Dodgers look to weather the storm of interleague road games

The Dodgers open up a three-game series Tuesday night against the Twins, the first leg of a three-city, nine-game road trip. But the team's third regular season trip to Minnesota, and second to Target Field, is threatened by weather.

It is snowing early this morning in Minneapolis, and the Dodgers have canceled batting practice per Jaime Jarrin. The forecast for Tuesday shows light rain and/or snow most of the day with temperatures in the 30s, and a 70% chance of precipitation at game time. The temperature is expected to go up on Wednesday and Thursday but the threat of rain still looms, making for what could be a very wet three days in Minnesota.

Over/under on how many games we get in during this series? I'm setting the line at 1.5. pic.twitter.com/OAaFw3uJkC

— Alanna Rizzo (@alannarizzo) April 29, 2014

If the Dodgers and Twins do end up playing on Tuesday, Zack Greinke starts against Kyle Gibson.

Greinke has allowed two or fewer runs in a modern MLB-record 17 straight starts, but his run goes even a little further back than that. The right-hander walked a career-high seven batters last July 3 at Coors Field, but since then has walked two or fewer in 19 of his last 21 starts, with 27 walks during that span.

During that span Greinke has allowed 27 runs in 21 starts and the Dodgers are 17-4. Greinke is 13-2 with a 1.76 ERA. This season, Greinke has just five walks, one intentional, to go with 40 strikeouts.

Gibson has 11 walks in his 22⅓ innings this season, to go with 13 strikeouts. He won his first three starts of the season, allowing two runs total in the process, but allowed seven runs in three innings in a loss in Kansas City last Tuesday.

Interleague notes

With an interleague series in an American League park, the Dodgers can alleviate some of their outfielder logjam with use of a designated hitter. Since interleague play began in 1997, the Dodgers have a National League-worst nine home runs from their designated hitters.

Last year the Dodgers started Carl Crawford three times at designated hitter, Hanley Ramirez twice, Andre Ethier twice, and Adrian Gonzalez, Ramon Hernandez and Skip Schumaker once each.

The Dodgers have lost five of their six interleague games in Minnesota, with trips to the Metrodome in 2005 and Target Field in 2011, but the one win was a 15-0 shutout in 2011. The Dodgers scored 15 runs and had 25 hits in that win, but have 11 runs and 31 hits combined in the five losses.

The Dodgers were 5-5 in interleague road games in 2013, just the second time in 11 years (with 2009) they didn't lost more games than they won in American League parks. Since interleague play began in 1997, the Dodgers are 53-87 (.379) on the road.

Game info

Time: 5:10 p.m. PT

TV: SportsNet LA