LOS ANGELES _ The "Wild Horse" and the "Logie Bear" went deep, "YRG Jr." knocked in "Redturn2" with a clutch two-out single, "MaeKen" threw another gem and "Kenleyfornia" notched his 35th save.
The names on the jerseys were changed Friday night to mark the opening of "Players Weekend," in which major leaguers are wearing multicolored uniforms with nicknames on their backs and patches to recognize important mentors on their sleeves.
The result in Chavez Ravine was more of the same for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who held the Milwaukee Brewers to one hit in a 3-1 victory that improved their record to 91-36 _ a whopping 55 games over .500 _ and maintained their 21-game lead over Arizona in the National League West.
The Dodgers have won 25 of 30 games and are 56-11 since June 7, the best 67-game stretch since the 1912 New York Giants went 56-11 from April 17-July 10. They have been historically good at home, posting a 52-14 record.
At this rate, the Dodgers could clinch the division by the first or second week of September, which is great for lining up your postseason rotation but not so great for maintaining a sense of urgency over the final month of the season.
Manager Dave Roberts' biggest challenge over the next five weeks will be to balance regular playing time and rest for his position players and relievers so they are sharp and fresh for the playoffs, and to maintain the kind of competitive edge that has made the team so dominant through the season's first five months.
Teams that battle down to the wire, playing must-win game after must-win game, can be dangerous in October, as the wild card-winning San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals showed when they reached the World Series in 2014.
The Los Angeles Angels clinched the 2014 American League West title early, wrapping up the division on Sept. 18 and finishing with the best record in baseball. But they lost their momentum, losing six of nine meaningless games and getting swept by the Royals in the first round of the playoffs.
Roberts said he had "no concern" that his players would become complacent in September.
"Guys will have opportunities to play, and we'll have opportunities to rest guys, but these guys are trying to win every single game, and there's a certain way we play every single day," Roberts said. "I don't see that changing, regardless of the standings."
There was no sign of slippage Friday night. Kenta Maeda, a.k.a. "MaeKen," set the tone with six superb innings in which he allowed one run and one hit, struck out seven and walked two to improve to 12-5 with a 3.76 ERA on the season.
His only mistake was a grooved 1-and-2 fastball that Domingo Santana lined over the right-field wall in the second for a 1-0 Milwaukee lead. The right-hander walked two with two outs in the fourth but got Stephen Vogt to pop out.
He retired the side in order in the fifth and sixth, striking out Ryan Braun looking with a perfectly placed 93-mph fastball on the inside corner to end the sixth.
Maeda appears to have no chance of making a playoff rotation that figures to be comprised of Clayton Kershaw, Yu Darvish, Rich Hill and Alex Wood when all are physically sound, but he's pitched like a front-of-the-rotation starter since June 27, going 7-2 with a 2.78 ERA, striking out 56 and walking 11 in his last 10 starts.
Maeda got some help from Yasiel (Wild Horse) Puig, who made a running, lunging catch of Eric Thames' drive to the warning track in right-center to end the third.
Logan (Logie Bear) Forsythe evened the score 1-1 in the fourth when he lined a first-pitch fastball from Chase Anderson over the wall in left-center for his fourth homer of the year.
Justin (Redturn2) Turner walked with two outs in the fifth and stole second. Yasmani (YRG Jr.) Grandal fought off an 0-2 curve _ the same pitch he struck out on in the third _ and grounded an RBI single to center for a 2-1 Dodgers lead. Puig blasted his 23rd homer of the season to center for a 3-1 lead in the sixth.
Josh Ravin struck out the side in the eighth, and Kenley (Kenleyfornia) Jansen threw a scoreless ninth with help from left fielder Enrique Hernandez, who made a nice, over-the-shoulder running catch of Neil Walker's drive for the second out of the inning.
