Dodgers shuffle rotation, Dan Haren start pushed back to Friday

SAN DIEGO -- The Dodgers will take advantage of expanded rosters in their upcoming series against the Nationals, pushing back Dan Haren from his scheduled Wednesday start. Haren will instead start on Friday against the Diamondbacks.

Wednesday's series finale against Washington is a 12:10 p.m. PT start, a rare weekday day game at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers are off on Thursday.

"With Dan we looked at this game as short rest, with the day game Wednesday after his night game Friday," manager Don Mattingly said after Sunday's game.

Haren allowed a pair of unearned runs in six innings in a no-decision against the Padres on Friday, and over his last five starts is 3-1 with a 2.15 ERA with 23 strikeouts and five walks in 29⅓ innings.

Haren needs 24 more innings to reach 180 on the season, which triggers his $10 million club option for 2015, converting it to a player option. Even with the rotation shuffling, Haren is still likely to make five more starts this season.

Carlos Frias will get the call in place of Haren on Wednesday, making his first major league start, though Mattingly was playing coy after Sunday's game. Frias was optioned to Triple-A Albuquerque before Sunday's game to make room for Hyun-jin Ryu, though it was more of a paper move as Frias will be activated on Tuesday, after the Isotopes' season ends.

"I don't think Frias is on our 25-man roster," Mattingly said. "But yeah he could be [starting Wednesday]."

Shuffling the rotation does have another side effect, that coupled with off days on Sep. 4 and Sep. 11 the Dodgers can line up Zack Greinke, Ryu and Clayton Kershaw to pitch against the Giants in San Francisco on Sep. 12-14, a maneuver Mattingly deployed after the All-Star break in a three-game series sweep at AT&T Park from July 25-27.