Rafael Furcal

The Dodgers are soaring up the standings. OK, so maybe they aren't soaring as much as the Colorado Rockies are crashing. But with a 3-2 victory over the Rockies on Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers moved to within a win of something that once felt out of reach. Third place. Behind Clayton Kershaw's fourth consecutive victory and Matt Kemp's two-run double, the Dodgers closed their deficit to the third-place Rockies to half a game. The Dodgers have made up four games in four days on the Rockies, who started the season as the favorites to win the National League West.

The malaise that is this Dodgers season reached its 100th game Saturday night and appeared set to take further hold after only a half inning. Dodgers starter Ted Lilly had given up two singles, two doubles and three runs to the Washington Nationals before many fans had found their seats at Dodger Stadium. But on this night, the Dodgers and Lilly -- who slugged a two-run double and had three runs batted in overall to help his cause -- declined to go quietly and made a game of it. Shortstop Rafael Furcal, who has struggled at the plate since returning from the disabled list July 3, hit a walk-off double against Washington reliever Ryan Mattheus to score Trent Oeltjen in the bottom of the ninth inning and give the Dodgers a 7-6 win. That was "was a huge hit for him," Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly said.

No one is more frustrated with Rafael Furcal's lack of hitting lately than Rafael Furcal. "I feel so bad, especially for my fans and for my team, because I don't like to lose," the Dodgers' veteran shortstop said. Entering Saturday's game, Furcal was five for 49 (.102) since July 3, when he came off his latest stint on the disabled list for a strained left side muscle. None of the five hits was for extra bases. Furcal, 33, also was on the DL earlier this year for a broken left thumb and has missed 63 games overall this season.

There's speculation that Dodgers starting pitcher Hiroki Kuroda is a leading candidate to be traded before baseball's non-waiver trade deadline July 31. Kuroda began Friday's game against the Washington Nationals with a 6-11 record. But he still is seen as an asset for a pennant contender because the Japanese right-hander generally has pitched well this season while getting little run support. So it was yet again Friday night, when Kuroda gave up three runs in the first two innings to Washington — including a two-run home run to Nationals starting pitcher John Lannan — that would prove too much for the Dodgers' punchless offense.

Reporting from Phoenix — Don Mattingly rarely speaks in authoritative tones, but it turns out that all one need do to awaken the Dodgers manager's inner orator is raise questions about Rafael Furcal . Reflecting on the previous night, when he was asked whether he'd considered removing a slumping Furcal from the lineup, Mattingly said Sunday, "I thought about it last night, when you guys were getting on Fookie so much. I said, 'Why is it all on Fookie? We have a whole club here that really doesn't score runs and it's all Fookie.' It kind of touched me a little bit. " Mattingly said he still believed in Furcal, who was out of the lineup Sunday because the Dodgers played a day game following a night game.

That was fun while it lasted, wasn't it? Well, folks, it's time to returns to the real world. The Dodgers are no longer on a winning streak, as their season-best five-game run ended with a nondescript 3-2 defeat to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday night at Chase Field. They are back to 10 games under .500. They remain 111/2 games out of first place. They still can't hit. "I don't think a streak is going to change that," Andre Ethier said of the team's offensive problems.

The absurdity of the Dodgers' situation came into particularly sharp focus Friday. On the field, the last-place Dodgers edged the San Diego Padres, 1-0, to move to within one game of their offensively inept visitors. On the phone from Arizona, a popular former player with his own well-documented history of financial troubles was saying that his public interest in purchasing the Dodgers had resulted in his dismissal from their front office. "It doesn't take away from my love for the team," said Steve Garvey, a 10-time All-Star who won a World Series with the Dodgers in 1981 and played on the Padres' 1984 World Series team.

What Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly said he remembered most about Dee Gordon's first stint in the majors wasn't his speed or his swing. Speaking about the shortstop prospect the Dodgers sent to triple-A Albuquerque on Monday, Mattingly recalled a recent conversation they had in the infield during batting practice. Gordon wasn't hitting and Mattingly asked him about the kind of adjustments he was thinking of making against certain pitchers. Mattingly said he liked what the kid was telling him, that he liked how he was thinking.

As shortstop Rafael Furcal came back from the disabled list Sunday, another Dodgers veteran, third baseman Casey Blake , went on the DL for the third time this season. Blake, 37, has struggled with a persistent sore neck. "He's been battling this thing," Manager Don Mattingly said before the Dodgers lost, 3-1, to the Angels at Angel Stadium. It's unclear whether Blake's pain and limited motion in his neck are being caused by a pinched nerve, arthritis or some other problem, but putting him on the DL should "give him the time to try to get it right," Mattingly said.

Rafael Furcal is expected to return as the Dodgers shortstop Sunday. Less certain is where he'll hit in the batting order. Tony Gwynn Jr.'s emergence as a capable leadoff hitter could thrust Furcal lower in the order. "More than anything, he's taken over that leadoff spot and that's really an area that we've scrambled with all year," Manager Don Mattingly said of Gwynn, who was batting .274 in the leadoff spot before Saturday's game as opposed to his overall .255 average.