Dodgers @ Twins May 1, 2014: Game One

target-fieldAre you ready for absurd amounts of baseball in cold, cold Minnesota? No? Too bad! It’s happening anyway. As expected, Red Patterson was added to the roster and will start the second game this afternoon, while Nick Buss was DFA’d. But we’ll get to that later, because first there’s a Game 1… probably.

I say that because if you thought last night was fun, with every player bundled up for an Arctic adventure and Yasiel Puig looking like he was about to invade Russia, well, know that the temperature right now in Minnesota is a balmy 38 degrees, with a 60 percent chance of rain. Oh, and with the wind chill, it feels like 30. Baseball, I guess?

Dodgers
Twins
10:10 am PT
Minneapolis, MN
2B
Gordon
2B
Dozier
RF
Puig
1B
Mauer
SS
Ramirez
3B
Plouffe
1B
Gonzalez
LF
Kubel
DH
Kemp
DH
Pinto
CF
Ethier
C
Suzuki
3B
Uribe
RF
Fuld
C
Olivo
CF
Hicks
LF
Crawford
SS
Escobar

That’s what Dan Haren gets to deal with against Mike Pelfrey, and the lineup behind him is almost exactly the same as Zack Greinke had last night. Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier have swapped DH and CF, and Miguel Olivo makes his Dodger debut behind the plate, but otherwise it’s the same.

I presume that when the Twins throw out lefty Kris Johnson in the second game — like the Dodgers, they’ve called up a minor leaguer with their 26th man to start — we’ll see Scott Van Slyke at the very least, replacing either Ethier or Carl Crawford, and potentially Justin Turner as well. Thanks to the short bench — they had 13 pitchers even before Patterson — and the DH, Van Slyke and Turner are the only two bench players the Dodgers even have today, not counting Tim Federowicz as the backup catcher.

Crawford, it should be noted, is batting behind Olivo. I’m sure Don Mattingly would give you some line about “a second leadoff man” in the ninth spot, and maybe there’s even some validity to that. But, you know, it sure does say something about how well Crawford is playing right now too, doesn’t it?

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About Mike Petriello

Mike writes about lots of baseball in lots of places, and right now that place is MLB.com.