LOS ANGELES – Former Great Lakes Loons star Dee Gordon was named the September winner of the National League Rookie of the Month Award, according to MLB.com.

The Dodgers shortstop hit .372 during September, including seven doubles, one triple, six RBIs, 21 runs and 12 stolen bases. His 42 hits led the National League during the month and his 12 stolen bases were second.

Despite spending part of the season in Triple A Albuquerque, Gordon was tied for first among NL rookies with 24 stolen bases and eighth with 34 runs.

He finished the season hitting .304.

Gordon played for the Loons in 2009, hitting .301 with 73 stolen bases.

PHOENIX —

The Los Angeles Dodgers had a rough season, from a bankruptcy filing and owner Frank McCourt’s troubles to missing the playoffs.

But with the seasons Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw had, not to mention a late-season surge, there is a bit of hope rising out of Chavez Ravine.

Kemp hit a two-run homer to become the first Dodger in 70 years to lead the NL in home runs and RBIs, and Los Angeles closed out a complicated season with a 7-5 win over the playoff-bound Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday night.

“A lot of good stuff has happened over the course of the season with the negative of not winning enough games,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. “Some of the young guys getting a chance to play is going to be, hopefully, a building block for next year, a little jump start.”

Los Angeles has a good foundation.

Kemp had one of the best seasons in team history and is a leading candidate for MVP honors after passing Milwaukee’s Prince Fielder with his 39 homers and leading the NL with 126 RBIs – second-most in Los Angeles Dodgers history to Tommy Davis’ 153 in 1962.

He became the first Dodger to lead the league in homers and RBIs since Dolph Camilli’s MVP season in 1941. He led the league in runs and finished third in batting at .324. Kemp also became the 13th player in major league history – and the first Dodger – with 30 homers and 40 steals.

“It would be pretty special,” Kemp said of winning the MVP. “It doesn’t happen all the time, so for me to even be in this position is a blessing.”

Kershaw has a good shot at the NL Cy Young Award, too, after leading the league with a 2.25 ERA and 248 strikeouts while matching Arizona’s Ian Kennedy for most wins with 21.

Dodgers infielder Eugenio Velez also made history, but not in a good way. He grounded out as a pinch-hitter in the seventh inning to set a modern-day record for non-pitchers with his 46th straight hitless at-bat.

Velez had been tied with Pittsburgh’s Bill Bergen (1909), Dave Campbell of San Diego and St. Louis (1973) and Milwaukee’s Craig Counsell (this season).

In other words, plenty of bad to go with the good for the Dodgers in a season that ended with them going 25-10 since Aug. 22.

“We accomplished a lot of things in these past two months,” Kemp said. “We showed we could really play and beat some great teams and beat some great pitchers, too. It’s all about starting out strong and finishing strong.”

Arizona locked up its NL West title last week, but lost its chance to host the first two games of the NL division series when the Brewers beat Pittsburgh.

Still, the Diamondbacks weren’t ready to concede anything to the Dodgers.

Quiet early in the season finale, Arizona roared back for the second straight night, pulling within two runs in the ninth inning on Cole Gillespie’s grand slam off Ramon Troncosco and Henry Blanco’s solo shot.

Kenley Jansen ended the rally, getting the final two outs for his fifth save, but the Diamondbacks had a more important issue on their minds: Game 1 in Milwaukee on Saturday with Ian Kennedy expected to pitch.

“It’s good to finally know who we’re playing,” Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson said. “It’s the next step, we’re going to be ready.”

Arizona put together an unexpected turnaround season, following two 90-loss seasons by winning 94 games on the way to its first NL West title since 2007. The crowning moment came with Friday’s division-clinching win, a bubbly infused celebration that spilled over into the pool behind the outfield wall in right field.

But there was still some work to do after the splash bash: catch Milwaukee for the NL’s second-best record.

Arizona kept pace with a thrilling win over the Dodgers on Tuesday, when Ryan Roberts hit a walk-off grand slam to cap a six-run 10th inning after the Dodgers went up five in the top half.

Arizona became the second team in major league history – with the Pirates in 1991 – to win after falling behind by five or more runs in an extra inning, according to information provided to the Diamondbacks by the Elias Sports Bureau.

With the Brewers well on their way to beating the Pirates, the Diamondbacks started off slow against the Dodgers on Wednesday.

Arizona managed three hits in seven innings against Ted Lilly (12-14) and Diamondbacks starter Joe Saunders 12-13) allowed five runs and nine hits before leaving after six innings – with most of his teammates.

The atmosphere changed quickly late – again – when Gillespie hit his grand slam and Blanco followed with the homer that chased Troncosco. Arizona couldn’t complete the comeback this time, with Jansen getting Sean Burroughs and John McDonald to fly out, but the Diamondbacks were more interested in looking ahead than behind.

“It should be fun,” Diamondbacks center fielder Chris Young said. “We played good games against those guys all year and I’m sure it’ll be exciting to watch.”

Notes: Arizona led the majors with 501 extra-base hits. … Roberts became the fourth player in history to hit an extra-inning grand slam with his team trailing by three or more runs with his shot against the Dodgers on Tuesday, according to Elias. Babe Ruth, Roger Freed and Jason Giambi were the others. … Due to a rainout in Washington, the Dodgers failed to play 162 games in a non strike-shortened season for the first time since 1989. … Velez’s last hit was a 12th-inning single off Cesar Ramos on May 18, 2010, against San Diego while playing for the Giants.

PHOENIX, Sept. 29 (UPI) — Matt Kemp concluded a sensational season with a two-run homer Wednesday that helped lift the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 7-5 victory over Arizona.

Kemp wound up with 39 home runs and 126 RBI, becoming the first member of the Dodgers in 70 years to lead the National League in both categories. His .324 batting average was third-best in the National League, behind Jose Reyes of the New York Mets (.337) and Ryan Braun of the Brewers (.332).

Los Angeles finished the season, its first under Manager Don Mattingly, three games over .500 even though the club was embroiled in the financial woes of their owner, Frank McCourt.

Arizona, which spotted the Dodgers a seven-run lead before making a late comeback bid, won 94 games this season. That is the fewest by a division champion this year, but it was good enough to put the Diamondbacks into the playoffs with a division-round meeting coming up Saturday against Milwaukee.

Ted Lilly (12-14) gave up three hits and a walk in seven scoreless innings to get the win.

Joe Saunders (12-13) allowed five runs on nine hits for the Diamondbacks.

All of Arizona’s runs came in the ninth on a grand slam homer by Cole Gillespie and a solo shot by Henry Blanco.

Read More: Dana Eveland (P – LOS), Matt Kemp (CF – LOS), Tim Lincecum (P – SFG), Hiroki Kuroda (P – LOS), Ryan Vogelsong (P – SFG), Clayton Kershaw (P – LOS), Madison Bumgarner (P – SFG), Jerry Sands (LF – LOS), San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants at Los Angeles Dodgers, Sep 21, 2011 7:10 PM PDT

The Los Angeles Dodgers fell to the San Francisco Giants 8-5 on Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium, in a game devoid of the pitch-by-pitch excitement of the Clayton Kershaw vs. Tim Lincecum duel of the night before. However, Matt Kemp did provide the home crowd with a delight, furthering his own case for National League MVP.

Kemp hit a long home run into the pavilion in left center field in the fifth inning, a three-run shot off Ryan Vogelsong. It was the 35th home run on the year for Kemp, making him the 14th player in MLB history to have 35 home runs and 35 stolen bases in the same season.

Kemp now has a National League-leading 116 RBI on the season, the sixth highest RBI total in Los Angeles Dodgers history.

Dana Eveland took the loss, allowing five runs in four innings in his fourth start as a Dodger. The Giants were up 5-0 early, then saw Kemp cut their lead to 5-4 in the fifth inning. But San Francisco tacked on one run in the sixth inning and two more in the seventh.

A pair of Dodgers rookies extended their hitting streaks on Wednesday. Jerry Sands singled in the eighth inning, pushing his hitting streak to nine games, and he has 17 hits in his last 34 at-bats. Dee Gordon’s streak is now at eight games, thanks to two singles, a stolen base, and a run scored tonight for the shortstop.

Hiroki Kuroda starts on Thursday for the Dodgers in their final home game of the season. Madison Bumgarner starts for San Francisco.

For more Dodgers news and information, be sure to read True Blue LA.

LOS ANGELES (AP)—Clayton Kershaw(notes) hears the Cy Young Award talk swirling
around him, although he won’t indulge it. With his 20th victory and major
league-leading 2.27 ERA, the low-key Los Angeles Dodgers ace is letting his
numbers do the talking.

Kershaw became the club’s first 20-game winner in 21 years with a 2-1
victory over the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday night, making him 5-0 against
the rival Giants this season.

Four of those victories came against two-time NL Cy Young Award winner Tim
Lincecum(notes), with Kershaw allowing one earned run in those games. Three of the
victories were by scores of 2-1, and the other was a 1-0 decision.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The stark difference in James McDonald’s performance for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Ted Lilly’s for the Los Angeles Dodgers was evident on the scoreboard and in their respective pitching lines.

McDonald matched his shortest outing in 30 starts this season, throwing 76 pitches over three innings and giving up five runs on seven hits in the Pirates’ 6-1 loss to the Dodgers on Saturday night. It was his first appearance against the team that drafted him in the 11th round of the 2002 draft and brought him up to the majors for the first time in 2008.

“It’s all what the player makes of it. There’s no way around some of the emotional ties that can come with that,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. “You always have a first girlfriend, you always have a first organization. And that was his first organization, so I’m sure he developed some friendships and established some relationships that he’ll keep for a long time.

“Whether he was caught up in the competition of the other team, I don’t know,” Hurdle added. “Obviously, there might be some room for growth there — to pat down his emotions. I haven’t spoken to him about that. But if it was just a command thing, we’ve just got to move past this and get it back on track for the next start.”

The Pirates acquired McDonald (9-9) from Los Angeles at last year’s non-waiver trade deadline. Saturday was the third anniversary of his big league debut, when he pitched a perfect inning of relief at Pittsburgh and struck out two. He was 5-6 with a 4.11 ERA in 53 appearances with Los Angeles, including five starts — none of which lasted longer than five innings.

“Maybe I tried to put too much emphasis on this outing because it was the Dodgers,” McDonald said. “Maybe I let the game speed up instead of just kind of stepping back and slowing it down. It’s something I’ll learn from. I wasn’t getting ahead of guys. When you get behind good hitters who have an idea, things are not going to work out your way. I should have been more aggressive in the strike zone early in the count.”

Despite McDonald’s outing, Hurdle is optimistic about the lanky right-hander’s future.

“The conversations that I heard when I got here were that they loved the arm. They loved the frame and the downhill angle he can create. And then the more they dug, they loved the young man just as much,” Hurdle said. “It wasn’t just about a tool set. I think it was about a person they thought would mature and develop and mature. He had an intense desire to pitch and wanted to start, and we had more fertile of an opportunity to get him into the rotation than there was in L.A. at the time.”

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly hoped McDonald succeeds with his new team.

“The thing about J-Mac is, you like his deception,” Mattingly said. “He’s a big kid with an easy motion, a good breaking ball. When he first came up, he really pitched good out of the pen, and at times he got it up there pretty good. I’m not sure why it didn’t work out for him here. When he got his opportunities, he was just OK, but it wasn’t consistent. But I actually liked J-Mac, and he’s getting a chance to pitch now. I haven’t really looked at his numbers, but I’ve seen that he’s thrown some good games.”

Pirates catcher Matt Pagnozzi, the nephew of former St. Louis catcher Tom Pagnozzi, made his Pirates debut in the fifth as a pinch-hitter for reliever Aaron Thompson and hit an opposite-field single on the second pitch he saw. Pagnozzi became the 52nd player used by the Pirates, breaking the previous club record set last season.

“That wasn’t a record we set out to break before the season started. That was not on our checklist,” Hurdle said. “But when you get a number like that, there’s a reason for it. We’re had our share (of injuries), but we’ve pushed through and dealt with it the best we can.”

The Dodgers grabbed a 3-0 lead in the first, as James Loney drove a first-pitch homer into the pavilion seats in right-center for his 11th of the season and the 23rd allowed by McDonald. In Friday’s series opener, Loney ended a homerless drought of 57 at-bats on a full count against reliever Chris Resop while pinch-hitting for Justin Sellers in the sixth inning of the Dodgers’ 7-2 win.

Lilly (10-14) allowed a run and four hits, struck out seven and walked two. The two-time All-Star, winding up his first full season with the Dodgers, joined CC Sabathia and Mark Buehrle as the only left-handers to reach double digits in wins during each of the last nine seasons. Lilly has a 2.67 ERA over his last 10 starts, lowering his overall figure to 4.27.

All-Star Matt Kemp scored his 100th run in the third inning on Rivera’s homer and stole his 40th base in the sixth, becoming the first player in Dodgers franchise history with at least 40 steals, 100 runs scored, 100 RBIs and 30 home runs.

Kemp led off the third with a single and Rivera followed with his fourth home run since joining the Dodgers in a trade with Toronto on the day of the All-Star game. Los Angeles increased the margin to 6-1 in the fifth, when Tim Federowicz singled home Aaron Miles for his first RBI in the major leagues.

Notes: Once Pagnozzi gets behind the plate, he will become the eighth different catcher used this season by manager Clint Hurdle — the most by the Pirates since 1953 and one shy of the franchise record set in 1914. … RHP Kenley Jansen relieved Nathan Eovaldi with the bases loaded and one out in the Pirates sixth, striking out Ryan Ludwick and pinch-hitter Garrett Jones. … The Pirates are 17-40 since July 19, when they were 51-44 and led the NL Central by a half-game. They have since plummeted to a season-worse 21 games out of first place.