Don Mattingly was in the right place at the right time when he got his job as manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now he’s in the wrong place at the wrong time when he will very possibly lose his job as manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Mattingly, the former New York Yankees first baseman, is the first manager in the coast-to-coast history of the Dodgers to win three consecutive division (Los Angeles) or league (Brooklyn) championships. His potentially fatal shortcoming, however, could be his failure to manage the Los Angeles version of the franchise deeper into the post-season.

The Dodgers beat Atlanta in the division series in 2013 but lost to St. Louis in the league series. The following season the Dodgers lost to the Cardinals in the division series. Last week the third time was not the charm for Mattingly, whose team …

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Chase Utley’s flip of Ruben Tejada on a controversial aggressive takeout slide apparently wasn’t enough entertainment for this post-season so in one inning in a Wednesday game we got a double dose:

* Texas scored a tie-breaking run in the seventh inning of Game 5 when the catcher’s return throw to the pitcher hit the batter’s bat and the runner at third base, Roughned Odor, raced home. Umpire Dale Scott initially called time and sent Odor back to third but realized his mistake, explaining after the game that he had confused two rules and called the wrong one.

* In Toronto’s half of the inning, with Cole Hamels pitching with a 3-2 lead, the first three Toronto batters reached base on errors on ground balls. The Rangers successfully fielded a fourth straight grounder and turned it into a force at home before Josh Donadson’s pop-up fell just over the infield to produce the tying run. Jose Bautista then slugged a three-run home run for an eventual 6-3 victory and a trip to the American League Championship Series.

Nothing controversial intruded on the final game of that division series, but …

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Perhaps you have heard the adage that you can see something new every time you watch a baseball game. As many games as I have seen at a ball park or watched on television, I didn’t think that adage could apply any more. But Saturday night I saw something I had never seen before. I saw a runner called safe when he never touched the base.

This happened in the seventh inning of the second game of the division series between the Mets and the Dodges. The Mets were winning, 2-1, with Noah Syndergaard pitching. The Dodgers had runners at first and third.

Howie Kendrick hit a ground ball to second baseman Daniel Murphy, who made a less-than perfect throw to Ruben Tejada, the shortstop, who was at second base. Tejada caught the throw with his back to the infield and was turning to …

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