LOS ANGELES -- Dodgers manager Don Mattingly met privately with the team's closer, Javy Guerra, on Sunday morning, this in the wake of Guerra either blowing a save or allowing a tied game to be untied for the third consecutive appearance on Saturday night against the Washington Nationals.
Mattingly is not, however, ready to consider removing Guerra from the role, even after watching eighth-inning setup man Kenley Jansen basically blow away the Nationals in nailing down Friday night's win while Guerra was unavailable.
"I'm not happy with what has been happening,'' Mattingly said. "Obviously, you always look at things and talk about stuff. But just because Javy has had a couple of bad days, do we make a change? I look at it as 21 games in, what alternatives do we have and what happens if we make a change and it doesn't work out? Then what happens? Do we turn to Mac (Mike MacDougal)? (Josh) Linblom? Then does it become a tryout camp?''
Mattingly said the one thing that prompted him to have the meeting with Guerra after Saturday -- which was his first appearance since getting nailed in the right jaw by a line drive on Wednesday night against the Atlanta Braves -- was his body language.
"I didn't see the swag,'' Mattingly said.
Here's today's lineup, with a few of your typical Sunday, getaway, day-game-after-night-game substitutes sprinkled in.
Tony Gwynn, LF
Mark Ellis, 2B
Matt Kemp, CF
Andre Ethier, RF
Juan Uribe, 3B
James Loney, 1B
Justin Sellers, SS
Matt Treanor, C
Chris Capuano, LH