Clayton Kershaw

PHOENIX -- There was a noticeable buzz in the Dodgers' clubhouse Wednesday morning. The previous night, traveling secretary Scott Akasaki had sent the players a text message informing them that a group led by Magic Johnson had agreed to buy the team. "I think that's tight, man," Matt Kemp said. "For Magic to be one of our owners. He knows what the Dodgers mean to L.A. Of course, Magic is real important to L.A. and the fans love him, so to get him to be a part of the Dodgers organization is a very good thing for us, and I think this is a pretty good day for the Dodgers.

PHOENIX - If this were spring training, the Dodgers would have been fined for that lineup. But, in this magical regular season, the Dodgers won with that lineup. No Matt Kemp? No one named Ellis? No matter. The Dodgers dumped the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday, 6-1, dropping the defending National League West champions a staggering 101/2 games back barely six weeks into the season. In spring training, the commissioner's office can fine teams that field a lineup with fewer than four significant players.

Magic Johnson, the man who helped make L.A. a Lakers town as a player, will soon be an owner of the Dodgers. Will the presence of the ever-popular Johnson in the ownership group help the Dodgers reclaim the city from the hoopsters at Staples Center? Writers from around the Tribune Co. discuss the topic. Feel free to join the conversation by voting in the poll and leaving a comment of your own. Barry Stavro, Los Angeles Times In L.A. the sports buzz-meter points first to Kobe and the Lakers.

The Dodgers won another game, but lost another player. On the same day they defeated the defending World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals, 6-0, second baseman Mark Ellis underwent an emergency leg operation that is expected to sideline him for a minimum of six weeks. Ellis, who was injured when Tyler Greene of the Cardinals slid into him at second base the previous night, had blood and fluids drained from his left leg. He is scheduled to be hospitalized until Tuesday. He became the fourth Dodgers starter on the disabled list.

Celebrating his 21st birthday in style, Clayton Kershaw threw five scoreless innings and hit a solo home run to lead the Dodgers' 3-2 win over the Colorado Rockies in Cactus League play Thursday. Kershaw gave up only one hit and one walk and, thanks to double plays by his teammates, faced the minimum number of batters. The left-hander struck out three.

Be patient, Rafael Furcal said. The kid who replaced him as the Dodgers starting shortstop will be fine. Furcal played at Dodger Stadium on Friday, marking the first time he had done so since the Dodgers traded him last year to the St. Louis Cardinals. Furcal, who spent the previous 5 1/2 years with the Dodgers, went into the game hitting .367, second in the National League. Dee Gordon , who made Furcal expendable in the view of Dodgers management, had a batting average of .207 and an on-base percentage of .247.

SAN DIEGO -- Clayton Kershaw must have been spending too much time around Andre Ethier. Ethier missed Saturday's Freeway Series game against the Angels with a stomach bug, and it apparently made its way to Clayton Kershaw. Kershaw started the season opener for the Dodgers on Thursday, despite battling the flu. After three innings, however, the flu won and Kershaw left the game against the Padres. Kershaw did not give up a run in his three innings, walking one and striking out one. He also had the Dodgers' first single, so at least he left with a perfect ERA and batting average.

The silence in the Dodgers' dressing quarters was pierced by an expletive. For the second consecutive night, the Dodgers fell to the Atlanta Braves in extra innings at Dodger Stadium, this time by a 2-1 score in 10 innings. The Dodgers, who were nine games up in the National League West as recently as July 25, had their lead over the second-place San Francisco Giants reduced to 5 1/2 games after their ninth loss in 14 games. The last time the Dodgers led by as few games was on May 14. There was more.

Questions being in short supply in this uneventful Dodgers spring training, attention can always turn to those few things they are comfortable with. And there is no better place to turn for a little preseason comfort than a returning Cy Young winner. Clayton Kershaw took to the mound Sunday in Phoenix against the Brewers in what figures as his second-to-the-last start of the spring, and did something he's done only once all spring -- give up an earned run. Two even. The Dodgers otherwise fell uneventfully, 7-1, to the host Brewers, Kershaw giving up the two runs on six hits and a pair of walks in six innings of work.

If Chad Billingsley and Clayton Kershaw are ready for October, the Dodgers should be too. . . . This is only the fourth time that the Dodgers and Angels have each won as many as 90 games in the same season, but it's the third time it has happened since 2001. . . . A Freeway World Series, of course, would be a first. . . . Fifty years ago next Tuesday, Gil Hodges and the Dodgers clinched their first National League pennant in Los Angeles with a 12-inning victory over the Milwaukee Braves at the Coliseum.

C.J. Wilson was the ace of the Texas Rangers' pitching staff last season. When the Angels signed Wilson and slotted him into the No. 4 spot of their starting rotation behind Jered Weaver, Dan Haren and Ervin Santana, the debate raged as to whether the Angels might have a better rotation than the Philadelphia Phillies. The Dodgers let Hiroki Kuroda go because they could not afford him. They signed Chris Capuano and Aaron Harang, assembling a rotation perceived as Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw and four innings-eaters in Capuano, Harang, Chad Billingsley and Ted Lilly.

Be patient, Rafael Furcal said. The kid who replaced him as the Dodgers starting shortstop will be fine. Furcal played at Dodger Stadium on Friday, marking the first time he had done so since the Dodgers traded him last year to the St. Louis Cardinals. Furcal, who spent the previous 5 1/2 years with the Dodgers, went into the game hitting .367, second in the National League. Dee Gordon , who made Furcal expendable in the view of Dodgers management, had a batting average of .207 and an on-base percentage of .247.

Less than two weeks after being released by the Angels, Bobby Abreu is making his presence felt with the Dodgers. The 38-year-old outfielder entered Tuesday batting .296 (eight for 27) since joining the Dodgers on May 4, with four doubles and four runs batted in. That included a bases-clearing double that helped lead the Dodgers to an 11-5 win over the Colorado Rockies on Sunday. "I feel comfortable at the plate, no problems, and I've been swinging the bat OK," said Abreu, a left-handed batter.

The list of injured Dodgers keeps growing, with Matt Kemp and Juan Uribe going on the disabled list Monday to join Jerry Hairston Jr. and Juan Rivera, among others. But the Dodgers' pitching staff, including Clayton Kershaw, their ace left-hander, largely has steered clear of injury, a key reason why the Dodgers have kept playing well early this season. Kershaw was stellar again Monday night in a duel with Arizona's Ian Kennedy, holding the Diamondbacks scoreless in seven innings of work as the Dodgers won, 3-1, at Dodger Stadium.

As Matt Kemp ran to first base while grounding out in the third inning Sunday against Colorado, Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly could tell something wasn't right with his center fielder. Kemp had strained his left hamstring a week earlier, and now it appeared he had aggravated the injury again. So as Kemp started to take the field in the fourth inning, Mattingly said he told the slugger, " 'Matt, if you feel anything at all, you can't go out there.'" "That's when he turned around" and back toward the bench, Mattingly said, confirming the manager's suspicion.

To sacrifice bunt or not to sacrifice bunt, that is the question. To many modern baseball followers, the answer is - please, please, oh pretty please, do not do it. Sabermetric lovers despise the sacrifice bunt. Twice the Dodgers decided to bunt the runners up Tuesday, and twice it blew up in their hopeful little faces. For a manager who spent his entire life in the American League, Don Mattingly has become quite the National League manager. And despite some semi-tough questioning about his decisions to bunt in the seventh and eighth innings of the Dodgers' 2-1 loss to the Giants, he was far from repentant.

Potential distractions were everywhere for Clayton Kershaw in the fifth inning Sunday. Kobe Bryant was seated in the first row behind the Dodgers dugout. A fan ran onto the Angel Stadium field and decked a security guard. And, in the most worrisome development for Kershaw, the Angels loaded the bases with nobody out. None of it fazed the young left-hander. "He's 21," Dodgers Manager Joe Torre said. "I was still drooling at 21. He's far ahead of a lot of youngsters."

News flash: This Clayton Kershaw kid of the Dodgers just might have a future. Kershaw appeared ready to start the season Wednesday night in Goodyear, Ariz., shutting out the Reds in his four innings of a 9-1 exhibition victory. Kershaw allowed just one hit, two walks and struck out six. In just his second outing of the spring, he became the first Dodger to throw four innings. In seven innings overall, the reigning National League Cy Young winner has not allowed a run. Meanwhile, despite bringing only three projected starters - Juan Uribe, Mark Ellis and A.J. Ellis - to Goodyear, the Dodgers jumped all over Reds starter Homer Bailey.

The Dodgers beat Tim Lincecum again on Wednesday night. But the 6-2 victory at Dodger Stadium was nothing like their four victories against him last season, when Clayton Kershaw repeatedly edged the two-time Cy Young Award winner in a series of stirring pitchers' duels. Lincecum's fourth-inning implosion allowed the Dodgers to overcome an uninspired start by Chad Billingsley and claim their second victory in the three-game series. Pinch-hitter Tony Gwynn Jr. capped a four-run fourth inning with a bases-clearing triple and Scott Van Slyke drove in a run in his first major league at-bat, as the Dodgers improved to 20-11, including 12-3 at home.

Certain aspects of baseball never change, which is part of the game's charm. Players today are as superstitious as they were in the days of Babe Ruth. Pitchers still drill opposing hitters in retaliation if a batter from their team is hit. Rookies continue to be hazed. Then there's the sacrifice bunt. There is statistical research indicating the tactic is counterproductive, but teams continue to use it. Teams such as the Dodgers. The Dodgers tried two late-inning sacrifice bunts Tuesday night, one that resulted in a double play in the seventh inning and another that took the bat out of Matt Kemp's hands in the eighth.