Hiroki Kuroda to Miss Division Series

The slumping Los Angeles Dodgers will not have Hiroki Kuroda on their roster when they open the National League Division Series this Wednesday.

Kuroda has been ruled out of the first round by mananger Joe Torre after "a small herniation of the cervical spine" was discovered following an MRI on his ailing neck.

The Dodgers have struggled mightily over the last week, losing five straight entering play Saturday and watching their lead in the NL West dwindle to one game as Colorado matched their skid with a five-game winning streak of its own. In other words, Los Angeles wasn't exactly steamrolling toward the postseason to begin with; now it will be without Kuroda, who probably would have started for Torre in Game 2 or 3.

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The Dodgers training staff indicated that Kuroda's neck troubles did not have anything to do with the line drive he took off of his head in mid-August that resulted in a concussion, an assessment the right-hander couldn't entirely confirm.

"It's hard to say, but ever since I got hit by the line drive I've had discomfort in my neck and also in my upper back," Kuroda said through interpreter Kenji Nimura. "It could be related but I don't really know the details."

Kuroda has not been ruled out of later rounds.

"It's not surgical; it's not something they need to work on," Torre said. "It's a matter of having the pain be relieved and being able to throw. If we get to go on in the postseason, we're still looking at him to still be a part of it."

The injury does open the door for another one of the Dodgers' six starting pitchers to be in the playoff rotation. Randy Wolf and Clayton Kershaw are almost certain to start Games 1 and 2 in some order. That leaves two spots open to three potential starters -- Chad Billingsley, Jon Garland and Vicente Padilla.