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LOS ANGELES -- The Dodgers season series with the Arizona Diamondbacks went just swimmingly for the defending NL West champions. Adrian Gonzalez hit a pair of three-run homers to reach 100 RBIs for the seventh time, and Los Angeles capped a three-game sweep of the downtrodden Diamondbacks with a 7-2 victory Sunday after being held hitless by Trevor Cahill for more than five innings. Los Angeles won 15 of the 19 meetings against manager Kirk Gibsons injury-ravaged club, which still harbours resentment over the way the Dodgers celebrated clinching the division title last season by romping around in the swimming pool at Chase Field after the obligatory clubhouse champagne ritual. "We dont really buy into that. For us, its just about winning games," Gonzalez said. "Theyre a team that we were able to handle pretty well this year. Obviously, we have really good pitching and these guys do a really good job of preparing for their hitters." Los Angeles increased its lead in the NL West to three games over San Francisco, which lost 6-1 at Detroit later. It is the fifth time since the start of divisional play in 1969 that the Dodgers defeated a team 15 or more times in one season. They were 16-3 against Arizona in 2004, 16-2 against San Diego in 1974, 15-2 against Atlanta in 1973 and 15-4 against Colorado in 2006. "Sometimes you have those years when you play well against a team, and this year its the Diamondbacks," said Matt Kemp, who homered and threw out a runner at the plate to complete a double play with the bases loaded in the second. Cahill (3-11) yielded three runs, two hits and four walks in 5 2-3 innings. The right-hander went 0-4 in four starts against the Dodgers this season, allowing 20 earned runs in 17 innings. "This is a terrible series weve had against these guys this year," Gibson said. "Weve had years where weve had their number, but Gonzalez and Kemp both hit our pitching good this year and did a lot of damage." Zack Greinke (14-8) gave up two runs and six hits before he was lifted for a pinch-hitter during Los Angeles three-run sixth. The division-leading Dodgers now have three pitchers with at least 14 wins in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 1977-78, when they had four in both years. Greinke, the 2009 AL Cy Young Award winner, is 5-0 with a 1.59 ERA in his last six starts against Arizona. Dee Gordon slapped Cahills 68th pitch of the game, a sinker down and away, inside the left-field line for an opposite-field double that broke up the no-hit bid with one out in the sixth. Hanley Ramirez walked on four pitches and Gonzalez smacked a 3-1 delivery over the centre-field fence. "Im looking for the same pitch, every pitch from him -- fastball middle-in, and stay up the middle," Gonzalez said. "He missed some barrels earlier with all that movement he had on his pitches. But for us, it was more about just staying with our game plan and trying to hit strikes." Gonzalez, whose six RBIs tied a career high, made it 6-2 in the seventh against Oliver Perez with his 22nd homer. That gave the four-time All-Star 31 homers and 101 RBIs against the Diamondbacks, more than any other active player. Kemp homered on Perezs next pitch, and the left-hander then plunked Andre Ethier with a slider -- resulting in a warning to both benches by plate umpire Scott Barry. That was followed by some extracurricular chirping by Dodgers manager Don Mattingly and ace Clayton Kershaw, leading to the ejections of both. DOWN IN THE ORDER Dodgers CF Yasiel Puig, whose average has dipped from .323 on Aug. 3 to .293 -- his lowest since April 30 -- was 0 for 2 with a walk after getting dropped to seventh in the lineup for the first time in his two-year career. "Who do you want the extra at-bat going to? Right now, thats not necessarily Yasiel," Mattingly said. "Yas is probably hitting where he should be hitting right now. I think its a place where youre not putting extra pressure on him." UP NEXT Dodgers: Kershaw (17-3, 1.70 ERA) faces San Diego on Monday night in the opener of a three-game series. The two-time NL Cy Young Award winner has a chance to become the first Dodgers starter to finish with an ERA under 2.00 in consecutive seasons since Sandy Koufax (1963-64). Kershaw is 14-1 with a 1.21 ERA and six complete games over his last 17 starts, including a no-hitter. Diamondbacks: Wade Miley (7-10, 4.18 ERA) makes his 100th big league start Tuesday night at San Francisco as the Diamondbacks begin a stretch of nine games in which they will face the Giants six times. Arizona trails the season series 8-5. 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Every goalie has a specific skill set - I call this the toolbox - and youre trying things and adding them if they work for you along the way. Certain plays, saves, reads and how you consistently play them help define you as a goaltender. With the evolution of goaltending at an all-time high over the last 20 years, most goaltenders play relatively the same way - especially in their save selection in certain areas of the crease. Where it differs is how you arrive to make the save. Some goalies play deeper in their net, while others play more aggressive. Some netminders have better lateral movement and flexibility and some play a more upright style, while others play with more patience. The bottom line is that everyone plays a little bit different from one other. When I started to look at how guys play in the league today, there wasnt much difference in what I would term the middle group. Its their modified styles that are the most noticeable difference. Lets start with the majority group - the hybrid goaltender. These are the goaltenders that have a lot of different skills in their tool box, play with structure, a near-predictability in their save selection and are basically a cross between a standup goalie and a butterfly goalie. Aggressive, But With Structure These goaltenders play the top of their crease and will try and take as much ice as they can. They use athleticism, try not to open a lot of holes and work within the confines of good crease management. When theyre on their game, they make it look easy because the puck hits them and dies. Modifications of it are also noticeable if the goaltender plays more upright or in a deeper crouch. Goaltenders in this category include Floridas Roberto Luongo, Bostons Tuukka Rask, Ryan Miller of the Vancouver Canucks, Detroit netminder Jimmy Howard, Washingtons Braden Holtby, Antti Niemi of the San Jose Sharks, Brian Elliott of the St. Louis Blues, Columbus Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, Chicagos Corey Crawford, Kari Lehtonen of the Dallas Stars, Ottawas Craig Anderson, Colorados Semyon Varlamov and Ben Scrivens of the Edmonton Oilers. Most goalies go down on almost every play to take away the lower part of the net because shots are rarely clean nowadays. With net-front traffic, screens and tips, the puck changes directions constantly. With the middle group comes the aggressive hybrid style - and you can lump most of todays goaltenders into that category. And theres different groups within this category based on how they react to shots. Patient With Structure These are goaltenders wwho dont go chasing the puck - they allow the puck to come to them.dddddddddddd. They still incorporate all the features of a good hybrid style, but look a lot more relaxed doing it. Theyre very efficient with their use of energy, almost to the point that they could be accused sometimes of not trying on certain shots. Goaltenders in this category include Montreals Carey Price, Phillys Steve Mason, Darcy Kuemper of the Minnesota Wild, New Jerseys Cory Schneider, Torontos Jonathan Bernier, Cam Ward of the Carolina Hurricanes, Jaroslav Halak of the New York Islanders and Buffalos Jhonas Enroth. Aggressive And Athletic/Garage Sale These guys have all the skills and have the athleticism to get away from structure, but will stop the puck by any means necessary. Theyll use flexibility, quickness and willpower to keep the puck out of the net and throw everything they have at the puck to make the save. Were talking about Jonathan Quick of the Los Angeles Kings, Nashvilles Pekka Rinne, Marc-Andre Fleury of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Winnipegs Ondrej Pavelec. Deep And Athletic Netminders that use their size and athleticism to their advantage. But theres also no margin for error, as they play a foot-and-a-half deeper within the blue paint. It helps to conserve energy, be more efficient on side to side plays and theres not a lot of scramble mode. This includes Tampa Bays Ben Bishop, Mike Smith of the Phoenix Coyotes and New Yorks Henrik Lundqvist. Pure Butterfly I term butterfly as more the style of a save. Calgarys Jonas Hiller makes no apologies for playing from his knees, uses the 6-foot-2 frame to be as big as he can and tries to force shooters to go high. Standup Style This has gone the way of the Dodo in todays NHL. It used to be the style for most of the league, but the biggest adaptation in goaltending over the last 20 years has been covering that lower part of the net where 80 per cent of the shots end up going. Now the 30 NHL starters listed above each have unique traits that separate one from another. But it all comes back to structure and base and whats in your toolbox. At least 13 of 30 starters play an aggressive game with structure. Maybe thats why when it comes to goaltending chats, people always say theyre interchangeable. Its how they use and incorporate the skills that separates the good ones from the elite ones. It also includes the extras or intangibles. I know my analytics friends hate those words, but when it comes to goalies, thats just a fact. Durability and mental capacity, along with the skills Ive talked about above, are what really separate the good from the great. And that will be for another chat to come. ' ' '