Dodgers @ Twins May 1, 2014: Game One

Are 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?

[table id=5 /]