Zack Greinke is back. It’s probably too soon, and we all pray it’s not. I think that’s been made pretty clear over the last few days, so all we can do is enjoy the fact that he’s on the mound tonight rather than Matt Magill, and hope that’s able to be effective. Don’t look now, but if the Dodgers win tonight, they’ll head into tomorrow’s off day having won four of five.

So what’s news? Josh Beckett is off to the disabled list with a strained groin, as absolutely all of us expected. He is, believe it or not, the sixth different Dodger starting pitcher to go on the DL this year. It’s May 15. But hey, fire Don Mattingly, you guys.

After tomorrow’s day off, Hyun-jin Ryu & Chris Capuano are lined up to start the first two games in Atlanta this weekend. That most likely lines up Magill to make the Sunday start; it’s not confirmed yet, but unless you really want Ted Lilly on three days rest — or any days rest, ever, at any time — the other options are limited.

I’ll tell you who it won’t be, however, because apparently I can’t avoid talking about him any longer: it won’t be Jonathan Sanchez, who did sign a minor league deal with the Dodgers today. Pedro Gomez of ESPN broke the news, and the way he keeps describing it on Twitter is that Albuquerque is just a pit stop for Sanchez on the way to Los Angeles.

But let’s be honest here: Sanchez is available now because he’s awful. He was DFA’d by Kansas City last year because he’s awful. He wasn’t retained by Colorado last year because he’s awful. He was cut loose by Pittsburgh this year after only four starts because he was, wait for it, awful. (And kind of a jerk, too) Those are three teams who are generally so desperate for pitching that anyone with a pulse and a left arm is valuable to them, and all three said, “thanks, but no thanks.”

So what do the Dodgers want with him? Here’s five names: Matt Palmer, Aaron Laffey, Blake Johnson, Angel Castro, & Anthony Ortega. That quintet, at least while Sean White & Stephen Fife are hurt and Magill is with the Dodgers, is currently the Albuquerque starting rotation. That’s bad; that’s real bad, and while Sanchez is probably not much better, do remember that this is a minor league deal that has a July 1 opt-out. If Sanchez is starting for the Dodgers by then, then I’m guessing this club has much, much bigger problems.

All of which brings us back to tonight’s lineup, which in theory could be considered “a much bigger problem” since Carl Crawford is taking a seat against lefty Ross Detwiler, which allows Dee Gordon to get another chance to lead off. But you know what? I don’t hate this as much as you’d think I’d would. Mattingly has been good about keeping Gordon out of the leadoff spot with Crawford around, and it’s not like there’s another obvious option here, and I do like that he’s got Andre Ethier behind A.J. Ellis against the lefty and that Scott Van Slyke gets a chance instead of trying to force Skip Schumaker into the lineup.

Mostly, I just like that Luis Cruz is nowhere to be found, and as Mark Ellis & Jerry Hairston continue to rehab, I truly think that the day where we’re Cruz-free is coming soon.

Anyway, this is the last home game before the team heads out on the road, so be sure to check out some Dodgers tickets.

Congratulations, Scott Van Slyke: after a solid Sunday showing, your reward is… a seat on the bench, as Adrian Gonzalez returns to man first base. For now, anyway; I’m not even sure why I’m bothering to type “Gonzalez is in the starting lineup” more than three seconds before the first pitch based on his recent history of being scratched.

Don Mattingly is going with his lefty-heavy lineup tonight against Washington starter Jordan Zimmermann — Matt Kemp & A.J. Ellis are the only righty bats here — and while that’s fine, it’s unlikely to matter. Zimmermann gets lost a little bit in a Washington rotation that has Stephen Strasburg & Gio Gonzalez (neither of whom, fortunately, will be seen in this series) but he’s one of the brightest young starters in baseball. He also has almost no platoon split, pitching to a .002 OPS difference against lefties & righties over his career.

The Nationals are really a fascinating team, since they were the consensus class of the NL but have started slowly; I wrote about their struggling offense over the weekend at ESPN. They’ve been turning it around of late, however, and that all comes back to Bryce Harper, who made his MLB debut in Los Angeles last season. In the last 365 days, he’s merely hitting .279/.352/.516 with 32 homers and 18 steals in 674 plate appearances. He won’t be 21 until October… that just ain’t right.

Elsewhere, we still don’t know where Zack Greinke is starting on Wednesday, and the longer we wait the more likely it seems that he’ll go for the Dodgers, if only to give the Nationals some trouble in potentially preparing for two different pitchers. I voiced my concern about this last week, and frankly, the more I think about it, the more I want to see Matt Magill. It’s not like having Greinke make a second rehab start is such a grievous offense, and he’s admitted that he’s in “spring training form” when it comes to pitch execution; remember, he did miss most of camp with that right elbow concern. I absolutely would not mind playing it safe on this one.

So all that being said, absolutely get ready to see him on Wednesday.

Well, still in last place, I suppose, because it’s difficult to be in laster place. That said, in a battered rotation that’s struggled to work deep into games outside of Clayton Kershaw, the fact that Hyun-jin Ryu has managed to go at least six innings in every one of his seven starts is not something to be taken lightly. Remember, other than Zack Greinke‘s brief appearance and the one good start from Josh Beckett, we’ve been subjected to an entire season of “lord, don’t get knocked out in the third” outings from Beckett, Matt Magill, Ted Lilly, Chris Capuano, & Stephen Fife. Too often, that’s exactly what’s happened and the bullpen has been thrown to the wolves to pick up the slack; if Ryu, a complete unknown entering the season, had done the same, I don’t know what things would look like.

So far, his 2.81 FIP is just a touch behind Kershaw’s and ahead of bigger names like Cliff Lee, Jon Lester, & Stephen Strasburg; his 4.00 K/BB is superior to Justin Verlander, Jordan Zimmermann, & David Price. I remain uncertain about just how his particular brand of slop is going to work once teams get a second and third look at him, but if there was ever a concern that this would be a Kei Igawa-level “what the hell is that guy even doing in the bigs?” situation, we’re well past that.

Ryu faces a Miami team that’s having nearly as many roster issues as the Dodgers are. See their second baseman, batting eighth in the lineup over there? That is indeed Nick Green, the same one who was briefly a member of the 2010 Dodgers, and while it’s bad enough that any team in 2013 actually has Green in the starting lineup, what makes this especially fun is that he was actually DFA’d by Miami all of nine days ago. After no team claimed him, he went to Triple-A, only to come right back when second baseman Donovan Solano was injured.

Back to the Dodgers, this is about as decent a batting order as can be expected. I suppose in a perfect world A.J. Ellis is second instead of Dee Gordon, but that’s a minor quibble; at least Luis Cruz is nowhere to be found.