Daily Distractions: The Dodgers are leading Major League Baseball into the Land of Lethargy.

Don Mattingly

The Dodgers and Washington Nationals sat through more than three hours of rain delays Monday night. (Associated Press photo)

Even when the Dodgers are fast, they’re slow.

Yesterday’s 4-0 loss to the Washington Nationals, which began at 7:05 p.m. in Washington, D.C., ended at 1:22 a.m. If you choose not to count the three hours, 17 minutes of rain-delay time toward the official time of game — this is what MLB does — the game lasted 2 hours and 59 minutes. In reality, more than six hours passed from the first pitch to the last, and the human beings at Nationals Park yesterday felt every second of it.

How many of those human beings made it past midnight? You’ll only need one hand for this exercise:

What’s really scary is that yesterday’s game was the Dodgers’ fastest in nearly two weeks. Not since they beat the Philadelphia Phillies 5-2 on April 23 have the Dodgers finished a game in less than three hours — again, officially.

There’s a trend around baseball for games getting longer. Has been for a while. A year ago, six teams finished games in less than three hours on average. In 2012 that number was 15. Dial it back 10 years to 2004 and only one team, the Baltimore Orioles, averaged as many as three hours per game.

This year? Only two teams — Cincinnati and San Diego — are finishing in less than three hours. And those two clubs are averaging 2:59 per game. The meaning of the 3-hour mark has been completely flipped on its head.

Unfortunately the Dodgers are leading the way in this department, with an MLB-worst 3:25 average time of game. Might as well sit back, find a good blog to read between innings, and enjoy the ride.

If you want to reach for a positive, try this one: The team who played the longest games last season, the Boston Red Sox, won the World Series.

Some bullet points for an International No Diet Day:
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Daily Distractions: After a long dry spell, Dodgers catchers are starting to hit.

Tim Federowicz

Tim Federowicz is batting .108 since being recalled from Triple-A Albuquerque. (Keith Birmingham/Staff photographer)

A.J. Ellis won’t be catching Clayton Kershaw‘s rehabilitation start Friday in Rancho Cucamonga.

The fact that this was even a possibility, 15 days after the catcher had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee, is a bit mind-boggling. Ellis has been taking batting practice regularly, caught Kershaw’s bullpen session Tuesday, and is running on an Alter-G anti-gravity treadmill — the same one that got Matt Kemp in shape during spring training.

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said that the initial 4-6 week timetable is still in play for Ellis, but that could change soon enough.

In the meantime, a couple trends have emerged. Drew Butera has caught three of Zack Greinke‘s last four starts. The term “personal catcher” hasn’t entered the discussion yet, but the two have had high praise for each other and Mattingly might choose to keep them paired together, even after Ellis returns.

Tim Federowicz has caught 10 games to Butera’s six since Ellis went down, and has just four hits in 37 at-bats. Two of those hits have come since Paul Goldschmidt whacked him in the left hand over the weekend.

“Each day is getting better,” Federowicz said Wednesday. “Right now I’m really focused on my defense. Offense will come. I’m not worried about it.”

Can fans be so patient?

In spite of the fact that the two healthy catchers have a modest three-game hitting streak, Federowicz and Butera are still batting a combined .145 (8 for 55) since Ellis had his surgery. For his part, Ellis was batting just .167 (4 for 24) before going on the DL.

The Dodgers might have bigger problems than this one, so it’s flown a bit under the radar. Just don’t expect to see any catchers batting higher than eighth unless one, at last, catches fire.

Some bullet points for a World Lab Animal Day:
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SportsNet LA releases details about its initial night of programming.

Vin Scully

Vin Scully will work the first Dodgers spring training telecast on SportsNet LA. (Associated Press photo)

The Dodgers announced the programming lineup for launch night of SportsNet LA, the team-owned network set to debut next Tuesday at 7 p.m.

The evening will begin with “Access SportsNet: Dodgers,” followed by the inaugural episode of “Backstage: Dodgers,” back-to-back “Connected With…” interview shows featuring Clayton Kershaw and Don Mattingly and a one-hour retrospective special about last year’s season.

Among the other “prominent Dodger personalities” that will be featured that night are co-owner Earvin “Magic” Johnson, broadcaster Vin Scully, and special advisor Tommy Lasorda.

SportsNet LA is still attempting to find carriers in addition to Time Warner. As of right now, only Time Warner subscribers will be able to tune in when the network goes live. A spokesperson for the network said that the channel number still hasn’t been announced.

Here are some more details, provided by the team, about SportsNet LA’s debut-night programs:

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How former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda introduced the manager of the San Francisco Giants.

Tommy Lasorda

Dodgers advisor Tommy Lasorda needed divine intervention to introduce San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy on Saturday. (Getty Images)

Tommy Lasorda was in rare form Saturday night. He publicly introduced a member of the San Francisco Giants.

Lasorda has spent 64 seasons in the Dodgers organization in some capacity or another — pitcher, manager, general manager and advisor, his current title. “If you don’t root for the Dodgers, you might not get into heaven,” is among his oft-repeated quotes. He’s embraced — even embodied — half of the Dodgers-Giants rivalry for his public persona. Lasorda has some oft-repeated quotes about the Giants too, but this is a family blog.

So it was interesting to see Lasorda on Saturday night at the Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation dinner in Beverly Hills, introducing the latest recipient of the award named in his honor: San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy.

“It’s very unusual,” Lasorda said. “When I said my prayers last night, first of all I asked God for forgiveness. I said: Dear Lord, I’m going to have to give a trophy to a Giant. The good Lord said, ‘Tommy, the guy you’re going to honor is great. Outstanding manager. A manager that has been so successful, well-liked, nice, easy-going guy. For me to allow him to receive the Tommy Lasorda award, you know there’s something wrong in his dinner tonight.’

Lasorda continued: “It gives me a great deal of pleasure to introduce the man who has led the Giants to two World Series in the last five years. Ladies and gentleman, my good friend” — the 86-year-old paused, pointing toward heaven and sending the packed room into laughter in one motion — “Mr. Bochy.”

If Lasorda hadn’t totally brought down the crowd, Bochy knocked ’em over with the last word.

Turning toward Lasorda, Bochy said, “you were my great-great-great grandmother’s favorite manager, you know.”

Tommy Lasorda fact-checks TBS’ Craig Sager on live television.

Tommy Lasorda

Tommy Lasorda spoke to Craig Sager during TBS’ broadcast of Game 3 of the NLDS on Sunday.

For all the flash that Craig Sager loves to bring in the wardrobe department to a TBS telecast, he leaves something to be desired when it comes to flashy fact checking.

During Friday’s Game 2 in Atlanta, he interviewed former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda and asked him about his 53 years as part of the organization.

“Sixty three,” Lasorda growled at him to correct the mistake.

After Sunday’s Game 3, Sager interviewed the Dodgers’ Carl Crawford and asked him about his “two-run homer in the second inning that gave them a lead they kept building on and building on.”

Crawford actually hit a three-run homer in the second to give the Dodgers a 4-2 lead. In the top of the third, the Braves tied the game at 4-4.

–reporting by colleague Tom Hoffarth