PUSHIN' FROWARD

Dodgers not alternating plans after Kershaw's back injury

CLAYTON Kershaw injured his back for a second straight season — yet the Dodgers were seeing the positives.

First, their initial reports were this ailment was not nearly as bad as in 2016, when the ace lefthander missed nine weeks with a herniated disk. The expectation is he will be back in four-to-six weeks, though he still had to see back specialist Dr. Robert Watkins.

The fringe benefit for the Dodgers — as long as Kershaw emerges healthy and gets back to form in September — is the possibility of having a fresher No. 1 starter in the postseason. At the time of the injury, Kershaw’s 141 ¹/3 innings were tied for the most in the majors.

Two other factors to consider with Kershaw going down:

1. Max Scherzer’s greatest competition to repeat as the NL Cy Young winner has gone away, meaning the Nationals’ righty is now well-positioned to tie Kershaw for most Cys won by an active player at three.

2. It has been pretty much a foregone conclusion Kershaw would opt out of his contract after next season. But does a second straight year in which his back flared up scare the industry enough about even the best starter of his generation to move Kershaw to just stick with the two years at $65 million he is owed in 2019-20?

That is a down-the-road question. In the present, Dodgers offi- cials insist Kershaw’s injury incurred Sunday when he had to leave after two innings does not move them to deviate from their trade deadline plans.

They have the majors’ best record, lead the NL West by 10 ¹/2 games and have the muscle memory of knowing they played brilliantly without Kershaw last year. The Dodgers’ deadline focus has been on adding players who get them through October, rather than to October.

That is why their main rotation attraction has been Texas’ Yu Darvish, whom they could envision starting behind Kershaw and in front of Alex Wood and Rich Hill in a postseason series. But the Rangers just swept the Rays to move within 2 ¹/2 games of the second wild card and currently are in a mode of trying to make the playoffs.

If that changes in the next few days, few organizations are as deep in prospects — if any — to get Darvish or Baltimore’s Zach Britton, or both. And Los Angeles officials know the clubhouse expects it to upgrade the roster, and a bad vibe could be forged if nothing is done.

But their priority will be getting Kershaw right, knowing that to win their first title since 1988, the Dodgers almost certainly will need their ace performing at a peak level, which he was this year in going 15-2 with a 2.04 ERA — before heading to the DL.