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          Dodgers Report

          Rapid Reaction: Dodgers 10, Rockies 5

          • Mark Saxon, ESPN Staff WriterSep 28, 2014, 07:25 PM ET
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              Mark Saxon covers the St. Louis Cardinals for ESPN.com. He served as the Dodgers team reporter for ESPNLosAngeles.com. through the 2015 season. He spent six years at the Orange County Register, and began his career at the Oakland Tribune, where he started an 11-year journey covering Major League Baseball. He has also covered colleges, including USC football and UCLA basketball.
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          LOS ANGELES -- It has yet to be determined whether the Los Angeles Dodgers can reach their first World Series in 26 years, but the team has made steady progress lately in resuscitating its standing in the National League.

          The Dodgers won their 94th game on the final day of the regular season Sunday, pounding the Colorado Rockies 10-5. That marked five straight seasons of improvement for the Dodgers (four of them under manager Don Mattingly).

          They also drew an announced crowd of 48,278 to give them a grand total of 3,782,337 fans this season, the second-highest attendance in Los Angeles history behind 2007.

          How it happened: It couldn't have gone much better for a team whose focus was on a game five days away.

          Zack Greinke got a nice five-inning tune-up for his playoff start, likely Saturday, striking out six and allowing a run on four hits. Adrian Gonzalez and Matt Kemp padded their numbers before getting the rest of the game off. Juan Uribe got to strut around playing manager while wearing the jerseys of Mattingly and Tommy Lasorda in the same game.

          And the Dodgers still easily beat the fourth-place Rockies, who lost their 96th game.

          Hits: In a different era, one less inundated with statistics, Gonzalez might have won the National League MVP award. Voters used to routinely use RBIs as a leading measure of a player's value and would typically dismiss pitchers for the award. Now, it might be difficult for Gonzalez to crack the top five, but he has been a crucial part of the Dodgers' offense since snapping out of his funk last month. Gonzalez led the National League with 116 RBIs. Since the All-Star break, Gonzalez (53) and Kemp (52) finished one-two in that department. Kemp leads the league in home runs since the break (16).

          Misses: It would have been nice if A.J. Ellis had gotten a bunch of hits in this last series or two, boosted his batting average above .200 and taken some confidence into the playoffs, but none of that happened. Ellis was 0-for-3, went 2-for-14 on the homestand and finished with a .191 average. He finished last in the majors among catchers with at least 325 plate appearances in batting average, home runs (three) and RBIs (25). On the other hand, he was a respectable 14th in on-base percentage (.323) and had an outstanding 3.26 catcher's ERA. Though many of his offensive numbers were bleak, the Dodgers will gladly take their chances with Ellis behind the plate in the playoffs.

          Stat of the game: Greinke (17-8) won 17 games for the first time in his career. On the other hand, the year he won the American League Cy Young, in 2009, he had a 2.16 ERA as opposed to a 2.71 ERA this season.

          Up next: The Dodgers are off Monday and have workouts Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in anticipation of their first-round playoff matchup with the St. Louis Cardinals that starts Friday at Dodger Stadium.