Don Mattingly is going to manage the Dodgers tonight. Normally, you really shouldn’t have to lead off a game story with confirmation that the manager of the team is still calling the shots, but, well… nothing about this is normal, and for a while today I was really far from certain if Mattingly would still be in the dugout tonight. Ned Colletti, it should be noted, is in Milwaukee with the team, though that’s not entirely out of the ordinary.

David Vassegh reports that Mattingly “isn’t aware of all the rumors in the media today of his job being in jeopardy”, and while I get that he’s probably not spending a lot of time reading the papers right now, I find that more than a little difficult to believe. Then again, I’m really not sure what we expect Mattingly to say in response to that. “Yep, I’m totally going to be out of a job by the end of the week, you got me.” Of course not.

In the meantime, Ted Lilly has been activated and Matt Magill has been returned to Albuquerque. I had originally tried to justify this by saying that it’d be okay as long as Lilly was only here to be in the bullpen to help out some exhausted relievers, figuring that the fifth spot could be skipped on Thursday. That might yet be what will happen, but Dylan Hernandez reports that Lilly still figures to slot into the rotation. The team doesn’t need him, assuming he’s skipped on Thursday, until a week from tomorrow, and there’s a lot that can happen between now and then. Let’s hope it does; I don’t think anyone really wants to see Lilly making another start, especially after Magill looked good in Atlanta this weekend.

Other than Dee Gordon replacing the injured Hanley Ramirez, we’re actually looking at something that resembles the “regular” Dodger lineup tonight, in what should be a marquee matchup between Clayton Kershaw & Yovani Gallardo. I’m pleased to see that the terribly slumping Gordon — now without a hit in his last 17 plate appearances — is still hitting 8th if he has to be in there at all, and there’s not a lot I can do to argue with this lineup. So it’d be nice if they would start to, you know, hit.

Good news, friends! Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register is reporting that Ted Lilly will be activated tomorrow, though he slyly points out that  it “doesn’t sound like [Don Mattingly] knows what to do with him though.”

Like most of you, I’d hoped to never see Lilly in a Dodger uniform again, but I suppose there’s at least some utility here. There’s not really a long man on this team, and with guys like Matt Magill, Josh Beckett, and tonight’s starter, Chris Capuano, often having trouble working deep into games, a long man is a nice thing to have. You can’t continually get through short starts by asking J.P.Howell, Paco Rodriguez, & Matt Guerrier to work multiple innings. If it sounds like I’m grasping at straws here, perhaps I am, but I can live with Lilly pitching four innings in a blow out. I cannot live with him entering a tight game with men on base, nor do I really want to see him getting starts ahead of Magill. I imagine that Javy Guerra would be headed back to Triple-A to make room.

But Lilly isn’t here yet, so we’ll focus on the fact that Matt Kemp is once again hitting second and that Tim Federowicz gets the start behind the dish. I like that Federowicz is spelling A.J. Ellis because it means that Ramon Hernandez is not, and in fact Hernandez has started (and appeared) just once this month, back on May 7. It’s actually a little interesting that he’s not even being used as a pinch hitter with three catchers on the roster, but perhaps Mattingly has just as little idea why he’s on the roster as we do.

Of course, I can’t even hammer too much on the fact that Hernandez still exists, because there’s not exactly anyone in Albuquerque that I’m dying to see — maybe Alex Castellanos, but he’s only just back to action after spending weeks on the disabled list — and there’s a pretty damn good argument to make to drop Luis Cruz ahead of Hernandez. With Mark Ellis likely to be activated in the next few days, we can be happy to expect that at least one of those two anchors will finally be set adrift.

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.