Chris Taylor is becoming a very good centerfielder

LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers did not make too many changes in their Sunday lineup, Adrian Gonzalez is back at first base and Kiké Hernández is playing right field.

Manager Dave Roberts said he was just giving Yasiel Puig a day off before tomorrow’s off day as a standard day off after night game.

“He’s fine, I told him prior that he was going to get Sunday off,” Roberts said, “I’d been running him out there a lot, day game after a night game and to give him a two days off and get ready for that Arizona series.”

Chris Taylor is establishing himself as a centerfielder

Joc Pederson was optioned to Oklahoma City on August 19th and when he has played in the field, he’s started at left field. Roberts explained why that was happening this morning.

“Just the way Chris [Taylor] has played center field, his sheer foot speed to close on the baseball,” Roberts said, we know Joc can play center field and if he comes back up here, we know he can play centerfield but to give him an opportunity to get some repetitions somewhere he hasn’t played in a few years we felt that was kind of a smart thing to do.”

“That’s why to move Chris from left field to center field to give him repetitions, we’re going to put Cody back out there in the outfield again to give him repetitions. So I think it is more of just giving guys as good of chance of having success at something if we make a decision in kind of that way.”

“Chris has picked it up very quickly, infielder by trade, put him in center field, left field and he’s really worked his tail off to be a good defender,” Roberts said, “you look at all the metrics and it validates our eyes.”

Yu Darvish activated and Josh Fields placed on 10-day disabled list

The Dodgers activated right-handed pitcher Yu Darvish and placed right-handed pitcher Josh Fields on the 10-day disabled list.

“With Yu, if it were up to him, he wouldn’t have skipped a start,” Roberts said, “but he understood what’s at stake and so the rest, seeing his bullpen in Pittsburgh, he’s excited and I know he’s healthy, it should be a good one.”

“Yu-San is not going to have a pitch count,” Roberts said, “he’s going to be on the Dave Roberts - Rick Honeycutt eye test, he’s good, he’s strong and we’re not going to run him out there for a 120 pitches but I think to win a game, to know what we have in the bullpen, I’ll be mindful of all those things.”

“That’s something that just kind of, right after warming up,” Roberts said, “ Josh takes very good care of himself, playing catch, I don’t know if it was playing catch before the game, something it was there, so like we’ve done for a lot of players, if there is something there, just not to create something even bigger, a bigger situation. To get him with a low back strain, to get him back in ten days and obviously now he can be healthy.”

Dodger injuries update

Cody Bellinger appears to be on track to play once he is eligible to be activated on Wednesday in Arizona.

“He looks good and if it were up to him and it wasn’t up to the DL situation, he’d be playing today,” Roberts said, “but we’re going to hold him off until Wednesday and I think if everything continues to go well, we’ll see him in the lineup in Arizona.”

Roberts spoke to Clayton Kershaw this morning and said the rehab start on Saturday night went as well as could be expected.

“He was excited because we didn’t know if it was going to be the four inning or the five innings, where he was efficiency was the pitch count, so he got through five innings, felt he threw the baseball really well,” Roberts said, “for me that’s one component but to see how he feels the day after, and he was pretty excited.”

“He’ll meet us in Arizona for the fantasy football draft, he’s excited, and right now we haven’t decided on whether it is going to be Friday or Saturday, Saturday obviously is a double-header but we him going one of those days.”

Game Info

Time: 1:10 p.m. PT

TV: SportsNet LA, MLB Network (out-of-market-only)