’d be hard-throwing rookie right-hander Noah Syndergaard, who singed the radar gun in Game 2, striking out nine in 6.1 innings. Yes, he coughed up three runs and took the loss. But he looked mostly dominant, and he’ll be available on normal rest if needed.

Heck, even Game 3 starter Matt Harvey “will be ready,” manager Terry Collins said, per Peter Botte of the New York Daily News.

Syndergaard, though, figures to be the first man up, and could create a well-girded bridge to closer Jeurys Familia.

The Dodgers, meanwhile, have no such luxury. Their starting rotation is littered with question marks after Greinke-Kershaw (No. 3 starter Brett Anderson got shelled in Game 3), and Kershaw is likely unavailable after throwing 94 pitches on three days’ rest Tuesday.

Will that be the difference? Not if Greinke and deGrom sizzle wire to wire, obviously. But considering that Greinke threw just one complete game all season and deGrom has never gone the distance in the big leagues, the pens should come into play. And that might be where the scales tip in New York’s favor.

Then again, perhaps Kershaw will make an improbable relief appearance, calling to mind Randy Johnson in 2001 or Madison Bumgarner last fall.

There are so many twists this game—and, by extension, this series—could take. We’ll just have to sit back, watch and undoubtedly be entertained.

Would you have it any other way?

All statistics current as of Oct. 14 and courtesy of MLB.com unless otherwise noted.

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NEW YORK — Clayton Kershaw got through the seventh inning, and the Los Angeles Dodgers got through the fourth game.

And all it means is that this National League Division Series is headed where it was always supposed to end up.

We’ve been through Chase Utley, and we’ve been through the old and new stories of Kershaw’s postseason performances. We’ve seen Yoenis Cespedes hit baseballs as hard as anyone can and run as fast as anyone can. We’ve seen Justin Turner, a guy the New York Mets once non-tendered, emerge as such a star that in the fifth inning Tuesday night, the Mets intentionally walked him, and the sellout crowd at Citi Field booed him.

And all it did was set up what could be a winner-take-all Game 5 for the ages—a Thursday night Dodger Stadium matchup between Jacob deGrom and Zack Greinke that looks so good and so evenly matched that even Kershaw didn’t want to pick a favorite.

“You know what, it’s probably dead even, to be honest,” he said after a 3-1 Game 4 win that mattered more to him than he wanted to admit. “As good as Zack is and has been the whole year, deGrom has been the same.”

The Dodgers built a $300 million team with only two dependable starting pitchers, but at least they’re both great pitchers. They felt OK falling behind two games to one because they had their two aces lined up, and after Kershaw delivered Tuesday (one run on three hits in seven innings), they’re fine with counting on Greinke to do the same Thursday.

The Mets built their $100 million team around their young starters, and while they would have loved to wrap the series up behind Steven Matz on Tuesday, they’re fine counting on deGrom on Thursday.

“We feel confident,” David Wright told reporters. “Jacob threw a great game out there the last time.”

DeGrom was brilliant in Game 1 on Friday, back when the story was still that Kershaw’s seventh innings in the postseason never end well. That one ended with Wright’s two-run single off reliever Pedro Baez and with Kershaw losing his fifth straight postseason start.

Dodger fans can remember them all, including the Game 4 last year that ended their season in St. Louis. You know Kershaw remembers, too. His main goal Tuesday was to push this series to Game 5, but by doing so, he was going to change the way people talked about him, too.

“You could sense some relief after he came out of the game,” said A.J. Ellis, Kershaw’s personal catcher and close friend.

Ellis said Kershaw seemed a little too amped up early in Game 4, when his fastball was a little faster than usual but his curveball wasn’t as crisp. Kershaw went to a three-ball count on each of the first three batters, but the Mets didn’t score, and he settled in, looking like the three-time Cy Young Award winner he is.

The Dodgers got him a lead with their three-run third inning, and Kershaw held it. He gave up a solo home run to Daniel Murphy (just like in Game 1), but he didn’t allow another runner to get into scoring position.

The Mets did get the leadoff runner on base in the seventh, when Cespedes’ dribbler went off Kershaw’s glove in front of the mound. Dodgers manager Don Mattingly admitted to “Here we go again” thoughts, and so did Ellis, who went to the mound.

“Just trying to keep positive thoughts in there,” Ellis said later.

This time, Kershaw got through the seventh, with the help of a fine play by Turner to stop Wilmer Flores’ two-out shot down the third-base line. This time, a Kershaw start in October ended the way so many Kershaw starts from April through September have ended.

He was a Cy Young candidate again this year, although he’ll likely finish third in the voting behind Jake Arrieta of the Chicago Cubs and Greinke. DeGrom could get votes, too, and would get a lot more if voters were allowed to consider his seven shutout innings and 13 strikeouts in Game 1.

“He’s just very impressive, you know, just very tough to square up,” Kershaw said. “If you can get strikeouts on heaters like he can, it’s really tough.”

DeGrom was the winner in Game 1. Greinke was the winner in Game 2, albeit with the help of Utley’s infamous takeout of Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada.

Now they match up in Game 5, which means anyone who wanted this to be a great series is already a winner. The Chicago Cubs, who wrapped up their division series Tuesday night, might enjoy it most of all, because with Games 1 and 2 of the National League Championship Series set for Saturday and Sunday, they know they won’t see deGrom or Greinke in either one.

The Dodgers’ two-starter strategy might not work too well if they reach the NLCS, since pitchers other than Kershaw and Greinke would need to start three of the seven games. But it might be enough to get them there.

It has gotten this series to the Game 5 it deserves, to the Game 5 the rest of us had hoped for. This series looks a little like the division series the St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies played in 2011—the one that ended with Chris Carpenter facing Roy Halladay in Game 5.

That one ended up 1-0 in favor of Carpenter. No one would be surprised if this one does, too.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

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Game 4 of the National League Division Series will be the moment of truth for the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets.

In a dramatic Game 3 of the NLDS that saw saw 20 runs scored and 26 hits, the Mets reclaimed their playoff lead with a new record of 2-1. In a series of five playoff games, the Mets need only win Tuesday night at their home of Citi Field—in front of thousands of diehard, vocal fans—in order to move on to the NLCS.

Clayton Kershaw returns to the mound since his resting period post-Game 1 of the playoffs, and while his season boasts a tremendous record, his history in the postseason has critics and fans biting their fingernails. Meanwhile, the Mets are bringing their prodigy pitcher Steven Matz into the spotlight to spice up game play and hold off the Dodgers for as many innings as possible.

There’s no doubt that Game 4 will be an exhilarating showdown of talented pitchers and batters unsure of what to anticipate when they step up to the plate.

The following keys are crucial for L.A.’s chances of avoiding elimination after Tuesday night’s action, beginning at 8:07 ET.

Neutralize the Crowd—Early

Even the most skilled athletes know that on-field talent means nothing without fan support to fuel their game. And when you’re on the opposite end of that support, you know how important it is to silence the critics and prove your potential.

New York needed to step up its batting game against L.A. if it hoped to win another home game. Leading up to Game 3 of the National League Division Series, the Mets were sorely lacking in production—surprising when considering “since the All-Star break the Mets lead the NL in home runs (102), runs scored (373) and OPS (.770),” according to MassLive.com’s Ben Shapiro—and the fans were not pleased.

Yet the Mets were in luck. The fearsome foursome of Yoenis Cespedes, Travis d’Arnaud, Curtis Granderson and Daniel Murphy turned up last night in Game 3 and collectively carried the Mets to their 13-7 victory and 2-1 advantage in the best-of-five NL playoffs.

Their joint Game 3 stats are extremely impressive and exactly what the fans at Citi Field needed to see. As Bleacher Report’s Rick Weiner noted, with their stats combined, they went 9-for-20 for a .450 average, out of which came four extra-base hits (two of them home runs) and 12 RBI. Seven of the players’ hits even resulted in scores.

And the crowd went absolutely wild.

If the foursome maintains these clutch shots, the Mets are going to destroy anything Kershaw throws at them. L.A. needs to take advantage of first-inning adrenaline if it hopes to avoid elimination tonight. If it manages to hold off the Mets early on, it’ll gain back control of opposing fans by silencing their boisterous support. Without that distraction, the Dodgers can focus on what matters: their game play.

Get Matz’s Pitch Count Up

The Mets’ starting pitchers certainly flaunt impressive resumes.

The 2014 NL Rookie of the Year Jacob deGrom hit the mound in Game 1 with a 14-8 record and an ERA of 2.54 this past season. There wasn’t much pressure on deGrom—he’d never before made a postseason start.

DeGrom probably defied expectations—he recorded 13 strikeouts while preventing the Dodgers from scoring in seven innings of work. He topped the performance off by putting away the last 11 batters he faced. According to the Associated Press (via ESPN.com), “deGrom became the first Mets pitcher with 10 or more strikeouts in the playoffs since Dwight Gooden in Game 1 of the 1988 NLCS at Dodger Stadium.”

Zack Greinke and Brett Anderson then took over for Games 2 and 3, respectively.

Game 4, however, will feature 24-year-old rookie Steven Matz as starting pitcher. Though he made just six starts in the regular season, the left-handed phenom already has a glowing record of 4-0 with a 2.27 ERA and 1.234 WHIP. What’s more: Matz has yet to allow more than three runs in a start.

Already, L.A. should be careful of Matz: Not only has he integrated the Warthen slider into his pitching repertoire, but his pitch is devastating for left-handed batters.

That’s six Dodgers. However, only three are likely to start, so the Dodgers are not without hope.

L.A. will need to be strategic with its batting performance. As Timothy Downs of Rant Sports noted, it’ll need to wear Matz down with endless pitches rather than trying to knock all his pitches out of the park. Downs cited a lack of both “durability and endurance” as major weaknesses for the young Mets star, so the Dodgers need only manipulate their at-bats to outplay him.

Work the count. Opt for walks over solo hits. Simply tire Matz out.

Create a New Reputation for Postseason Kershaw

Dodgers fans are all asking the same question: Where’s the real Kid K?

As Weiner noted, with four career starts that total 26.2 innings pitched at Citi Field, Kershaw brings a quality set of skills to the field. He has given up only three runs and 15 hits, walked nine batters and logged 31 strikeouts. The pitcher has had more starts of seven-plus innings than anyone else in the major leagues over the last five years.

He’s a three-time NL Cy Young Award winner—of course we expect the best from him.

Yet Kershaw’s postseason stats of 1-6 and a 4.99 ERA are staggering, and that’s definitely not a compliment. While he pitched fine in Game 1 of the playoffs, he was unable to stand up against deGrom at Dodger Stadium. In his nine postseason starts, he has only lasted through the seventh inning in one of them.

Coming off a three-day rest, Kershaw’s record is much more grave. Bill Plaschke commented in the Los Angeles Times, “In each of the last two seasons, Kershaw has pitched the Dodgers’ final elimination game of the season, and both times his rescue attempt has failed.”

So why take yet another risk with Kershaw in Game 4? Well, they have no other options.

There is some hope for Kershaw against the Mets’ batters. Of the foursome, only Granderson and Murphy have had hits in their career at-bats against Kershaw, and their success has only been three and four respective hits out of 13 in total.

If the Dodgers want to avoid elimination, they need to transform Kershaw’s postseason reputation. To save the Dodgers and prevent a sad case of deja vu, the pitcher had best ignore the critics and the jinx of his past postseason failures. In a game as monumental as this, he needs to be in the moment rather than thinking about past errors or even about the next inning.

The New York Mets are just one game from advancing to the National League Championship Series, and the fate of the Dodgers comes down to Kershaw. This is Kershaw’s chance to redeem himself as a postseason pitcher: If he can rise above those sorry expectations of failure, he’ll no doubt shock the Mets with throws that’ll deflate their post-Game 3 egos.

Whichever pitcher—Kershaw or Matz—can stun and hold the opponent early on will ultimately come out the most successful and give his team the much-needed win. All eyes need be on the mound tonight.

Unless otherwise cited, all statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

Kaitlin McCabe is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report’s Advanced Program in Sports Media. Follow her Twitter @kam3194.

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The San Diego Padres were one of the biggest disappointments during the 2015 season, and their underwhelming play cost manager Bud Black his job. After also letting interim manager Pat Murphy go at the end of the year, the Padres are beginning to set their sights on a handful of potential permanent replacements.  

Continue for updates.

Padres Begin Interview Process with Candidates

Tuesday, Oct. 13

Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune reported San Diego is showing interest in former Minnesota Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, but he’s far from the only person the front office is looking at.

The Padres are apparently casting a wide net in terms of resumes. Whereas Gardenhire spent 13 years in charge of the Twins, general manager A.J. Preller is also considering former infielder Alex Cora, per CBSSports.com’s Jon Heyman, and Phil Nevin, per USA Today‘s Bob Nightengale.

Neither Cora nor Nevin can boast any previous managerial experience in MLB, but Nevin has at least coached in the minors since 2009. He’s one of the hotter candidates across the league, with Nightengale adding the Washington Nationals, the Miami Marlins and the Seattle Mariners all have him on their radars.

While Gardenhire, Cora and Nevin all have their respective strengths, the Twins lost 90-plus games in Gardenhire’s final four years, and Matt Williams is proof positive hiring first-time managers like Cora or Nevin is a risky proposition, especially for teams that want to win immediately.

Preller is undoubtedly in a difficult situation. The Padres will be paying big money to Matt Kemp, Craig Kimbrel and James Shields next year. Plus, Preller traded a number of the organization’s best prospects, so it’s not as if a lot of talent will be coming through the pipeline in the next season or two.

Fans might expect the team to contend in 2016, heaping even more pressure on the general manager to get this decision correct.

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April through September, Clayton Kershaw dwarfs the gorgeous San Gabriel Mountains backdrop at Dodger Stadium.

In October, those same mountains make him look small.

It has become one of the most inexplicable rituals of autumn, like Linus awaiting the Great Pumpkin and why so many people love candy corn. Kershaw, one of the greatest pitchers of our generation, steps into the postseason, and the Big Blue Train careens off the track.

So here he comes again, set to start Game 4 on short rest against the New York Mets on Tuesday night, another chance at redemption, another autumn with the Dodgers depending on their ace to keep their season alive.

And their fans continue to wonder: When, Clayton, when?

When will he toss the Dodgers on his back and carry them to glory?

When will he produce a postseason for the ages, the way San Francisco‘s Madison Bumgarner did last fall?

When will he avoid the one bad inning that keeps biting him like a poisonous snake?

Reputations are built during the regular season. Legends are built in the month of October.

Despite three Cy Young Awards (2011, 2013 and 2014) and one NL MVP award (2014), October construction remains in full force for Kershaw.

Over his past five postseason starts dating back to 2013, the left-hander is 0-5 with a 6.44 ERA. The first four of those losses were delivered by St. Louis. The most recent came courtesy of Jacob deGrom and the Mets in Game 1 of this NL Division Series.

The Dodgers have complete trust in him and respect him immensely, which is why as this astounding losing streak lengthens, their clubhouse has taken on the look of someone victimized by an unexpected hit-and-run driver.

“As your teammate and one of your best friends, it kills you,” catcher A.J. Ellis told Bleacher Report late Friday night as the Dodgers cleaned up the pieces of another Kershaw postseason loss.

“The narrative that is being written about him in October is totally unfair.”

Kershaw has been ambushed by bad luck, like the two infield singles in the seventh inning during Game 4 of last fall’s Division Series against St. Louis.

He has thrown 100-plus sensational pitches in playoff games only to be felled by one or two random bad pitches, like the curveball Matt Adams smashed for a homer following those two infield singles, and the fastball Daniel Murphy crushed for a homer in Game 1 against the Mets on Friday.

He has been sabotaged by the historically soft bullpen behind him in Los Angeles, as when Pedro Baez surrendered a two-run single to the first batter he faced after replacing Kershaw, David Wright.

“I challenge anyone to come sit next to me in the video room,” Ellis continued. “In St. Louis (Game 4, ’14), he threw six dominant innings. Tonight, he had 11 strikeouts.

“I think what’s sometimes lost in the shuffle with Clayton is that, in these situations, we’re playing against the best teams and the best pitchers. Everyone’s adrenaline is up, and it seems like their batting eye is better at the plate.”

No question.

And yet that is why, when singularly great pitchers like Kershaw continue rolling the boulder up the mountain in the postseason only to see it continually come rolling back down, other aces’ postseason performances are elevated even higher. Bumgarner last year. Curt Schilling with the 2001 Diamondbacks and 2004 Red Sox. Kershaw’s friend, Sandy Koufax, with the 1965 Dodgers.

If it were that easy, Bumgarner would not have stood out so much last year.

“That’s one of the better games we’ve seen pitched against us all year,” Dodgers first-base coach Davey Lopes said of deGrom. “Both guys were pretty stingy. We knew that going in.”

Kershaw was perturbed at the fastball to Murphy, a 94 mph missile that missed its spot. As good as deGrom was going, there simply was no margin for error. And it was Kershaw who made the first error.

Left-handers had hit him slightly better than right-handers in 2015, a .203 batting average vs. .192, respectively. Righties had 10 homers against him in 688 plate appearances, lefties five in 202 plate appearances.

Credit Mets manager Terry Collins for not shying away from lefties. Three were in the lineup against Kershaw in Game 1: Murphy, Curtis Granderson and Lucas Duda.

“I said this before the game: He’s so good, it doesn’t really matter what side of the plate you’re on,” Mets manager Terry Collins said after the Mets’ 3-1 win. “But if you have all right-handers against him and he gets into a groove, he’ll carve you up.

“So you’ve got to give him something different to look at, in my opinion.”

Within that is another clue as to why rivals have touched Kershaw in October: This time of year, opponents do not reach the point of mentally waving the white flag when Kershaw is on the hill, as some undoubtedly do during the regular-season grind. That goes back to what Ellis was talking about: adrenaline, more sharply honed batting eyes, etc.

David Price has run into the same thing over the years, in Tampa Bay, Detroit and, now, in Toronto. Anybody would want Price on the mound in a key postseason game, yet after taking the loss in Game 1 of the Blue Jays‘ Division Series against Texas, Price was 1-6 with a 4.79 ERA in 11 postseason games (six starts).

“Would you not take David Price on your roster?” Lopes asked. “I’d take him.

“It’s a quirky thing, what happens sometimes. I’m sure he’s not happy about it. But I’ll guarantee you: Before David and Clayton are done, they’ll get it.

“They’ll get that monkey off of their backs. You can’t be as good as they are and not do that.”

Kershaw will get his next chance Tuesday night with his third career postseason start on short rest. He beat Atlanta in a Division Series game in 2013 (six innings pitched, no earned runs) and lost to St. Louis in a Division Series game last year (six innings pitched, three earned runs).

“We just feel like he’s that guy, no matter if we’re down 2-1 or up 2-1,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly explained to reporters succinctly before Game 3 on Monday.

“I appreciate the confidence that Donnie has, the confidence in me to do it,” Kershaw said. “It’s a good feeling to know your manager wants you out there. It makes you want to prove him right.”

The Dodgers are certain that one of these days, Kershaw will do just that.

The question is: When?

Reputations are earned during the regular season. Legends are forged in October.

“Ninety-five percent of the time, Clayton is still proving he is among the elite of the elite,” Ellis said of his buddy’s checkered postseason history.

“You’ve gotta keep on keeping on, basically,” Dodgers outfielder Carl Crawford said. “It’s going to happen at one point.

“That’s what you’ve got to keep telling yourself.”

Scott Miller covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Scott on Twitter and talk baseball.

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Though anything can happen in October, it’s obvious at the outset that the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ hopes of winning a World Series title hinge on two fellas whose names rhyme with Gershaw and Kreinke.

After the two of them, however, there’s a guy who’s now a whole lot more important than he was when he first appeared in the majors a couple of weeks ago. His name is Corey Seager, and he is to the Dodgers lineup what Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke are to the Dodgers pitching staff.

The Dodgers are barely a month removed from Seager‘s promotion to the majors back on September 3, which was a move made more out of necessity than anything else. The Dodgers called on their top shortstop prospect not so much because they wanted to see what he could do, but because they needed some depth behind shortstop Jimmy Rollins and third baseman Justin Turner.

“It got to the point where we kind of needed him here,” Dodgers vice president for baseball operations Josh Byrnes said at the time, per Mark Saxon of ESPN.com.

The notion that Seager was only there to boost the Dodgers’ depth, however, perished in quick and glorious fashion.

In 27 games, all Seager did was hit .337 with a .986 OPS and four home runs. It was a performance that blew away even his career .307 average and .891 OPS in the minors, and it made those who espoused the notion that Seager had become the top prospect in all of baseball—looking at you, Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus—look like the smartest guys in the room.

Elsewhere, Seager‘s performance also forced the Dodgers’ hand with what to do about their starting shortstop gig in the postseason.

For a time it looked like this wasn’t going to be the case. In late September, Rollins told Zach Helfand of the Los Angeles Times he would “probably be out there” as long as a troublesome finger injury allowed him to play.

But by early October, Rollins’ tune had changed.

“They’re going to play him,” Rollins told the LA Times’ Steve Dilbeck, referring to a talk he had with the Dodgers brass. “We had a conversation and that’s the way it was said: ‘We’re going to go with the kid. That’s the lineup we feel is best.'”

For what it’s worth, Dylan Hernandez of the LA Times reported as recently as Tuesday that the Dodgers hadn’t yet confirmed that Seager would indeed carry on as their starting shortstop into the postseason.

But sure enough, every indication is going to be out there when the Dodgers open up against the New York Mets in Game 1 of the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium on Friday night. And when it happens, there will be no question the Dodgers made the right call.

If there’s one thing Rollins has that Seager definitely doesn’t, it’s experience. One of them is a 36-year-old veteran who’s won an MVP and played in two World Series. The other is a 21-year-old who’s played in 27 major league games. I believe the phrase is “One of these things is not like the other.”

But while experience is a good thing to have in October, there are some things it can’t overrule. In this case, that would be a pretty extreme talent gap.

While Seager OPS’d .986 in 27 games, Rollins very much looked his age in OPS’ing .643 in 144 games. According to FanGraphs, Rollins also posted a 0.2 WAR to Seager‘s 1.5 WAR. That points to how, contrary to what one’s assumption would be, Rollins’ defense at short really didn’t trump Seager‘s defense at short.

Of course, the small-sample-size caveat does apply to Seager‘s performance, especially at the plate. He only logged 113 plate appearances, which is too small a look for the Dodgers to learn everything about their young stud shortstop.

But as far as they must be concerned, Seager at least showed them enough in these 113 plate appearances. For while producing like an elite hitter is one thing, looking like an elite hitter is just as important.

To this end, an elite hitter is what Seager was indeed supposed to become upon his arrival in the majors. In the eyes of Baseball America, here’s why:

Seager is one of the most dominant offensive forces in the minors. He’s an aggressive lefthanded hitter with an advanced hitting approach well beyond his years. He has a loose, easy swing with good balance that unleashes terrific bat speed with a compact path that helps him stay inside the ball. He hits the ball with high exit speed to all fields, controlling the barrel through the hitting zone and rarely mis-hitting a ball. 

In a nutshell: Seager would find success in the majors because he has an outstanding feel for hitting and a bat that packs a real wallop.

Seager had little trouble living up to the first part. According to FanGraphs, he was indeed aggressive in swinging at over 50 percent of the pitches he saw. But he was also disciplined, chasing only 30 percent of the pitches he saw outside the strike zone. That’s an approach reminiscent of Brandon Belt, Kris Bryant and few others.

As for Seager‘s ability to barrel the ball, FanGraphs put his soft-hit rate at just 13.9 percent and his hard-hit rate at a whopping 45.6 percent. For perspective on how good that is, here’s a totally unfair, yet totally eye-opening juxtaposition:

• Corey Seager: 13.9 Soft%, 45.6 Hard%
• Bryce Harper: 11.9 Soft%, 40.9 Hard%

So, that’s pretty good company. And though this comparison likely won’t hold up in the long run, it gets the point across: Yeah, Seager can hit the ball.

There’s another thing that Seager has shown he can do, and that’s hit same-side pitching. He teased it wouldn’t be a problem in OPS’ing .908 against lefties in the minors in 2015, per MiLB.com, and he just kept going in OPS’ing .926 against lefties in 46 plate appearances in the majors.

Add it all up, and Seager more than earned the kinda-sorta-gushing scouting report he got from manager Don Mattingly in mid-September.

“He’s been pretty good,” the Dodgers skipper told Hernandez. “Kind of what we expected. He’s pretty mature, doesn’t get too excited. He’s got a good eye. He can hit both sides.”

Certainly, what Mattingly would prefer is that his shiny new toy at shortstop was just another cog in a dominant lineup. But instead, another thing that makes Seager such an obvious choice for the club’s shortstop gig is how the Dodgers lineup truly needs his bat.

There was a point in 2015 when the Dodgers appeared to not only have the best offense in the league, but one of the best offenses in MLB history. But that was a while ago. In the final three months of 2015, the Dodgers offense was decidedly mediocre in OPS’ing just .713, .714 and .714 again.

And indeed, things would have been even worse in the season’s final month had Seager not been there.

In September and October, only platoon outfielder Justin Ruggiano was even remotely close to being as hot as Seager. Meanwhile, key lineup mainstays like Adrian Gonzalez, Joc Pederson and Yasmani Grandal were all slumping, while lightning-rod right fielder Yasiel Puig was out with a hamstring injury.

So it goes. What happened in September and October was a mere microcosm of the Dodgers offense in the entire second half of the season.

Their hot hitters have been guys like Seager, Enrique Hernandez and A.J. Ellis, and not guys like Gonzalez, Pederson, Grandal, Rollins and Howie Kendrick. The big guns in their lineup have been rendered small, leading Robert Pace of Fox Sports to rightfully conclude that the current state of the Dodgers offense is one of the reasons they’ll be hard-pressed to win the World Series.

But if Seager keeps hitting like he’s been hitting, the Dodgers definitely have a chance. He alone can’t make the Dodgers lineup dangerous again, but we just saw him at least bar the Dodgers offense from descending into helplessness in September and October. With Kershaw and Greinke at the top of their game in the meantime, the payoff was a 19-13 finish that secured the NL West.

If the same Seager-Kershaw-Greinke-led dynamic continues to work wonders in the postseason, the Dodgers may end up with their elusive championship. If they aren’t already, that’s when they’ll be very glad they found themselves merely in need of some depth in early September.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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The voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers will not call the team’s 2015 postseason games.

According to Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times, announcer Vin Scully underwent a medical procedure and will miss the playoffs.

The team made an announcement on its Twitter page: “Vin Scully underwent a recommended medical procedure this morning and is resting comfortably. On the advice of his doctors, Scully will miss the Dodgers’ postseason games to rest up but is looking forward to returning in 2016. Everyone in the Dodgers organization wishes Vin the speediest of recoveries.”     

Scully is a baseball institution and announced earlier this season he will return to broadcast Dodgers games in 2016 for his 67th season. The 87-year-old broadcaster doesn’t work many road games anymore but is a fixture at home contests in Dodger Stadium. The team made the announcement he will return on the scoreboard with some help from Magic Johnson and Jimmy Kimmel earlier this season:

Per the Associated Press (via the New York Daily News), Scully is the longest-tenured game-caller with one team and started his career in 1950 with the Brooklyn Dodgers:

He has called three perfect games, 25 World Series and 12 All-Star games. He was behind the microphone for Kirk Gibson’s Game 1 homer in the 1988 World Series, Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series, Hank Aaron’s record-setting 715th home run and Sandy Koufax’s four no-hitters, including a perfect game.

Scully was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982, and Ken Gurnick of MLB.com pointed out the Dodgers broadcaster was named the Top Sportscaster of All-Time by the American Sportscasters Association.

The Dodgers’ postseason run just won’t feel the same without the legendary Scully behind the microphone.

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Despite finishing with the worst record in the National League West, the Colorado Rockies will retain Walt Weiss as their manager through next season, per Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal.

Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich confirmed the news later on in the night.

“We will be having ongoing meetings/discussions, but I will say this for now: Walt and I met for several hours today about the season and how we can get better with him back in 2016,” Bridich said, per MLB.com’s Thomas Harding. “It’s going well, and we will continue to meet.”

Weiss added that he still has “a lot to discuss with Jeff, but I will be back.”

The 51-year-old finished his third year with the team. Since replacing Jim Tracy ahead of the 2013 season, he has compiled a 208-278 record.

Given the manager’s record, Keith Olbermann believes this decision shows a lack of ambition by the Rockies:

While Weiss’ resume is far from impressive, he doesn’t deserve the entirety of the blame for the franchise’s recent malaise. SEC Network’s Peter Burns alluded to the systemic issues that have plagued Colorado at the top:

The Monfort brothers (Dick and Charlie) haven’t invested the money necessary to turn the Rockies into contenders overnight, and the front office hasn’t fully embraced a top-down rebuild that would help Colorado at least have a bright future.  

Instead, the Rockies have largely stagnated since reaching the 2009 playoffs, a process that started well before Weiss took over. Plus, his job became that much harder this year when Colorado traded away its best player, Troy Tulowitzki, in the middle of the season—a necessary albeit painful step for the team’s long-term benefit.

Some fans may find Weiss’ return a somewhat underwhelming development, but it’s unlikely any manager could lead the Rockies to the playoffs in 2016 unless ownership invests heavily during the offseason.

Weiss will likely get one more year—his contract runs out after next season—to at least show some signs of progress before his job security seriously comes into doubt.   

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The San Diego Padres finished with a 42-54 record under interim manager Pat Murphy, which wasn’t enough for him to secure the job on a full-time basis next year. The team announced on the final day of the regular season, per Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune, that Murphy will not return as manager next year.

The Padres didn’t say Murphy would be jettisoned from the organization completely, but he could bolt if given the opportunity. Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported the Milwaukee Brewers could make a push for Murphy’s services:

In June, Murphy took over as the Padres manager following the firing of Bud Black. The 56-year-old Murphy had previously coached San Diego’s Triple-A affiliate, the El Paso Chihuahuas.

Bleacher Report’s Scott Miller reported Saturday the Padres may look to the minor leagues again to find Murphy’s replacement, identifying Phil Nevin as a possible candidate. According to USA Today‘s Bob Nightengale, San Diego may have some serious competition:

Nevin played six-plus seasons for the Padres between 1999 and 2005. Following the end of his playing career, the 44-year-old joined the managerial ranks. In seven years across independent ball, Double-A and Triple-A, he has compiled a 442-495 record.

The Padres could also pursue proven options like Dusty Baker or Rick Renteria, both of whom are without teams. Renteria has history in San Diego, where he was the team’s bench coach before becoming the Chicago Cubs manager.

The Padres’ choice could indicate what the team expects to do in 2016. In all likelihood, San Diego will lose its best position player, Justin Upton, in free agency but retain a number of key veterans from this year’s squad.

General manager A.J. Preller was aggressive in the offseason last year in his attempts to make San Diego a winner in 2015, and hiring Baker, Renteria or another manager with MLB experience would signal that he intends to contend in 2016.

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Clayton Kershaw has won multiple Cy Young Awards, a Most Valuable Player Award and thrown a no-hitter over his illustrious eight-year MLB career. On Sunday, the Los Angeles Dodgers ace checked another accomplishment off his checklist: throwing 300 strikeouts in a single season.

Kershaw entered the day needing six strikeouts in order to hit the impressive mark.

In the top of the third inning, the left-hander fanned San Diego Padres outfielder Melvin Upton Jr. to record his sixth punch-out of the Dodgers’ regular-season finale. Somewhat fittingly, Upton went down hacking at Kershaw’s devastating curveball, per MLB:

Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling were the last pitchers to reach 300 strikeouts after they recorded 334 and 316, respectively, in 2002.

According to ESPN Stats & Info, Kershaw is only the second Dodger pitcher to hit 300, with Sandy Koufax being the other.      

“It’s definitely a cool thing,” Kershaw said after the game per the Associated Press, via ESPN.com. “Obviously not the most important thing in the world. If my pitch count got there and I didn’t have 300, I would have come out. Being fresh for the playoffs is more important than 300 strikeouts.”

Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan found it somewhat ironic the 27-year-old has reached such a high standard in terms of strikeouts, but has otherwise had a disappointing season by his ridiculous standards:

To a certain extent, the high rate of strikeouts in MLB today somewhat dilutes Kershaw’s achievement. According to FanGraphs, this year’s strikeout rate (20.4 percent) is tied for the highest mark (with 2014) dating back to the 1871 season. In fact, the eight highest strikeout rates have all come between 2008 and 2015, further demonstrating just how significant the trend is.

At the same time, Kershaw’s 11.6 strikeouts per nine innings entering Sunday equaled Johnson’s during his 2002 campaign, per Baseball-Reference.com, so the two are comparable in that respect.

Of course, much of Kershaw’s work in the regular season could be undone, should he and the Dodgers once again fall short of making the World Series this year.

His struggles in the postseason have been well-documented, and for some, Kershaw won’t establish himself as one of the greatest ever until he gets that monkey off his back.

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