Dodgers await Diamondbacks for NL West showdown

LOS ANGELES -- The marquee matchup of a weekend duel for first place was supposed to take place Friday before the Los Angeles Dodgers pulled a late switch and nixed a battle of aces.

The Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw no longer will match up with the Arizona Diamondbacks' Zack Greinke in the second game of the four-game series at Dodger Stadium as fellow left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu will take his place for the Dodgers Friday night.

It wasn't that the Dodgers wanted to spread the pitching wealth around the series. In moving Kershaw to Saturday's game against Arizona, it will give him an extra day of rest with a month left in the season, but primarily it lines up his next outing against another National League West title contender in the Colorado Rockies.

"Every game is very difficult, but when you're playing a division rival, that essentially counts as two games," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, according to the Los Angeles Times. "To have the guys that you want in a particular matchup, that's what we feel comfortable with."

The Dodgers lost to the Diamondbacks 3-1 on Thursday night to fall two games behind first-place Arizona in the division, while essentially putting more emphasis on Ryu's start Friday.

Greinke is still the Friday starter for Arizona. His August was not as good as his brilliant July, but he still arrives at his former home park with a 2.19 ERA over his last 10 starts going back to the beginning of July. His worst outing in that bunch came Aug. 13 when he gave up four runs over 6 1/3 innings in a loss to the Texas Rangers.

But in his last outing Sunday against the contending Seattle Mariners, Greinke (13-8, 2.93 ERA) went 6 2/3 innings without giving up an earned run and picked up his first victory since July 27.

He is 6-4 lifetime against the Dodgers with a 3.84 ERA over 13 starts. This season Greinke is 2-0 with a 4.38 ERA in two starts against Los Angeles.

Greinke is well aware that Arizona still has two series remaining against the Dodgers, counting this one, as well as two series against the Rockies. The D-backs also have games remaining with the Houston Astros and Chicago Cubs.

"I don't know about the strength of schedule, but it looks like we've got a lot of tough teams coming this month," Greinke said, according to the Arizona Republic, "and play the people we're competing against a lot, so it is going to be an intense last month, I'd expect."

In three starts since coming off the disabled list because of a strained left groin, Ryu (4-1, 2.18) has been impressive. In recent starts against the Giants, Cardinals and Padres he has a combined 2.30 ERA over 15 2/3 innings.

Ryu is 3-3 with a 3.90 ERA in 12 career starts against the Diamondbacks, and he is 0-0 with a 5.40 ERA in two starts against them this season.

Ryu has yet to throw more than 89 pitches in a start during his comeback, though, and the Dodgers could be forced to make an early call to a bullpen that has been a wild ride of late.

Dodgers relievers struggled when closer Kenley Jansen was on the disabled list for 10 days in August with an irregular heartbeat. Jansen has struggled in four outings since he has returned, but the rest of the relievers have been better and the Dodgers just got right-hander Josh Fields back from a DL stint of his own because of right shoulder inflammation.