Dodgers hold team meeting before homestand

LOS ANGELES -- Before Thursday's loss to the Giants, the Dodgers, in their first game back home after a long road trip that saw them go 5-4 yet somehow still feel disappointed, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly called a team meeting.

Just as the clubhouse opened to media before Thursday's game, there were no players in the locker room for at least 20 minutes, as the meeting was still ongoing. Mattingly didn't want to discuss any specific details of said meeting.

"We really just talked about our club, about where we're going, and how we'll get there," he explained, then reiterated the same answer when asked a different way.

The Dodgers have lost five of their seven games against the Giants and are 3½ behind them in the National League West. Before the game it was 2½ games, and the Dodgers had lost both previous series against San Francisco.

"This is a tough series," Matingly said. "We have to establish that we can play with them."

Starter Josh Beckett, after the game, went into slightly more detail.

"Donnie felt like we needed to talk about where we ultimately want to get to. He saw some things that we can do better to improve our chances of that," Beckett recalled. "Every team I've ever been on you've always had to have those 'come to Jesus' meetings, and not be playing scared."