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By Jon Weisman

Carl Crawford appears off to a healthy start in his rehab assignment at Albuquerque.

Testing for the third game in a row the left ankle that has had him on the disabled list for six weeks, Crawford stole a base, singled and tripled Monday for the Isotopes while playing the entire game, reports Christopher Jackson of Albuquerque Baseball Examiner.

“I haven’t seen anything that has been hampering him as far as the ankle,” Isotopes manager Damon Berryhill told Jackson. “He’s been explosive. He’s gotten good breaks on the ball in the outfield. I think his swing, he says it feels it good. He hasn’t complained about anything. I think he’s due to go six more (innings) here (Tuesday).”

Mike Petriello of Dodgers Digest has more. If the Dodgers keep Crawford to the estimated five or six games of rehab, that would mean activating him Thursday or Friday in Los Angeles. Earlier this week, Dodger manager Don Mattingly told Ken Gurnick of MLB.com that “not that worried” about how Crawford’s return will affect the Dodgers northward march in the standings. …

“We’ll deal with it when he gets here,” said Mattingly. “We’re playing good and I don’t expect too many changes messing with it.”

But Mattingly cautioned not to conclude that means Crawford won’t play.

“You never know what happens in five or six days,” he said. “Things tend to work themselves out.”

  • The best opening of the day goes to Jeff Sullivan at Fangraphs: “The last time Clayton Kershaw allowed a run, his team was trailing the Giants in the National League West by seven and a half games.” With San Francisco losing Monday, the Dodgers have gained 8 1/2 games in the standings during Kershaw’s scoreless inning streak.
  • You know this already, but it’s still painful to see Andrew Grant describe at True Blue L.A. how poorly the Dodgers have at the Home Run Derby.
  • Corey Seager and Joc Pederson made the MLBPipeline.com First-Half All-Prospect team, as Jonathan Mayo chronicles for MLB.com.
  • At Deadspin’s The Stacks, Alex Belth brought back this tremendous seven-year-old piece by John Schulian on Jim Brosnan — actually Schulian’s introduction of Brosnan for his induction into the Baseball Reliquary’s Shrine of the Eternals. Must-read piece on Brosnan, who died late last month.