Despite being less than two weeks into the regular season, the Los Angeles Dodgers have already made plenty of changes to their starting rotation.
Weather has played a factor, as last weekend’s series opener against the San Francisco Giants was postponed and rescheduled as a day-night doubleheader for later in the month. That led to the Dodgers skipping Kenta Maeda’s and Hyun-Jin Ryu’s expected turns in the rotation in favor of Rich Hill and Clayton Kershaw.
Illnesses have also contributed to the adjustments, as the Dodgers were forced to push back Alex Wood’s projected start one day to Wednesday. In his place, Ryu now takes the mound in the opener of a two-game set against the Oakland Athletics.
In the wake of all of the changes, Ryu admitted that he prefers pitching on a normal routine, via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
“For me, it is better when I know exactly when I’m going to pitch,” said Ryu. “We are basically animals of habit or routine. With the off-days, it’s harder physically, but mentally, I’m always ready to go.”
Under the guidance of manager Dave Roberts, the Dodgers have been accustomed to giving their pitching staff an occasional extra day of rest. That’s both come with stints on the disabled list or temporarily placing the likes of Maeda and Ryu in the bullpen.
But as Ryu notes, it can be difficult for certain pitchers — at least physically — to prepare for their next start after a long layoff. Ryu’s warmup routine prevented the Dodgers from seriously considering him as a reliever during the 2017 postseason.
Ryu has made just one start to date, in what was a loss against the Arizona Diamondbacks. He logged just 3.2 innings pitched, yielding five hits, five walks and three earned runs in the contest.
