PHOENIX — With three of the last nine days off http://www.washingtonredskinsteamonline.com/matthew-ioannidis-jersey , the Arizona Diamondbacks opted to tweak their starting rotation heading into the meaty final portion of the season that includes eight series against division leaders and/or playoff contenders.Right-hander Zack Godley was pushed ahead of left-hander Robbie Ray as the Diamondbacks flip-flopped the two before entering a three-game interleague series against American League West contender Seattle on Friday.Godley will be starting Friday on five days’ rest after an off day Thursday, and Ray will start the second game of the series on seven days’ rest. Zack Greinke is to pitch the series finale on Sunday.Article continues below ...“Whether it be short term or long term, we just thought it was something that we wanted to look at,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said. “We’ll have opportunities to switch back around in a couple of weeks, but we’ll see how this works for a little while.”Seattle right-hander Erasmo Ramirez (0-2, 5.49 ERA) is scheduled to oppose Godley in the opener on Friday.Godley (13-6, 4.44) has zoomed past his career high in victories and is on pace to break his career highs in strikeouts, starts and innings in his first full season in the Arizona rotation. His 1.45 WHIP is high, but he has made pitches when he needed to, as opponents are hitting .245 against him with runners in scoring position. He has benefited from his team averaging 4.8 runs per game in his starts and has won eight of nine decisions in his last 14 appearances. He has not lost since July 1 against San Francisco. Like Godley, the Diamondbacks (71-56) will enter on a roll. They have won six of seven games to regain first place in the National League West and put a smidge of distance between themselves and the crowded pack in contention for the two NL wild-card berths.Outfielder David Peralta is in the best stretch of his career, which includes a career-high 25 homers this season. He has homered in three straight games and in nine of his last 17 in a torrid August, during which he is 29-for-68 (.426) with 17 RBIs and a 1.391 OPS.“I keep saying it, he’s on his way to having a special year Authentic Adrian Peterson Jersey ,” Lovullo said.Paul Goldschmidt brings a 14-game hitting streak into the series, during which he is 26-for-58 (.448) with six doubles, five homers and 13 RBIs. He has 29 homers, and his two-run shot in the first inning of a 5-1 victory over the Angels on Wednesday was his franchise-record 96th at Chase Field. Goldschmidt leads the NL with 263 total bases (not including the Dodgers’ Manny Machado, who played most of this season in Baltimore).The Mariners (72-56) have won 14 of the previous 24 meetings between the teams, although they have not played since July 27-29, 2015, when the Diamondbacks swept a three-game series at Safeco Field.Godley beat the Mariners 8-4 in the second game of the series in his second major league start, and he has not faced them since. The Diamondbacks took two of three games the last time met in Arizona in 2012.After sweeping a four-game road series against NL West leader Houston two weeks ago, Seattle has dropped six of nine game to fall 5 1/2 games behind Houston in the division while losing series to Oakland, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Astros. They trail the Yankees and Oakland in the AL wild-card chase while starting a nine-game road trip Friday that concludes with four games in Oakland on Labor Day weekend.“Unfortunately, we haven’t put it together,” Mariners manager Scott Servais told reporters after a 10-7 loss to the Astros on Wednesday. “To beat the good teams, they’re not going to fold. You got to play a complete game and do it on both sides of the ball.”No. 1 starter James Paxton is on the disabled list with forearm swelling and will miss the series in Arizona Adrian Peterson Jersey Elite , but the Mariners are hoping he can return for Oakland.Robinson Cano has a five-game hitting streak and has hit safely in seven of eight games since he returned from suspension on Aug. 14. He has three doubles, a homer and three RBIs in that stretch.Cano made his first career start at third base on Wednesday, when he hit his 525th career double, tied with Ted Williams for 45th in major league history.Ramirez has put together back-to-back good outings since joining the rotation on Aug. 12, even though he has not received a decision in two Mariners victories.He gave up one run and three hits in five innings against the Dodgers last Saturday after giving up three hits in five scoreless innings in a no-decision at Houston on Aug. 12. He allowed seven homers in 9 2/3 innings of his first two starts of the season in April before missing four months with a shoulder injury.With the Tampa Bay Rays, Ramirez made two career appearances against the Diamondbacks and is 0-0 with a 6.00 ERA. He pitched two innings of scoreless relief in the most recent appearance in 2016. Even before he took the mound to twirl a playoff masterpiece, the talk was it could be the last time Clayton Kershaw — who has an opt-out clause in the contract that will pay him $65 million the next two years — wears the Dodgers home whites.That would be bad for the Dodgers on two fronts.No. 1, it would mean they lose the next two games in Milwaukee and fall short of the World Series. No. 2, it would mean they lose a pitcher who is in the conversation just after Sandy Koufax when it comes to the all-time Dodger greats.Don’t fear, Dodger fans. It’s highly doubtful Kershaw is going anywhere.The ace lefty was coy talking about possible free agency before his start Wednesday in Los Angeles, when he redeemed himself for a dismal performance in Game 1 of the NLCS by pitching three-hit ball over seven innings as the Dodgers moved within a game of the World Series with a 5-2 win.He said the kind of things a player is supposed to say to avoid tipping off his thoughts or alienating any of his fans.“I have not made a decision,” Kershaw said. “And to my understanding you get 10 days after the World Series. So should be a busy 10 days.”Kershaw has the contractual right to opt out of the seven-year deal signed in 2014 that pays him $215 million, and to use the leverage that comes with it. That’s likely, at the very least http://www.washingtonredskinsteamonline.com/adrian-peterson-jersey , to get him a few more years at the same kind of money he’s making today.Make no mistake about it, that money is huge. Kershaw is making $34 million this year, putting him just behind Angels outfielder Mike Trout after leading the highest-paid list for the previous three years.And, for the most part, Kershaw has earned his pay. He’s an astonishing 153-69 in 11 years as a Dodger, with an ERA of 2.39 and a WAR (wins above replacement) of 62.1.But his innings are in decline, partly because of injury and partly because of the way baseball is evolving. Kershaw’s ERA has inched up as his fastball has gone down in velocity, and he’s no longer the automatic win Dodger fans pencil him in for every time he takes the mound.By itself, that might not be enough for teams to pass on emptying the wallet to sign him. There aren’t many impact players like Kershaw, and the idea of him taking the mound every five days would have any general manager salivating.But baseball doesn’t value the starting pitcher like it used to, which was on display in Wednesday’s game when Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell removed starter Wade Miley after just five pitches. The move was unconventional and made mostly because Counsell hoped the Dodgers would load their lineup with right-handed hitters, but the trend across baseball is toward using starters less and replacing them with multiple relievers.Fox analyst and Hall of Famer John Smoltz believes the analytical age is causing teams to rethink the traditional rotation. It’s cheaper — and sometimes more effective — to have pitchers throw as hard as they can for as long as they can, he says, and then replace them with another pitcher who can do the same.“It’s hard-pressed for me to think that at the end of the day this is not just a cheaper version of baseball Authentic D.J. Swearinger SR Jersey ,” Smoltz said earlier this year. “You can operate your team paying guys less and utilizing them in their younger years when they’re not making so much. Burn and churn and just keep shuffling the deck in the bullpen.”Kershaw’s value to the Dodgers was also questioned when he was passed over as Game 1 starter in the division series against Atlanta. Kershaw was miffed, then went out to pitch eight innings of two-hit ball to win Game 2.But he stumbled when picked to start the NLCS, not getting an out in the fourth inning before being pulled. And while he rebounded against the Brewers in Game 5, the knock on Kershaw is that, for all his greatness, he has underperformed at crucial times in the postseason and has yet to deliver the Dodgers a World Series title.That could change in the next two weeks as the Dodgers chase their first championship in 30 years. It might also convince the Dodgers to add as many years onto Kershaw’s contract as he will likely want.It will be money well spent, because Kershaw is as much an institution in LA as the great Dodger pitchers of the past. Vin Scully himself has compared him to Koufax except, of course, for the fact Koufax won three World Series rings in Los Angeles.No matter what happens in Milwaukee, though, expect Kershaw to remain a Dodger for years to come.____Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlberg@ap.org or http://twitter.com/timdahlberg