With an off day to let a disappointing series loss to the Miami Marlins wash away, the Los Angeles Dodgers now embark on a season-long road trip that calls for 11 games in 10 days. On the docket are series with the San Francisco Giants, Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres.
Aside from the prolonged stretch away from Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers face the challenge of a day-night doubleheader at AT&T Park on Saturday, and will travel internationally to face the Padres at Estadio de Béisbol Monterrey in Mexico.
The grueling schedule figures to test all aspects of the Dodgers roster, though manager Dave Roberts is particularly mindful of his pitching staff.
In the first episode of the “The Doc and Joe Show,” Roberts explained he’ll lean more heavily on his starting pitchers throughout the road trip, via the Dodgers’ Facebook page:
“The thing that I look at is, on the second day of the road trip we have a doubleheader in San Francisco. … And then we have a day game on Sunday. So for me, it’s thinking about how to set ourselves up for the doubleheader with pitching. Relief pitching, in particular. To then have to have these guys ready for the day game the next day and that stretch of 11 games in a row. … I’m going to probably push our starters more during that stretch because we’re going to need our relievers to be fresh for that road trip.”
Roberts’ intention to rely on starters goes against the blueprint the team has followed since last season. And thus far, he’s brought a quick hook more times than not.
Entering Friday’s series opener against the Giants, only Clayton Kershaw has completed at least six innings with any regularity, doing so five times. Alex Wood and Hyun-Jin Ryu are next with three such starts, while Rich Hill and Kenta Maeda have each done so once.
The aforementioned hurlers have made a combined 22 of 23 starts thus far. Walker Buehler went five innings in his first career Major League outing. Dodgers starters have thrown 218.1 innings, which ranks sixth in the Majors.
Their bullpen also ranks 10th overall, having thrown 89.1 innings.
