Parties can be messy

Alex Torres, the Dodgers’ clubhouse manager, said he was a little torn by the champagne-and-beerfueled celebration Friday that followed the team’s division-clinching victory.

On one hand it was a tremendous achievement by a group of guys with whom he spends most of his waking hours. On the other hand, it trashed the clubhouse, soaking the carpet and soiling the low acoustic ceiling.

But overnight a huge cleaning crew steamcleaned the blue carpet and treated the ceiling tiles so when Torres arrived at work late Saturday morning, the only reminder of the party was the smell of champagne, which hung in the air like extra-sweet air freshener.

“Aside from the smell, it’s like nothing happened,” Torres said.

The Dodgers have had a lot of practice with cleaning up champagne parties since they clinched three of their last five division titles at home.

Torres said that cleaning up after a party is still better than going home on the first weekend in October.

“You always want to do it the sooner the better,” he said of reaching the playoffs. “As long as you get it done.”

Dodgers might play Padres in Mexico

The Dodgers and San Diego Padres might play a series in Monterrey, Mexico, in May.

Major League Baseball tentatively had scheduled the Dodgers and Padres to play in Mexico City in April but issues with the development of a new stadium there compelled MLB to look elsewhere, even before the powerful earthquake that struck Mexico City on Tuesday.

Commissioner Rob Manfred said MLB had started to look at Mexican ballparks that hosted major league games. The Monterrey ballpark is the only one that has done so, most recently when the Padres played the Colorado Rockies in 1999.

The Dodgers last played internationally in 2014, when they opened the regular season in Australia, against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Padres market extensively in Mexico and played a 1996 regular-season series in Monterrey against the New York Mets.

Mexican news reports said the games were set for May 4-6, which would replace a three-game Dodgers-Padres series that weekend in San Diego.

Turner is ailing

Third baseman Justin Turner, who is battling a stomach virus, was one of the last players to arrive in the Dodgers clubhouse. Turner, who showed up wearing a USC wool cap and a Trojans football jersey, said he felt better than he did Friday but still not good enough to play.

“He’s still trying to get his strength back,” said manager Dave Roberts, who wouldn’t venture a guess as to when Turner, the National League’s secondleading hitter, would return to the lineup.