The Los Angeles Dodgers conclude the unofficial first half of the 2017 season with Brandon McCarthy making the start Saturday, followed by Clayton Kershaw in the series finale against the Kansas City Royals on Sunday.
Beyond that, not much is set in terms of the starting rotation. Kershaw, Rich Hill and Alex Wood clearly will be part of it equation, but when they’ll make their starts is uncertain. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts indicated Kershaw was unlikely to start in either of the club’s first two games after the All-Star break.
Kenta Maeda is also factoring into the picture next week. “That’s something we’ll continue to talk about over the break,” Roberts said. “But I expect Kenta to be in the rotation when we start the second half.”
Roberts previously pointed to some uncertainty with McCarthy and Hyun-Jin Ryu as a hurdle to setting a post-All-Star break rotation at present time.
McCarthy returns from the disabled list Saturday and the start is also his first since a wild inning against the Colorado Rockies. Ryu remains on the DL due to a left foot contusion.
Maeda threw 86 pitches over five innings against the Royals on Friday night. It was an 11th start this season in which he went five frames or fewer. Maeda did allow just one run on four hits and had five strikeouts.
It was a bounce-back performance of sorts, as the right-hander managed to pitch just 3.2 innings in his previous start. “It was a solid outing. His stuff had teeth and he competed.The slider was really good, fastball had life to it, and he really pitched well,” Roberts said.
“There was that third and fourth inning with some stress in there. I thought the two-out walk wasn’t a good walk, it just led to some more pitches. Overall, Kenta threw really well. He was really good tonight.”
