Chris Heisey/Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Dodgers

Chris Heisey was in the dugout Thursday afternoon when Clayton Kershaw engaged manager Don Mattingly in an animated discussion after Mattingly informed Kershaw he was coming out for a pinch-hitter leading off the bottom of the fifth inning.

Heisey hit a grand slam to cap off the six-run fifth, giving the Dodgers a 6-3 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks to reduce their magic number to clinch the NL West to least four pending the outcome of the night game between the second-place Giants and San Diego Padres.

Heisey listened in on the conversation between Kershaw and Mattingly. He loved it.

“I was intent on listening to what he (Kershaw) had to say,” Heisey said. “He’s the best pitcher in baseball and I love the fact that he didn’t want to come out of the game and I also respect the coaches for making the decision to get him out of there. We were down 3-0 and you get to save his arm a little bit. But you can’t ever argue with the competitive spirit he has. You want to play behind the guy and play with a guy that cares to be in a game.”

By the way, thanks to Heisey, Kershaw earned his 15th win.