LOS ANGELES — There has not been a rainout at Dodger Stadium in more than 23 years. MLB has stepped in to give that a good chance of continuing.
Sunday’s games in Los Angeles, San Diego and Anaheim have all been moved to Saturday in order to avoid the anticipated arrival of Hurricane Hilary in Southern California.
The Dodgers will play a split day-night doubleheader against the Miami Marlins with games starting at noon and 6 p.m. Fans with tickets for Sunday’s rescheduled game can use them for Saturday’s early game. The stadium will be cleared between games and only fans with tickets for Saturday’s originally scheduled game will be allowed in for the night game.
“I’m very grateful that they were proactive,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of the decision made Friday afternoon.
“This is crazy. I mean, a hurricane in Southern California is unprecedented, clearly. I just want to make sure that we get ahead of it, people get safe and it passes us by.”
The schedule change will require some changes in the Dodgers’ weekend pitching plans – but offers them a rare two-day break Sunday and Monday before they start a six-game road trip in Cleveland on Tuesday.
Left-hander Julio Urias had been scheduled to start Saturday and will pitch the night game.
The early game will be “a bullpen game,” Roberts said, but it is likely to feature the combination of left-hander Ryan Yarbrough and Triple-A right-hander Ryan Pepiot attempting to take down most of the innings.
Yarbrough pitched three innings in relief on Tuesday and Roberts said he threw a bullpen session on Thursday so he would only be available to pitch two innings at most Saturday.
Teams are allowed to add a 27th player to their roster for doubleheaders. Pepiot pitched a season-high 6⅔ innings on Sunday for Oklahoma City, taking a perfect game into the seventh. He could be added to the roster for the first game of the doubleheader and then replaced with a reliever for the night game.
“He’ll be a starter,” Roberts said of the 27th man plans, stopping short of identifying Pepiot who missed the first 3½ months of the season recovering from an oblique strain suffered in spring training. “But I don’t know if he’s going to start. It’ll be a guy with length, coverage. He’ll be a right-hander.”
Rookie right-hander Bobby Miller was scheduled to start Sunday’s game but now will be pushed back at least until Wednesday. Clayton Kershaw is scheduled to start Tuesday against the Guardians on five days’ rest.
“To keep him there – I think our pitching guys are talking through that but that’s probably the most likely scenario,” Roberts said.
MARTINEZ MYSTERY
For the fourth time in just over three weeks, designated hitter J.D. Martinez had to be scratched from the lineup just before game time Friday when his recurring groin/hamstring issue flared up again.
Martinez said no one has been able to pinpoint what triggers the problem.
“Guys, I can’t tell you, because I don’t know,” he said. “That’s the hard part.”
Martinez said he has changed his pre-game routine. He now does “like 9,000 activation exercises” and was going to shorten his stride during batting practice when it has usually locked up on him.
Martinez has already had a nine-day layoff after receiving an epidural injection that apparently didn’t solve the problem.
“It’s one of those things where, if it doesn’t get better soon, we gotta make a decision here. Something,” Martinez said.
Roberts said the team is willing to play short-handed for a game at a time rather than lose Martinez for a 10-day stay on the injured list.
“If it’s something that we feel is going to be a couple days or a day situation in this case I just don’t think it’s worth conceding nine or 10 days if it’s not needed,” Roberts said. “But this is not an exact science. I don’t know that.
“It’s not like it’s much of a cost to carry a guy that doesn’t play for four or five or six days. We’ve been through that before and I think the record shows it didn’t really affect us.”
WONG SIGNING
The Dodgers have signed two-time Gold Glove winner Kolten Wong to a minor-league deal and assigned him to Triple-A Oklahoma City.
Wong, 32, spent eight seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals, winning Gold Gloves for his defense at second base in 2019 and 2020. He signed a two-year, $18 million contract with the Milwaukee Brewers as a free agent following the 2020 season. He was traded to the Seattle Mariners last winter after the Brewers picked up a $10 million option in his contract for 2023.
Wong hit just .165 in 67 games for the Mariners with a career-high strikeout rate. He was released in early August.
UP NEXT
Marlins (RHP Eury Perez, 5-4, 3.19 ERA) at Dodgers (TBA), Saturday, noon, SportsNet LA, 570 AM; Marlins (LHP Braxton Garrett, 7-3, 3.91 ERA) at Dodgers (LHP Julio Urías, 10-6, 4.35 ERA), Saturday, 6:10 p.m., SportsNet LA, 570 AM