Monday marked the start of the Los Angeles Dodgers playing 10 consecutive games against a National League West rival, and they began the stretch with win in extra innings against the San Diego Padres.
After completing a three-game series at Petco Park, the Dodgers will have an off day before welcoming the San Francisco Giants to Dodger Stadium for a weekend set. This week is the first time the Dodgers are playing the Padres or Giants in 2025.
That’s in stark comparison to already having finished a season series with the Chicago Cubs and Atlanta Braves.
“The scheduling, thank goodness I don’t have to deal with it,” Roberts said on Monday. “It’s really interesting how it’s playing out as such. We’re going to get very familiar with these guys here in the next week.”
The Dodgers went into their proverbial rivalry week with a one-game lead over both the Padres and Giants. That adds more intrigue to the matchups, but Roberts is hardly putting much stock into them.
“I don’t think either way is going to really impact the rest of the year,” he said. “Again, we see these guys next week too. So I think it will be more clear after we see these guys in that four-game series at home. I just think it’s going to be fun to play against these guys.
“Honestly, right now in June, it’s just a little too early.”
Dave Roberts sets goal for Dodgers
While choosing not to mention a target number of wins as a goal for the Dodgers in their current stretch of NL West games, Roberts did point to remaining atop the division standings.
“I think knowing we’re going to be facing some really good opponents, playing some pretty good baseball, try to win as many as we can,” he said.
“I think the goal is certainly to come out of this in first place. We can control that.”
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