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After a single-series homestand against the Giants to open their 2020 season, the Dodgers hit the road for 10 days and are now back at Dodger Stadium to face ... the Giants. Again.
Such is life in a truncated season.
It’s weird enough that the Dodgers have seven home games against the Giants when they only play them 10 times all year, but such is the split in all divisions. Every divisional home/road split is either 7/3 or 6/4, with every team planned at the outset* with 20 divisional home games and 20 on the road.
*We’ve seen the pandemic already wreak havoc with this plan already, with several teams in the Central and East divisions either having already played or scheduled to play “home” games in a road stadium in the name of expediency. The coronavirus hasn’t forced the postponement of a game out West, yet.
But with the Dodgers playing their first seven home games all against the same team is wild. This is a child eating his dinner in compartments, finishing the chicken before moving on to the rice.
Dodgers-Giants probables
| Date | Time | Pitchers |
|---|---|---|
| Date | Time | Pitchers |
| Fri, Aug 7 | 6:40 p.m. | Urías-Samardzija |
| Sat, Aug 8 | 6:10 p.m. | Kershaw-Cueto |
| Sun, Aug 9 | 1:10 p.m. | Buehler-Gausman |
This weekend series against the Giants starts only 12 days after the last one ended. Since moving to California, the Dodgers have never hosted the Giants in two series so close together.
There were a pair of reasonably recent series between the Dodgers and Giants in San Francisco, 18 days apart in 2017 and 19 days apart in 2018, but that’s kind of it.
In 1952, the Dodgers hosted the Giants at Ebbets Field on Aug. 13-14 then again on Aug. 30-31. Those series were 16 days apart, separated by a 13-game Dodgers road trip and one home series. Not as close as this year.
In 1933, Brooklyn hosted the Giants for a single Sunday game on May 28, then after nearly a week on the road they hosted the Giants from June 4-6. Those were consecutive home “series” against the Giants only seven days apart, but since that first one wasn’t really a series it doesn’t quite fit.
Which brings us to 1928, when the Dodgers had a 12-game homestand at Ebbets Field, during which they hosted the Giants in two separate series, playing them from May 22-24 then again May 29-30. That was seven total games, just like this year, but those two series 92 years ago were separated by only five days.
It a bit easier for such scheduling back then, even without modern travel. Ebbets Field and the Polo Grounds were roughly 15 miles apart. Also, the National League only had eight teams, with each team playing only seven opponents all year. This year, with the schedule reduced to regions, each team only plays nine other teams, so maybe it’s not all that odd that the Dodgers and Giants are playing two series so close together.
Nah, it’s still weird.
Game info
Time: 6:40 p.m. PT
TV: SportsNet LA, MLB Network