Fourteen points about the ’14 Dodger schedule

Jon SooHoo/©Los Angeles Dodgers, LLC 2013

By Jon Weisman

As you know by now, the Dodgers don’t exactly have a conventional opening to the regular season, with two regular-season games in Australia, followed by three exhibitions against the Angels before the campaign proper resumes March 30 at San Diego. The home opener is April 4 against the Giants.

Schedule intrigue continues throughout the season. Here are 14 things to remember about the 2014 slate.

1. The Dodgers have never opened their regular season overseas. Their last comparable trip, to China, was for a pair of exhibition games March 14-15, 2008. Subsequently, Los Angeles began its season with a 5-0 shutout of the Giants on March 31, then went 13-13 in April and 46-49 before the All-Star Break before kicking it into gear to reach the National League Championship Series.
2. Detroit comes to Dodger Stadium on April 8-9, marking the earliest visit ever to Dodger Stadium by an American League team.
3. Six of the Dodgers’ first 13 games are against the Giants; eight of their first 19 (in three separate series) are against the Diamondbacks.
4. Except for the Angels, all Dodger interleague games this year are against American League Central teams: home against the Tigers, White Sox (June 2-4) and Indians (June 30-July 2), away against the Twins (April 29-May 1), Royals (June 23-25) and Tigers again (July 8-9).
5. The longest homestands of the year are a pair of 10-gamers: April 18-27 against the Diamondbacks, Phillies and Rockies, and May 26-June 4 against the Reds, Pirates and White Sox.
6. In their first 50 games of 2014, only five are against winning teams from 2013: the two against Detroit and three at Washington (May 5-7).
7. After opening their domestic season at San Diego, the Dodgers don’t play the Padres again until June 20 and don’t have a home game with their neighbors to the south until July 10.


Jon SooHoo/©Los Angeles Dodgers, LLC 2013

8. The long goodbye: in 31 days of July, the Dodgers have nine home games. The Dodgers close the first half of the season with a four-game mini-homestand July 10-13 against the Padres, then don’t play another home game for 16 days, until July 29, after following the All-Star Break with trips to St. Louis, Pittsburgh and San Francisco.
9. Worried about playing three games in St. Louis in July immediately after the All-Star Break? The last time the Dodgers opened the second half in St. Louis, they were swept in four games from July 15-18, 2010. Last year, of course, the Dodgers were red-hot in July and went 6-0 on their post-All Star road trip in Washington and Toronto.
10. From July 29 through August 17, the Dodgers play 20 straight days, their longest scheduled stretch without a day off in 2014.
11. The regular-season version of the Freeway Series comes relatively late in 2014: two games at Dodger Stadium on August 4-5, followed by two games in Anaheim the next two days.
12. Arizona is the first National League West foe the Dodgers finish playing — the final game between the two teams is September 7.
13. The Dodgers have only one road trip in September, but its their biggest of the season: 10 games in 10 days against the Giants, Rockies and Cubs.
14. If there’s a pennant race down the stretch, Dodger Stadium fans will get to see a lot of it. Los Angeles ends its regular season with 15 September home games, culminating with a September 28 finale against Colorado.

Update: ESPN announced today that its Sunday Night Baseball schedule would include the Dodgers on April 6 against the Giants and July 20 at St. Louis, in addition to the previously announced March 30 game at San Diego.