LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Dodgers' remaining 17 games are about clinching their division as quickly as possible and turning their attention to fielding the best playoff team they can from the players at their disposal.

They have a surprising array of decisions to make, but one aspect of the puzzle -- a big one -- has been handed to them at an unusually early stage in the process. Barring some kind of historic collapse from one of the two teams, the Dodgers will be playing the New York Mets in the first round.

Among the key decisions to be made is whether they use Clayton Kershaw on three days' rest, as they did in each of the previous two Octobers, or give a potential Game 4 start to Alex Wood, the young left-hander they landed from the Atlanta Braves shortly before the trade deadline.

That decision hasn't yet been made, sources indicate, and it's a good thing too, because on Wednesday morning it would have looked like Kershaw would be a lock to go on short rest. By 9:20 p.m. PT Wednesday, the vibe was "not so fast."

Wood bounced back from the worst start of his career to completely stymie the Colorado Rockies in the Dodgers' 2-0 win at Dodger Stadium Wednesday night. Wood (11-10) allowed just one hit over eight innings, needed just 78 pitches to do so and had a ground-ball rate of 68 percent, comparable to the best sinkerball pitchers in baseball history.

The result wasn't just a win for the Dodgers, it was a restoration of their sanity after the 16-inning game that had dragged into early Wednesday morning. Wood's game lasted 128 minutes, or 3 hours, 15 minutes shorter than the previous one.

"His stuff matched up really well. It just came down to executing," catcher A.J. Ellis said. "He was phenomenal tonight, as good as I've caught him."

It took Alex Wood just 78 pitches to get through eight innings Wednesday, allowing just one hit while striking out five without a walk. AP Photo/Danny Moloshok

The overall numbers suggest Wood is a solid choice to get a start in the postseason. He has done it before, pitching in relief for the Atlanta Braves against the Dodgers two years ago. He has a 3.63 ERA this season and using him against the Mets could line the Dodgers up in the best possible order for a match in the National League Championship Series with one of the powerhouses of the NL Central.

On the other hand, he is 0-3 with a 4.35 ERA in seven career starts against the Mets.

The Dodgers will crunch all of those numbers and dozens if not hundreds of others before spitting out a decision on that question. In the meantime, they reduced their magic number to clinch the NL West to 10 thanks to Wood's mastery and a couple little bursts of offense from a funky lineup necessitated by the late-night baseball from the game before.

The other aspect of all this is they learn a little more about Wood every time he takes the mound and he's one of only two pitchers in their current rotation that they're pretty confident they'll have with them on Opening Day 2016.

They're learning he's a pretty fiery guy, maybe even feisty, despite his less-than-intimidating fastball. When Dodgers manager Don Mattingly went to intercept him in the dugout after the eighth inning to tell him that, no matter what he said, he wouldn't be going out for the ninth inning, Wood refused to shake his hand at first.

"He looked at me kind of funny," Mattingly said. "I just said, ‘That's it. Don't even ask.'"

The Dodgers had Kenley Jansen standing by on two days' rest and they have an open date on Thursday, so barring a four-run lead, they were going to take the ball from Wood at that point and give it to their hard-throwing closer. After the requisite cooling-off period, Wood said he had no problem with the decision and seemed a little embarrassed he pulled back his hand when Mattingly went in for the shake.

"I've always said all I want to do is win," Wood said. "As long as we come out on top, I'm all about it."

Wood called the four days in between starts "long" and said he didn't get a lot of sleep. When he was at the ballpark, he worked with pitching coach Rick Honeycutt on getting his hands to a better position. The results were startlingly different. The previous Friday in Arizona, he had needed 62 pitches to get five outs and he allowed eight runs on eight hits.

He needed 15 pitches to get his first five outs Wednesday.

"My last start, I didn't command my fastball, I couldn't throw my changeup and, obviously, I threw some pretty bad breaking balls," Wood said. "Usually, you have at least one, even on your worst days. Tonight, my fastball was moving in and out, I commanded my changeup and threw breaking balls. It was a good night."

If he can say that a few more times in the coming weeks, who knows, maybe he'll be saying it again amid the mist of champagne in the air.