Spring Training is humming along without much news to report of. About the only exciting things to have happened were Will Farrell pitching a perfect 1/3 of an inning, and Aroldis Chapman throwing behind Justin Turner for God knows what reason. Other than that, not much going on.
So, let's get ourselves excited for when the games count for good. Here's a look at some key/big/fun games in the Dodgers' 2015 schedule.
Monday, April 6 vs. Padres - Home opener, and the return of Matt Kemp
Monday, April 13 vs. Mariners - First Interleague set
Tuesday, April 21 at Giants - First tilt against the defending World Series champs
Monday, May 11 at Marlins - First matchup with old friends Dee Gordon and Dan Haren
Friday, May 29 at Cardinals - First matchup with the team that knocked the Dodgers out of the playoffs... again
Monday, June 22 at Cubs - Four-game set again Jon Lester, Joe Maddon, and a suddenly relevant Cubs team
Friday, July 17 at Nationals - First game after the All-Star break against a preseason World Series contender
Friday, July 31 vs. Angels - Freeway Series begins
Thursday, August 13 vs. Reds - First time seeing Chapman since Spring Training...
Monday, September 14 vs. Rockies - Last big homestand of the season, a 10-game set with the Rockies, Pirates, and Diamondbacks
Sunday, October 4 vs. Padres - Final game of the regular season, coming full circle
There you have it. In examining the schedule, there are a heck of a lot of division games to start the season, and of course the last couple of weeks as well. Then they have this quirk: they start July by playing the DBacks, end August with the Giants, and have no other division games in between. That's right - there's virtually no games within the NL West for two straight months. That seems very unusual.
The Interleague games are with the AL West. The Freeway Series is always fun, and a bit more so this year with Howie Kendrick in Dodger blue. Who knows what the A's will look like, but they always find a way. The Mariners have two stars in Robinson Cano and King Felix. The Rangers were just dealt a huge blow by losing Yu Darvish for the season. And the Astros? Well, they do have young talent, so we'll see.
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